The Globe Santa
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As Linda Matchan of The Boston Globe tells it (or here):
Peter Hotton, a beloved editor at The Boston Globe for half a century and the writer of a popular column, was a newspaperman of the old school.
Hotton loved Globe history. He loved old news photos. He loved bringing his kids to Morrissey Boulevard to watch the presses roll. And he loved the paper’s charity, Globe Santa, founded in 1956 to provide holiday presents to needy children. When Hotton died in 2015, his family asked that donations in his memory be made to Globe Santa.
The Globe Santa continues to this very day.
From the very first year illustrations and cartoons were a part of The Boston Globe’s promotion of the charity. Back to Linda Matchan:
Hotton also had a rare collection of what might be called Globe Santa-bilia: original cartoon strips created in the 1960s and ’70s by some of America’s best-known cartoonists, including Al Capp, creator of Li’l Abner, Hank Ketcham of Dennis the Menace, Mell Lazarus of Miss Peach, Bil Keane of The Family Circus, and Al Smith of Mutt and Jeff.
At first it was Boston Globe cartoonists and staff artists who decorated the Globe Santa page. Early on Boston sports cartoonist Eddie Germano made yearly appearances, Francois cartoonist John Masterson contributed, as did staff artist Bill Hanley.
In 1960 nationally syndicated cartoonists began contributing.
With the help of newspapers.com we have scoured the archives of The Boston Globe from 1960 to the early 1980s looking for those donations from cartoonists who were appearing on the paper’s comics pages.
Have yourself a merry merry Christmas.
Have yourself a good time.
But remember the kids who got nothin’
while you’re drinkin’ down your wine.
– Ray Davies, Father Christmas
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