Day 2 · Tuesday 27 October 2026 · 3:34

Day 2: Santa Origins

No talk to camera today. The curtains of the Mystic Theatre open on Santa Origins, one half of the simulmake, read by the narrator beside the stage with his lamp lit.

The Mystic Theatre stage showing Santa, the goddess Hebe and Zeus in front of a Greek temple, with the narrator beside the stage — Hebe’s father is Zeus. That is the only problem.

Once upon a time, there was a man who would become good. But not yet.
Santa Origins

First it was dark, and he obliged. He wanted to live forever, and his appetite was large, so he sacrificed his grace and condemned his teeth “to a taste like long pork”.

One winter’s night, where the wood is deepest, there came a little girl with a lantern. Her name was Ruth. Every other child had run from him. Ruth did not. He fell to his knees in the snow and begged her to show him the way.

The Mystic Theatre stage: a dark figure in a snowy forest at night, and a small girl with a lantern — Ruth, with her lantern, in the deepest part of the wood.

Be now. Forget your darkness. Let the sun rise.
Ruth

He thanked her, genuinely and kindly. But he was not good yet. And the sun came up, and she was right. But eaten.

Hebe, Zeus and the angel

Now he is good, and he’s to marry Hebe, the goddess of youth, who gives forever away for free. There is only one problem: Hebe’s father is Zeus. Zeus does not trust him. So they run off to the snow to be married, but the priest is an angel who knows, and he won’t. Until one wild night when he does something he shouldn’t.

The Mystic Theatre stage: Santa, Hebe and the angel priest in a snowy valley under a rising sun — He did as Ruth told him. He let the sun rise.

Now you know

He keeps to the north until Christmas Eve, “when he comes while you’re sleeping, as soft as the snow, and he leaves you a present, for Ruth. Now you know.” Just don’t let him hear you. He can’t bear the laughter.

The house sign-off is the same at the end of every reading on the Mystic Theatre: “And that’s how it happened, or so it is said. Now blow out the lamp and go to bed.” The lamp goes out on it. Day 1 told you to stay asleep. Day 2 sends you to bed.

The other half

Santa Origins is one half of a simulmake. The other half is The Real Thing, on the same stage the next day. Two films, one red suit. The whole of Santa Origins, given away for free, is at santaoriginsmovie.krisadamstv.com.