Based on art by Marc Silvestri, you’ll find this Merry Marvel house ad in Uncanny X-Men (1963) #256.  According to Chris Haizlip’s blog – The UnPublished X-Men – the Santa hats were added after the original art for purposes of the advertisement.

If you’re an X-Men fan, be sure to give The UnPublished X-Men a perusal.  I’m sure you’ll find more than a few surprises.

Superboy and the citizens of Smallville (though not named) turn the tables on Santa Claus in “The 33rd Christmas.”

When a local man hits hard times his past good deeds deliver a future for him and his wife.

The homespun holiday tale, dated February 1947, is as American as a Norman Rockwell painting.

Just a Christmas cover for the 2001 year with issue 85, though the interior pages offer a theme of cold. Bugs, Yosemete, Beaky Buzzard and Sylvester and son weather frigid temperatures for some yucks.

DC was to recycle the cover for issue 193 10 years later for a “Looney Yule.”

Bugs and Daffy miss their turn in Boise to find themselves at Santa’s workshop. The desirous duck attempts to unionize the elves and receives Christmas culm for his efforts.

This is a classic Christmas cover. Who would believe the merry masked man as a Jack in the Box would one day become the Dark Knight?

As whimsical as the cover is “A Parole for Christmas” is even more so. In 12 pages Batman discovers his doppelganger, is arrested and assists in obtaining parole for his double. This is a story that would be right at home read in front of a fire with stockings hung with care. A great piece of Batman history from a simpler time.

All that and a Catwoman story headlining the book in “Who is the Greatest Villainess of All Time?”

“…And All Through the House” is a psychological thriller that begins with a Merry Christmas Eve’s murder and ends with jolly just desserts.

The story was later adapted for HBO’s highly acclaimed Tales From the Crypt anthology, but for purists reading the original as told by the Vault Keeper is a pleasure. EC served up a real Christmas treat that year with the premier issue of Panic sporting a seasonal sacking of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Justice League Unlimited 28

The Phantom Stranger plays ghost of Christmases past for the Flash.

No stranger to time travel, the Flash is transported to times past to better understand the Batman. For those who remember the Grey Ghost episode of Batman the Animated Series the story is all the more poignant. To quote the Stranger, “Happiness does not carry a price tag, Flash, though it sometimes carries a price.”

Mike McAvennie crafts a tale so touching the characters on the page aren’t the only ones left with damp eyes. McAvennie is aided by the simple art of Sanford Greene who captures more emotion with the fewest pencil strokes since Kevin Maguire moving Batman from panel to panel, stoic to awkward to boyish page by page.

The Clown Prince of Crime can’t help but be amused.  By George Kambadais.

Despite a twinge of humbugishness at the outset, Youtube personality ComicDrake delivers a spirited and cheerful review of DC’s Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special (2011) one-shot.

Clearly the intention of Jack “The King” Kirby – as evidenced by this 1976 Hanukkah card sketch and reportedly confirmed by Kirby during the 90s – Ben Grimm’s Jewish heritage was finally formalized as comics canon with 2002’s Fantastic Four (1998) #56.

Happy Hanukkah, everyone.

Santa takes a break from the busy holiday season to enjoy some comic reading.  Artwork by Ilias Kyriazis.