The Plot to Overthrow Christmas
The Plot to Overthrow Christmas is a radio play by Norman Corwin. It first aired on December 25, 1938. The story is a rhyming fantasy about a plan to get rid of Christmas by killing Santa. In Hell, Mephistopheles gathers famous villains—Caligula, Nero, Ivan the Terrible, Haman, Lucrezia Borgia, the Borgias, Simon Legree—and they debate how to stop the holiday. Lucrezia Borgia suggests killing Santa; a lottery chooses Nero to be the assassin. Nero travels to Earth with a gun, but Santa welcomes him and explains that the Devil only wants power, while Christmas brings joy. Nero, who loves music, is won over by Santa’s talk of the beauty of Christmas and decides to help. Santa gives him a Stradivarius violin and a chance to rewrite the story, and the play ends with Nero playing The First Noel.
The piece is performed entirely in rhyme and uses occasional interruptions by a narrator named Sotto voce. It starts with a narrative introduction and uses sound effects to show a descent into Hell: a gong, thunder, an electronic hum, and a violin note.
Corwin wrote the play for CBS, and it was first broadcast in 1938. It was revived for broadcasts in 1940 and 1944, with notable cast members. Corwin later tried to turn it into an opera with Walter Scharf, but it was never fully produced in his lifetime, though a version was performed in 2000. A 1969 TV program about the play led to later PBS broadcasts, and in 2022 a local version was rehearsed in Oberon, Australia.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:15 (CET).