Text Santa

Text Santa is a charity initiative set up in 2011 by ITV to support UK-based charities during the Christmas period. The appeal to the public is to donate money mainly via text donation and profits from merchandise. The telethons have been hosted by popular ITV presenters including Phillip Schofield, Christine Bleakley and Ant & Dec.

In 2015, the appeal supported three UK-based charities; Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish Foundation and Save the Children.

Music

The Text Santa theme music was created by British composer Leigh Haggerwood of The Florin Street Band, who re-worked his Christmas song "My Favourite Time of Year" especially for the appeal, creating theme and background music along with various other original compositions. The song – with its sweeping string melodies and critically acclaimed Victorian-themed music video has gained worldwide popularity and was recently performed by the United States Army Band in Washington D.C. Leigh Haggerwood is proud of the songs association with the Text Santa campaign and has pledged to support it each year.

Text

Text may refer to:

Computers and electronics

Arts and entertainment

Santa Claus

Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Santy, or simply Santa is a mythical figure with historical origins who, in many Western cultures, brings gifts to the homes of well-behaved, "good" children on Christmas Eve (24 December) and the early morning hours of Christmas Day (25 December). The modern Santa Claus is derived from the British figure of Father Christmas, the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, and Saint Nicholas, the historical Greek bishop and gift-giver of Myra. During the Christianization of Germanic Europe, this figure may also have absorbed elements of the god Odin, who was associated with the Germanic pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky.

Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, joyous, white-bearded man—sometimes with spectacles—wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots and who carries a bag full of gifts for children. Images of him rarely have a beard with no moustache. This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of the 1823 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" and of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast. This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, children's books and films.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.

Christmas celebrations in the denominations of Western Christianity have long begun on the night of the 24th, due in part to the Christian liturgical day starting at sunset, a practice inherited from Jewish tradition and based on the story of Creation in the Book of Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day." Many churches still ring their church bells and hold prayers in the evening; for example, the Nordic Lutheran churches. Since tradition holds that Jesus was born at night (based in Luke 2:6-8), Midnight Mass is celebrated on Christmas Eve, traditionally at midnight, in commemoration of his birth. The idea of Jesus being born at night is reflected in the fact that Christmas Eve is referred to as Heilige Nacht (Holy Night) in German, Nochebuena (the Good Night) in Spanish and similarly in other expressions of Christmas spirituality, such as the song "Silent Night, Holy Night".

Jeremy Kyle

Jeremy Nicholas Kyle (born 7 July 1965) is an English radio and television presenter, best known for hosting the controversial tabloid talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show on ITV since 2005. In 2011, Kyle began hosting a U.S. version of his eponymous show; the U.S. version ran for two seasons.

Early life

Kyle was born in Reading, Berkshire. His father was an accountant and personal secretary to the Queen Mother. He attended the Reading Blue Coat School, an all-boys independent school in Sonning, Berkshire. He studied History and Sociology at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Radio career

From 1986 to 1995, Kyle worked as a life insurance salesman, recruitment consultant, and radio advertising salesman. He then became a radio presenter and after a brief stint at Orchard FM in Taunton, Somerset and Leicester Sound in Leicester, before being signed by Kent's Invicta FM in 1996. In 1997, he joined BRMB in Birmingham, presenting the shows Late & Live and Jezza's Jukebox.

In 2000, Kyle moved to the Century FM network, taking this format with him. The show was called Jezza's Confessions. It was broadcast between 9:00 pm and 1:00 am. He won a Sony Award for Late & Live in 2001. On 1 July 2002, he made his first broadcast on Virgin Radio, presenting Jezza's Virgin Confessions every weekday from 8pm to midnight. In mid-2003, he broadcast the show from 9pm to 1am every weekday, and in January 2004 the show went out from 10pm to 1am, Sunday to Thursday. He left Virgin Radio in June 2004. From 5 September 2004, Kyle presented the Confessions show on London's Capital FM. The new programme aired Sunday to Thursday from 10pm to 1am with live calls on relationship issues of all kinds. Capital Confessions came to an end on 22 December 2005 to make way for The Jeremy Kyle Show, a similar show which ran from January 2006 to December 2006.