Discovering that the saucers have disturbed local witches and Santa’s reindeer, threatening Christmas, Tom flies to Mars and attempts to save the day. Santa and the Mars King begins with a flying saucer sighting, a sceptical response from the public, and its investigation by the child protagonist, named Tom. Appearing ten years after Arnold’s 1947 sighting, Beale’s story reveals the way the saucer could become intertwined with other cultural mythologies of the age. Each involved a topical theme, presenting the concerns of the time comedically, but not entirely carelessly. These stories were serialised and syndicated by the Associated Press to member newspapers, beginning with Santa and the Skeptic and ending with Santa and the Hippies. Santa and the Mars King was one of the annual children’s stories Beale wrote between 19. In particular, this article will consider Lucrece Hudgins Beale’s 1954 children’s story Santa and the Mars King – perhaps the earliest intersection of flying saucers and Santa Claus.

The flying saucer narrative, its beginnings, public response, and domestication, are considered as a whole and through an individual text. Newspaper reports, films, toys, and novels utilised this new cultural form.

After the initial sighting by Kenneth Arnold in July 1947 which triggered the phenomenon, the flying saucer began appearing in a variety of media and material forms directed at numerous audiences. This article investigates post-war flying saucer narratives within US popular culture.

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