"Flying Santa" Edward Rowe Snow in action (video)

Edward Rowe Snow ’32 dropped bundles of presents to lighthouse families around New England every holiday season.

Greetings from Boston Light (1958)

Greetings from Boston Light (1958) | Photograph courtesy of Dolly Snow Bicknell

Read Sara Hoagland Hunter’s article on Edward Rowe Snow ’32, from the January-February issue of Harvard Magazine, about the life of the Winthrop High School teacher and maritime writer turned “Flying Santa,” known for his annual holiday flights throughout New England during which he dropped bundles of presents to lighthouse keepers and their families. Then visit the Friends of Flying Santa website, formed in 1997 to help ensure the future of annual Christmas flights to New England lighthouses, to view videos of Snow and his team in action, including a 1946 helicopter flight to Martha's Vineyard; aerial footage of Snow dropping packages at Nauset Light, Great Point Light, and Sankaty Head Light; Snow in full Santa attire preparing for flight at an airport; a 1967 interview; Snow and daughter Dolly delivering gifts by boat to Ken Black and crew at Boston Light; and other aerial footage

Related topics

You might also like

How AI Is Reshaping Supply Chains

Harvard Kennedy School lecturer on using AI to strengthen supply chains

This Astronomer is Sounding a Warning on ‘Space Junk’

As debris accumulates in low Earth orbit, the danger of destructive collisions continues to rise.

Understanding AI Vulnerabilities

As artificial intelligence capabilities evolve, so too will the tactics used to exploit them. 

Most popular

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Harvard Weathers a Year of Turmoil

The federal government has launched unprecedented actions against the University. Here’s a guide.

Explore More From Current Issue

Colorful cartoon animals, including dogs, cows, rabbits, and a fence, on a pink background.

Inseparable cows, big dogs fostering a tiny kitten, and a show beagle’s second act

Three actors perform on stage, with one actor interacting closely with another, set against abstract backgrounds.

The play Spare Parts is a contemporary fable about the quest to live forever.

A woman with curly blonde hair sits casually against a stone wall, wearing a black top and jeans.

Chloe Chapin trains her Broadway costume designer’s eye on the history of men’s fashion.