, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Christmas Revels creator and author John Langstaff has died of a stroke while visiting his daughter in Switzerland at age 84.
Langstaff, a resident of Cambridge, Mass., died Tuesday in Basel, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Langstaff -- who was born on Christmas Eve in 1920 -- staged the first Christmas Revels in New York in 1957. The theatrical celebration of the winter solstice drawing from folk traditions is performed annually across the country.
"There's a need for art that connects us to each other," Langstaff told the Boston Globe in 2000. "You go far enough back in any culture and you find these rituals, these ways of bringing people together."
New York, Washington, Houston and Oakland, Calif., are among the cities presenting Revels this month.
A singer, Langstaff performed with orchestras worldwide and recorded with George Martin, the producer of The Beatles.
He created a TV version of the Revels for NBC's "Hallmark Hall of Fame" in 1966, which included a young Dustin Hoffman as the dragon slain by St. George.
He also wrote 25 books -- many for kids -- including the award-winning "Frog Went a-Courtin'" in 1955.
Langstaff is survived by his second wife, Nancy Trowbridge Langstaff, three daughters, two sons, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
