No doubt about it, Jefferson Jay is one of the busiest people in San Diego In addition to his own recording and gigs, he hosts open mic nights, is the man behind the San Diego Music Hall of Fame and the Athenaeums acoustic music concert series. That’s just for starters. Another project near and dear to his heart is his book, The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit, out this month and soon to be an animated series. In the story, the characters come together to help each other through life’s challenges, all culminating in them enjoying a holiday dinner together on Christmas Eve.
What inspired Jay to write a children’s book? “Well, I’ve been working on this project, The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit, since it was born on stage in 2014,” Jay said. “It is a series of plays I wrote and directed with a cast of actors with disabilities and neurodivergence. It was a transformative experience for my actors, their peers, and myself, and in 2018, I started a company designed to adapt these musicals into an animation series — the first-ever holiday animated musical series starring a full cast of actors with disabilities. Typically, these types of shows have been one-off specials, like The Grinch, Rudolph, Frosty, etc.”
By 2018, Jay had directed four episodes of The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit and written 20 more, basically an entire three-season series, each episode with roughly five original songs.”
“I’ve been having some meetings trying to raise the funds to create Season One, which will be eight episodes of The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit, but this involves raising roughly 2 million dollars or more,” Jay remarked. “When the opportunity to make this book came up, I saw it as a chance to advance the IP and only have to raise several thousand dollars, with the book sales contributing to the amount needed. We believe this project has the potential to shift the way people view the 1.2 billion people worldwide with disabilities. Our cast of voice actors has great talent and all kinds of awesome abilities the world will benefit from delighting in.”
The series is currently being illustrated by animator, Andres Cortes. “He has done a great deal of work for Disney and many of the other leaders in the industry, and I’m extremely confident in his abilities. Over the last few years we have produced and released, on YouTube, some samples of The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit, which we are very proud of.”
What’s Jay’s favorite thing about this project? “Working with my actors and bringing this to screens everywhere will be a dream come true for us all and provide the 1.2 billion globally with disabilities authentic representation in the media like never before,” Jay said. “(We’ll be) providing audiences the chance to get to know a great deal more about the nature and gifts of people with neurodivergence.”
You can view videos here at their YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheHuntfortheHolidaySpirit
