Rising Stars: Meet Tamar Springer of Santa Monica

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamar Springer.

Hi Tamar, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
At this time my main focus is promoting the documentary film “More Than Santa Baby,” about the life, career and music of “Santa Baby” composer Philip Springer, my father. I wrote, directed and produced this documentary to share my father’s vast musical legacy from his start as a young man in 1940s Tin Pan Alley to 1970s Hollywood and through his most successful decade when he reached his 90s. I have long believed that my father’s music beyond his worldwide classic Christmas song is much deserving of recognition. His story is a fascinating journey that includes renowned performers and locations of the Golden Era and beyond. Inspired by a vast catalogue of beautiful melodies, recordings by iconic artists and the wish to memorialize my father’s 80+ years in the music industry, the story is one of perseverance, resilience and hope. The documentary is a daughter’s tribute to her father and his music, a walk back in time through unique music history, a love letter to New York City and the Golden Age of song, and shares a powerful message, “it is never too late”. More Than Santa Baby won the Audience Award at its World Premiere Screening at TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California at the Dances With Films Festival (June 2025).

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road was an interesting journey with many ups and downs. Since I am not a filmmaker by profession, I started from scratch. The idea came to me when I was archiving my father’s vast catalogue. He had saved volumes of materials – sheet music, newspaper articles, photos, music and video recordings, etc. In the middle of gathering everything to create the Philip Springer Archive, a light bulb went off – I have a documentary film in front of me! I started by calling friends in the film industry and asking questions. I studied 3-Act structure and created an outline of the story as I knew it. I had full blessing from my father. Some of the struggles included finding the right people to help along the way. I did have some major blessings with talented and skilled individuals who believed in this grass-roots project. I also am coming out of nowhere in a sense, so creating a platform to promote the film is not easy. I would like one of the celebrated artists who has recorded “Santa Baby” to do an Instagram post or otherwise help with promoting the film – reaching them is a challenge! I will continue to work on getting this powerful story to a worldwide audience.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
While I enjoyed a 30-year career in the field of psychology and social work, I am also the longtime manager and archivist of the music catalogue of “Santa Baby” composer Philip Springer, my father. My heart lies in preserving and promoting the musical legacy he created over an 80+ year journey as a composer. I have produced many projects highlighting my father’s music, including the award-winning CD/Book “The Last Legacy of E.Y. Harburg,” several CDs, musical productions and a single of “Santa Baby” recorded with Eartha Kitt with Philip Springer on the piano. I am a voting member of the Recording Academy. “More Than Santa Baby,” a true passion project, is my first film, I am most proud of this documentary film. I feel that I created a beautiful, artistic journey out of this story, encompassing the sad and the triumphant aspects of my dad’s life, career and music. The story was an enormous influence on my life, and this was my way of working through some of the difficult aspects of it, and memorializing a unique and inspiring story in music history.

How do you think about luck?
Overall I would say that I have had good luck in life. To me this means encountering opportunities and people who created favorable circumstances along the way. I believe personal effort, agency and strategy are important regardless of luck and good fortune. In making the documentary, I had extraordinarily good luck with knowing some key people in the film world who had the skills to help with elements of the film that I could not do myself. Many of these people stemmed from my connection to Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts Center, where I am a black belt in Yoshukai karate. I was lucky enough that a wonderful producer, Julie Gardner, gave key feedback after seeing a rough cut of the film. I also had the great fortune of knowing Steve Gandolfi, the founder and owner of Cut + Run, a world-class editing company. When the film was in good form, Steve took the film into Cut + Run and they edited the final cut. We all have bad luck sometimes, and we have no choice but to march on and create new paths that lead to prosperity. The ultimate bad luck was that my home and my parents home (my childhood home) burned down in the Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025. My parents both in their 90s, had to evacuate and suffer the displacement. It has been an extraordinarily difficult time because of this tragedy, but we are doing the best we can in these circumstances and taking small steps forward everyday. I am grateful to have the documentary and promoting it to focus on, as this brings me great joy regardless of the unfortunate circumstances brought about by the fire losses.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.morethansantababyfilm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/santababycomposer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tamar.springer.7
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamar-springer-125b6a2b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@santababycomposer