Performer(s) Appeared in Mr. and Mrs. Thistlewhite are the parents of Ignatius Thistlewhite in the Rankin/Bass special The Year Without a Santa Claus. Not seen in the original poem the special is based on, they live in Southtown with their son and his pet dog. Mrs. Thistlewhite makes a cameo appearance at the end of Rudolph's Shiny New Year, oddly without her husband or her son; she can be seen among the people celebrating the arrival of the new year at Father Time's castle.