The Year Without A Santa Claus

Premiered December 10, 1974.

Today, “Oscar Takes A Holiday” pays tribute to Shirley Booth, who voices Mrs. Claus, narrates this special and sing its theme song.  While her name may not be familiar to younger audiences, Booth was a highly-acclaimed performer during her lifetime.  She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1952 for her role in Come Back, Little Sheba, which was also her film debut.  Booth previously won a Tony award for playing the same role on Broadway.

In addition to Sheba, was best known for playing the title role in the TV series Hazel, which earned booth two Emmy awards.  The Year Without A Santa Claus was Booth’s final performance.  She retired from acting afterwards and lived until 1992.  Let's get to our review:

Santa Claus (Mickey Rooney) is feeling sick, tired, and sore all over.  His doctor tells him he shouldn’t bother delivering toys this Christmas because no one believes in him and Christmas spirit is dying.  Santa takes this to heart, says Christmas is cancelled and decides to stay home to take a holiday.  Mrs. Claus  (Shirley Booth) thinks this is terrible idea, but she can’t change his mind.

However, Mrs. Claus isn’t ready to give up hope.  She sends two elves named Jingle (Bob McFadden) and Jangle (Bradley Bolke) on a mission to search for Christmas spirit and believers in Santa Claus, hoping evidence of it will convince Santa to deliver toys on Christmas Eve.

Mrs. Claus and her husband worry that the elves will run into trouble with Heat Miser (George S. Irving), who controls the weather in the southern portion of the world...

 ...and Snow Miser (Dick Shawn) who controls the weather in the north.  They're known collectively as the Miser Brothers.

While riding their reindeer Vixen, the elves are zapped by Heat Miser’s sun ray and they land in South Town, USA.

Their problems get worse when Vixen is mistaken for a dog and taken to the pound.  Jingle and Jangle go to mayor (Ron Marshall) and ask him to release Vixen.  The mayor will do this if the elves use their elf magic to make it snow in South Town, where it never snows.

In order to make it snow, they'll have to get permission from Heat Miser to let his brother make it snow in the south.  This won't be easy, since the brothers don't get along.

Compounding matters, Vixen is sick because she's not used to the warmer climate of South Town.  Santa learns of this and decides to rescue Vixen himself.

In South Town, Santa, using the name Klaus (rhymes with "mouse") meets a boy named Ignatius “Iggy” Thistlewhite (Colin Duffy) and his parents.  Iggy initially expresses skepticism about Santa’s existence.

Iggy's father (Ron Marshall) and Santa tell the boy that they still believe in Santa, just like they believe in love.  Iggy figures if adults aren’t too old to still believe in Santa Claus, then he also believes Santa exists.

Will Santa really skip Christmas?  Can Mrs. Claus and the elves convince the Miser Brothers to set aside their differences and help them?

J.A. Morris says:
When I was a kid, A Year Without A Santa Claus was my favorite Rankin-Bass special.  I still love it, but I no longer consider it to be R-B's best offering.  Mainly because there’s A LOT going on in this special.  There’s Santa’s desire for time off, the elves trip to South Town, the Miser Brothers, the Mayor’s song about getting snow in South Town, a sick reindeer, Mother Nature…, etc.  There’s a bit too much going on.

However, it’s very enjoyable in spite of being a bit overstuffed.  One reason I loved the special as a kid was because the Miser Brothers are so much fun.  Their songs are very catchy and memorable, and the brothers are likable and interesting characters.  I find myself humming the Misers' songs year-round.

Speaking of songs, “I Believe In Santa Claus Is” is very touching and it’s one of the best songs written for Rankin-Bass specials.  It gets to the heart of what Santa and Christmas mean to us as we grow up and grow older.  Jules Bass and Maury Laws really hit home runs on all the songs they wrote for this special.

Booth is great as Mrs. Claus.  Building a special around Mrs. Claus was a great idea.  She's a character that has lots of potential that is rarely utilized.  While Santa’s name is in the title, Mrs. Claus is definitely the hero and protagonist of this special.

Mickey Rooney previously played a younger Santa in Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.  He makes a great Santa and would go on to voice the character in three animated specials and also played him in a live action short.

Some background on the Miser Brothers' voice actors:
Snow Miser is voiced by character actor Dick Shawn.  He’s best remembered today for playing Lorenzo St. Dubois (“Hitler” in “Springtime For Hitler”) in The Producers.  Shawn appeared on dozens of TV shows and also worked as a stand-up comic and toured in a one-man show until his death in 1987.

George S. Irving plays Heat Miser.  Irving was primarily a stage actor, he won a Tony award in 1973 for his role in a revival of Irene.  His career began in 1945 and Irving continued to act until 2008.  He passed away in 2016 at age 94.

A Year Without A Santa Claus is very entertaining and features great songs and interesting characters.  This special was also a nice bookend to Shirley Booth's distinguished career.

J.A. Morris’ rating:

.5


3 and a half candy canes.

Silly Symphonies: "Santa's Workshop" (1932) and "The Night Before Christmas" (1933)

"Santa's Workshop" premiered December 10, 1932.

"The Night Before Christmas" premiered  December 9, 1933.

We're going to depart a bit from our usual summary format, since these two connected cartoons don't have a lot of plot to summarize.

In "Santa's Workshop", we see elves making various toys, including rocking horses...

...dolls...

...and alphabet blocks.

Santa Claus (Allan Watson) goes through his naughty or nice list to see deserves a toy. His secretary (Pinto Colvig) informs him about how good or bad each child has been.

When all the toys are made and packed, Santa takes them to deliver toys to children around the world.

"The Night Before Christmas" picks up where "Santa's Workshop" left off.  It's a loose adaptation of the Clement Moore poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas."  Santa delivers toys, we see him make a stop at a house with nine children, sets up the Christmas tree and leaves gifts.

J.A. Morris says:

On a technical level, both cartoons are great.  Most cartoons at this time existed to say "hey, look what we can do with animation."  "Santa's Workshop" and "The Night Before Christmas" are a great example of this practice.  We get to see lots of details involved in how elves make the toys on an assembly line.

The colors are gorgeous and the  movements are nicely animated, but both shorts are a bit slight. There's not a lot of story in either.  Sure it's great animation, but not the sort of thing I plan to watch every December.

The other problem is that both "Santa's Workshop" and "The Night Before Christmas" feature some ugly ethnic stereotypes.  in the first cartoon, the elves making toys that feature blackface and stereotypical Jewish caricatures.  "The Night Before Christmas" short features a sweet moment when a little boy named Junior gets a puppy for Christmas.

This cute scene is undermined by Junior getting soot on his face, which makes it look like he's corked up in blackface.  I don't believe in censoring such things, but it took me out of the moment and feels odd and out of place, even for a 1933 cartoon.

Prancer receives a grooming.

Santa Claus' characterization is worth noting.  His physical appearance hasn't changed much since 1932.   However, other aspects of Santa were not yet codified when these cartoons were made. Instead of the familiar "ho-ho-ho," his laugh sounds more like "ha-ha-ha."  I guess Santa hadn't been codified when these shorts were produced.

"Santa's Workshop" and "The Night Before Christmas" are visually appealing, but the lack of story and reliance on racial stereotypes keeps me from giving them a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Candy Canes.

RigbyMel says: 

Although there isn't a complicated story underlying these two shorts, there is a LOT of impressive animation on show.    We get to see the whole toy creation and delivery process across these two shorts.

Check out the gnomes/elves working hard in the reindeer stables! (I like the tooth brushing!)

It's also worth noting that the first of the two, "Santa's Workshop" was the fourth Silly Symphony cartoon to be produced in color.

Technicolor sleigh prep in "Santa's Workshop"

I also enjoy seeing Santa play with all the toys in "The Night Before Christmas."  In my experience, great gift givers tend to retain a sense of wonder and Santa's willingness to engage with the toys illustrates this quality.

Santa gets a pretty good sound out of that toy piano! 

It's interesting to note that -- as was traditional at the time -- Santa not only brings the toys to go under the Christmas tree, but also the tree itself.  There's a cute gag where Santa unfolds the tree like an umbrella and the toys get in on the act to help with decorating it.

Talented toys (and a zeppelin!) decorate the tree in "The Night Before Christmas"

As J.A. Morris mentions above,  these cartoons contain some less pleasant artifacts from the early 20th century in the form of some ugly stereotypical portrayals of blacks, Asians and Jewish folks.   So when these shorts are made available now, they are often edited to leave out the offensive stereotypes.  They definitely drag me right out of enjoying the beautiful animation.

Ugly stereotypes will get you on the naughty list nowadays! (Rightly so!) 

The complete, unedited shorts are available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies Volume 2 set, if you want to seek them out.

Nine (!!) small children vs. Christmas tree (Junior is not in the frame though ...) 

On a side note, Mickey Mouse himself makes  an appearance in toy form.   Mickey was a popular presence under Christmas trees from the 1930s onward and it's interesting to think about how DisneyCorp is still pushing the envelope with product placement to this very day.

M-I-C-K-E-Y ... 

Both "Santa's Workshop" and "The Night Before Christmas" are worth seeking out for their beautiful animation and general sweetness, but the ugly stereotypes knock my overall rating down a bit.

The puppy is super-cute though!  And Junior wants him to see Santa ... awww! 

RigbyMel's rating: 

3 Candy Canes.