'Twas the Night Before Christmas

I agree that this is a classic. I was born shortly before this cartoon was made, so it was a big part of my Christmas ritual growing up. The morale is great ("even a miracle needs a hand") and the songs are GOOD. They crept in my head at an early age and stayed there 'til this day. I see a lot of my adolescent, atheist, Ivy League self in the defiant Albert, who derides Santa as a myth, but also in Mr. Trundle, who works devotedly for something he believes in. I'm not talking literals here, people, but there's something nice about believing in something greater than yourself, or your known quantities.

I don't remember ever seeing this as a child and I grew up in that era. In fact, I was 6 years old. Yes, it's only 25 minutes long, but you think it would have came on during the Holidays every year. And back then, we didn't have the number of TV/Cable channels that we do now. It was only the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, etc). Still, I'm just now watching this. It's kind of cute for a 70's animation and it has a decent lesson in it, if you brake something, then you must try to find a way to fix it. This is a good one for young children. And who can forget the famous Christmas poem by Clement Moore? I used to know all the words, but I couldn't recite them as well last night when I watched it. Are you new to watching this one as well? See how well you remember the famous poem! Definitely a great CLASSIC for the Holidays!

Cynical mouse Albert writes an insulting letter to Santa, which ticks Santa off. Afraid Santa will pass them up this year, the town of Junctionville enlists clockmaker Joshua Trundle to build a clock that will play a special song for Santa on Christmas Eve. But Albert, curious about how the clock works, breaks it. Now there will be no Christmas for Junctionville unless Albert can somehow fix the mess he created.

Charming Rankin-Bass Christmas special. This one has more traditional animation, like Frosty, instead of the stop-motion animation we all know & love from other specials. But it's still very good animation with wonderfully expressive faces on the humans and the mice. It's full of beautiful sentiment, lovely music, and great voicework. Joel Grey and Tammy Grimes were especially memorable. I remember as a little kid being fascinated with the way Albert the mouse spoke. This was one of the constants from my childhood Christmases and holds a special place in my heart.

Actually, Joel Grey was the Father in the human family here, the clockmaker-it was George Gobel who played father Mouse. This one makes some good points about not being blinded by science and cynicsm, and keeping the faith when it, and only it, can work.

This also has Tammy Grimes and John McIver doing voice work, and adding to this show's quality.

It isn't shown on TV much now, but should be-a fine companion piece to 'Grinch' or 'Frosty.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas has always been one of my favorites. The story about a clockmaker who creates a singing clock to help convince Santa that people still believe in him might seem a little odd now, but the message is still clear. The songs are fantastic in this special. "Even a Miracle Needs a Hand" is one that I am singing year-round. As a kid, I always looked forward to watching this every Christmas. It wasn't until recently that I found it on VHS.

South Park did a parody of this show a few years ago in an episode of "A Crappy Christmas." I'm sure that 90% of the South Park audience didn't even get the parody, and that's a real shame.

'Twas the Night before Christmas stands tall right along with all of the other Rankin/Bass holiday classics.