'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)

Powerful

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There were those Xmas classics that one watched as a child because I really enjoyed them. Then there were those that I watched mainly because there was nothing else on and it put me in the Xmas mood. I would have to say this one falls in the latter. Not that it is bad, but it just does not really hold up to others such as Frosty, Rudolph and the Grinch in terms of enjoyment, comedy and good animation. This one is a bit off looking and I did not care for the way Santa looked in this one as a kid. Still, I was a kid and presented with an image of Santa and this one looked different so as a kid you can understand why I felt it was not right. The story is a bit different as someone has written Santa a nasty letter, a letter so bad that he has decided he will not be delivering presents this Xmas. Which seems a bit rough punishing all for the letter of one, I mean he could simply give the perpetrator some coal as he sees all and knows all. Well a man tries to show Santa how much he is appreciated in the form of a song coming out of a clock, and some mice must help this endeavor work. Like I said, it is not necessarily bad, just not one of my holiday favorites.

There are many Christmas animations for children during the holidays. We know the originals (Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, Rudolphs Shiny New Years etc..) Two of my favorite that don't get shown as much are "A Year Without A Santa Claus" and this gem "Twas the Night Before Christmas." It tells the tale of two families just before Christmas. One is a human family with a father who is a clock maker. The other is a family of mice with an intelligent male mouse named Albert who doesn't believe in Santa Claus. After Albert writes a letter to Santa Claus, telling him that he and the townsfolk no longer believe in him, Saint Nick decides to blacklist the town and remove them from his itinerary.When the clock maker finds this out from Father Mouse he decides to make a special clock that at midnight will chime and sing a wonderful song to apologize to Santa and bring him back to the town.The animation isn't anything special, but the story and voice acting is terrific. It really grabs your attention and keep you watching. The songs and music are also great and little kids will love it. It's still one of my favorite Christmas specials. For some reason it doesn't come on every year anymore. If it does, it's only shown once and I must miss it. I just ordered the DVD off of Ebay. It comes with the sequel to Frosty the Snowman. I'll let me 2 year old watch it this Christmas. A must see for the whole family. Watch for it this holiday on T.V.

This is quite possibly the best Rankin/Bass Christmas movie ever! I am so upset that this is rarely on TV anymore and I have yet to find it on DVD or even VHS! Great songs, great characters, wonderful story....this has it all. The previous commenter was right when he said that this movie makes you feel good after you watch it. This should be a new TNT holiday classic! What's not to love? A smart alack mouse thinks he knows so much that he believes Santa does not exist. Unfortunately, he believes this so much that he writes a letter to a newspaper expressing such. This causes Santa to cross the whole town off his list. Enter Joshua Trundle, the local clockmaker. He builds a clock that, on the stoke on midnight, plays "Christmastime is Calling, Santa, Santa...."(great song, by the way). Well, the smart alack mouse breaks the clock so it won't work. Blah, blah, blah, mouse gets taught about Christmas and Santa, fixes the clock while singing "Even a miracle needs a hand"(another great song). Santa returns and all is well. They even end the movie with the cartoon animated to a reading of "T'was the night before Christmas" What a great Freakin' Christmas Movie!!!!

When Albert Mouse writes an editorial about the validity of Santa Clause, the Junctionville people get nervous that Christmas will not be coming that year. Santa Clause sends back all of their letter's and it becomes a problem for the local government to figure out how to make sure Christmas happens.Joshua Trundle proposes and builds a clock that will play a beautiful tune to apologize to Santa Clause. As luck would have it, the clock is tampered with and breaks during the ribbon cutting. With all hope lost, midnight on Christmas comes and a miracle happens in Junctionville.Based loosely upon the famous poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas" which is also recited at the end of the holiday special.One of my favorite holiday specials since I was young because it takes a famous poem and add's a "what-if" factor to it by exploring what could have happened to one fictitious town the night before Christmas...