''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' is a 1974

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

Christmas television special Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of Christian media, the topic first appeared in in literature and Christmas music. Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptatio ...

produced by

Rankin/Bass Productions Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usua ...

and based on the famous 1823 poem that opens with this line. The special first originally aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

on December 8, 1974 where it aired annually until 1994, when The Family Channel (now Freeform) took over its syndication rights. AMC took over syndication rights for the special in 2018. Although the opening credits mention "told and sung by Joel Grey", it is really narrated by

George Gobel George Leslie Goebel (May 20, 1919 – February 24, 1991) was an American humorist, actor, and comedian. He was best known as the star of his own weekly comedy variety television series, ''The George Gobel Show'', broadcasting from 1954 to 195 ...

, as there is more emphasis on the point of view of Father Mouse, with Moore's poem read by Grey as a secondary plot.

Plot

The program is set in the fictional town of Junctionville,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

around the turn of the 20th century.

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

is offended by an

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anony ...

letter printed in the town's newspaper (and signed "all of us") claiming that he doesn't exist. In response, Santa returns the entire town's letters to them unopened. Upon reading the anonymous letter printed in the

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

, Father Mouse — a

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

assistant to the human clockmaker Joshua Trundle — immediately suspects that his brainy, college student son Albert is its author. Albert confirms his suspicions, repeating the letter

verbatim Verbatim means word for word. Verbatim may also refer to: * Verbatim (brand), a brand of storage media and flash memory * Verbatim (horse), an American racehorse * ''Verbatim'' (magazine), edited by Erin McKean * Verbatim theatre Documentary th ...

to him. Father Mouse and the Trundle Family devise a plan to appease Santa by building a singing clock tower for him, built with a special recording to play a song to coax him not to bypass Junctionville on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

. Unfortunately, Albert enters the clock to explore it without permission, and inadvertently causes it to malfunction in front of the whole town, seriously damaging Trundle's professional reputation. Furthermore, the Mayor, publicly embarrassed at the clock tower's failure, refuses to give Joshua access to it for repairs. Confessing his mistake, Albert volunteers to repair it himself and Father Mouse tells Joshua of the situation before waiting at his bed with worry on Christmas Eve. Although Albert does not complete his task until about one minute after the midnight deadline, the clock does play its song within earshot of Santa which convinces him to turn around and come to town after all.

Cast

as Father Mouse (primary narrator) * Joel Grey as Joshua Trundle (secondary narrator) *

Tammy Grimes Tammy Lee Grimes (January 30, 1934 – October 30, 2016) was an American film and stage actress. Grimes won two Tony Awards in her career, the first for originating the role of Molly Tobin in the musical '' The Unsinkable Molly Brown'' and the ...

as Albert *

John McGiver John Irwin McGiver (November 5, 1913 – September 9, 1975) was an American character actor who made more than a hundred appearances in television and motion pictures over a two-decade span from 1955 to 1975. The owl-faced, portly character ac ...

as the Mayor of Junctionville

Additional voices

* Robert McFadden as Substation Operator, Councilmen, Handyman *

Allen Swift Ira Stadlen (January 16, 1924 – April 18, 2010), known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American voice actor, best known for voicing cartoon characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the ''Underdog'' cartoon show. He took his pro ...

as Santa Claus * Pat Bright as Sarah Trundle/Mother Mouse *

Christine Winter Christine may refer to: People * Christine (name), a female given name Film * ''Christine'' (1958 film), based on Schnitzler's play ''Liebelei'' * ''Christine'' (1983 film), based on King's novel of the same name * ''Christine'' (1987 fil ...

as Girl/Girl Mouse *

Scott Firestone Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sask ...

as Boy/Boy Mouse *

The Wee Winter Singers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

as the Chorus

Crew

* Written by

Jerome Coopersmith Jerome Coopersmith (born August 11, 1925) is an American dramatist known for television, theater, and his work as a professor of screenplay writing. Working in the television industry since 1947, Coopersmith has authored more than 100 televisio ...

, Larz Bourne * Based on the Poem by

Clement Moore Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863) was an American writer, scholar and real estate developer. He is best known as author of the Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Moore was Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature ...

* Music:

Maury Laws Maury Laws (December 6, 1923 – March 28, 2019) was an American television and film composer from Burlington, North Carolina. Biography In his teens, Laws performed in local country, jazz and dance bands as a singer and guitarist in his home st ...

* Lyrics:

Jules Bass Julius Bass (September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer, and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft Internat ...

* Produced and Directed by

Arthur Rankin Jr. Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014) was an American director, producer and writer, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion animation ...

and

* Associate Producer:

Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin Mary Alice ("Mickey") Dwyer-Dobbin is an American daytime television producer. Biography A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Mary Alice Dwyer Dobbin is a television executive with experience in creative development, production, and management. Her n ...

* Editorial Supervision: Irwin Goldress, Vincent Juliano * Design: Paul Coker Jr. * Sound Engineers:

Don Hahn Donald Paul Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer who is credited with producing some of the most successful animated films in recent history, including Disney’s ''Beauty and the Beast'' (the first animated film to be nom ...

, Tom Brennand, John Curcio * Sound Effects: Tom Clack * Animation Production -

Topcraft Topcraft (トップクラフト ''Toppukurafuto'', also written as "Top Craft") was an animation studio established on February 1, 1972 by former Toei Animation producer Toru Hara, and located in Tokyo, Japan. It was famous for the production of ...

, Japan ** Storyboard Artist: Takashi Hisaoka ** Animation Direction: Tokiji Kaburaki, Kazuyuki Kobayashi, Hidemi Kubo ** Key Animation: Katsumi Aoshima, Hiroshi Oikawa ** Animation: Toru Hara, Tsuguyuki Kubo ** Layout Artist:

Yoshinori Kanemori Yoshinori is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshinori can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義徳, "justice, virtue" *義憲, "justice, constitution" *義法, "justice ...

** Background Designs: Minoru Nishida ** Background Artist: Kazusuke Yoshihara ** Technical Direction: Kôichi Sasaki, Katsuhisa Yamada * Musical Director: Maury Laws

Songs

There are three musical numbers in the program: #"Give Your Heart a Try" - Father Mouse (George Gobel) #"Even a Miracle Needs a Hand" - Joshua Trundle (Joel Grey), Albert (Tammy Grimes) #"Christmas Chimes are Calling (Santa, Santa)" - Chorus

In popular culture

"Even a Miracle Needs a Hand" later appeared on ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand ...

'' in the Season 4 episode "

A Very Crappy Christmas "A Very Crappy Christmas" is the seventeenth and final episode of the fourth season of the animated television series ''South Park'', and the 65th episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 20, 2000. In th ...

". Similar to its use in the original special, the song is sung by Kyle to Stan and

Kenny Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith". ...

during a seemingly hopeless situation. At one point, Joshua Trundle's face is even superimposed over Kyle's face.

Production

Like many of Rankin/Bass' other animated TV specials, this special was animated in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

by the animation studio

, which was rolled into

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...

in 1985.

Home media releases

The special was originally first issued on VHS by

ABC Video Enterprises ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and Golden Book Video in 1987. After Lorimar was purchased by

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

/ Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (owners of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass library), re-released the special on VHS in 1990, and on DVD in 2004, paired with the 1976 special ''

Frosty's Winter Wonderland ''Frosty's Winter Wonderland'' is a 1976 animated Christmas television special and a standalone sequel to the 1969 special '' Frosty the Snowman'', produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and animated by Topcraft. It is the second television special ...

''. A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

was released on October 5, 2011.WB Shop
/ref> It is also available on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

for purchase.

References

External links

*
Excerpt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974 TV special) 1974 in American television 1974 television specials 1970s American animated films 1970s American television specials 1970s animated television specials CBS television specials Christmas television specials Films scored by Maury Laws Television shows directed by Jules Bass Television shows directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. Santa Claus in television Television shows based on poems Topcraft Works based on A Visit from St. Nicholas Rankin/Bass Productions television specials Animated Christmas television specials