Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Published on December 5, 2006 By Dodyas In Movies & TV & Books

Another Rankin/Bass production from 1970, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is the 5th Christmas show in my 31 Days of Christmas!

I must not have seen this one as often as I saw the other Rankin and Bass cartoons because I had forgotten the storyline. If not for the nostalgic pull to it, I would deem this one much to cheesy to bear. Its one saving grace, other than being a R/B production is that at least it wasn't a movie about "saving Christmas". After 5 days of Christmas cartoons/shows I am starting to tire of that theme. This, instead, was the story of how Santa Claus came to be and why he does what he does. And if you always wondered, here are the answers.

Apparently a baby was left on the mayor (BurgerMeister MeisterBurger) of Sombertown's doorstep. Of course being the evil villain he was, he sent the baby off to the orphanage. But on the way the baby in the basket was swept away to a cottage where a family of elves by the name of Kringle lived. They took in the baby and raised him. The only identification he had with him was a bracelet that with the name "Claus". But of course they denied his heritage and called him Kris instead.

The Kringles were toy makers but because of the Winter Warlock that lived in the mountains they couldn't get toys. Kris vowed to get the toys to the kids. Besides getting past the Winter Warlock, the other major problem was the Burgermeister Meisterburger had banned toys in the town.

Of course Kris Kringle doesn't let a little thing like a law stop him, and as the story goes on everything about Santa Claus is explained away: how the reindeer fly, why he wears a red suit, how he knows if the kids are naughty or nice, why he fills stockings, etc. Everything except for why he and the Mrs. have no kids. I personally think she had PCOS cause she just ballooned right up after she married Santa. Of course it coulda been his fault, perhaps he took a nip or two of that magic corn that made the reindeer fly and it ended up killing off his little soldiers.

According to the TV listings is coming on ABC tonight at 8pm for you peeps in the States that want to watch it. Not sure what timezone that is in, so check your local listings.

Or just watch it on DVD like I did.

Best use of a pun: The Winter Warlock says to Kris Kringle, "You musn't mind the tree monsters. Their bark is worse than their bite.

I give Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Four Charlie Brown Christmas trees.

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