One Christmas special I seem to break with my peers on quite a bit is the Rankin/Bass television special The Year Without a Santa Claus. The special was originally aired on ABC in 1974 and is sort of a sequel to Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. It’s one of the later arriving Christmas specials from the company and I’m guessing there was a feeling of diminishing returns at this point. As best as I can recall, The Year Without a Santa Claus never had a sustained run on broadcast television in the years to follow unlike its predecessor as well as other Rankin/Bass specials like Rudolph and Frosty. This one wasn’t on my radar as a kid and I’m not sure when I first saw it. I’m not even sure I ever sat through an entire viewing until now.
During the 90s, Christmas made the leap to cable. The Family Channel, which is now known as Freeform, was one of the networks that started making a habit of turning over much of its broadcast schedule to Christmas specials come December and The Year Without a Santa Claus was featured rather prominently. Is that the source of its enduring popularity? It could be, or like a lot of things with Christmas specials, it just happened to find its audience at the right place and right time. So many Christmas specials largely came and went and even though you may have folks who grew up during the same era, their idea of the best Christmas specials might differ quite a bit depending on what they were exposed to.
I am not a huge fan of the Rankin/Bass stuff. I know, doing a Christmas blog and saying that sounds almost incompatible, but it’s really just nostalgia goggles that helps me even appreciate the few I do like. I tried to watch this one in the past mostly because people my age would cite it as one of their favorites, but it never took. In an effort to meet them halfway, I have decided that in order to feel like my Christmas rankings are complete I better give it another go. And I’ll say upfront, it’s not as bad as I remember. It’s still not all that good which is why we’re talking about it at this point in the countdown, but it at least has something to say even if I think it kind of chickens out in the end.
The Year Without a Santa Claus is a stop-motion holiday special and it follows with a similar story structure to other past Rankin/Bass specials. In the role of narrator, we have Mrs. Claus who is voiced by Shirley Booth. The stage queen would retire from acting after this role at the age of 74. That’s an old age to retire, but don’t feel too bad for her as she would live another 18 years. Unlike Sam Snowman and Special Delivery, Mrs. Claus is actually a key character for the plot as opposed to a passive observer or story-teller. She is reflecting on a Christmas from long ago, but it hardly matters for the story. And it’s another one that takes place at an almost impossible to nail down moment in time. It’s just sort of vaguely 1900s America.
The special begins with Mrs. Claus setting the scene. She’s up at the North Pole doing North Pole stuff, but who is not is Santa Claus (Mickey Rooney). He’s not feeling so hot as we find him climbing into bed. It’s a single bed, and it appears to be the only one in the room so I guess Santa and the Mrs. keep things very old-fashioned. The castle and setting are not exact copies of the North Pole from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, but it is similar and I appreciate that attention to detail. Mrs. Claus goes back and forth between talking and narrating, sometimes even adding a “Said Santa Claus,” after he talks about his achy back and such. It’s annoying and unnecessary. Before Mrs. Claus gets Santa into bed, he walks about to a painting of himself driving the sleigh. It appears to be the same such painting from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. Once again, I appreciate the attention to detail.
Santa gets in bed as Mrs. Claus welcomes a doctor in. The elf doctor (Bob McFadden) is a pretty grumpy sort. He also doesn’t look much like an elf. The doctor is not surprised he’s not feeling well and suggests he never got over that case of pneumonia he picked up riding in the sleigh. I was expecting some made-up, funny, ailment, not a real world one. This doctor is a real kill joy as he tells Santa no one cares about Christmas and no one cares about Santa. Geez. He best hope this doesn’t drive the old man to suicide. When the doctor leaves, Mrs. Claus discovers that Santa has taken his words to heart. Declaring no one cares and that he’s due for a holiday, Santa instructs his elves to inform the masses: Santa is taking the year off.
Time for Mrs. Claus to sing the title song as the opening credits play. It’s not a terrible jingle, but there’s a reason why it hasn’t become a radio classic in the ensuing years. During the song we get some lines from Santa himself explaining his weariness and sightings from towns of people taking down Christmas. How depressing. When it concludes, we get a little more Santa informing the men that there will be no Christmas gallivanting this year. He instructs the stables to close down and the toy shop shuttered. During her explanation, Mrs. Claus refers to the workers as elves and gnomes which I find interesting. None really look much like elves. Sure, they dress in silly clothes with bells and such, but where’s the pointed ears? Where’s the continuity? You had two specials already that heavily featured elves and these guys don’t resemble them at all. At least the reindeer are more or less consistent with Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.
Mrs. Claus is going to take it upon herself to get Santa back into the Christmas spirit. And to do so, she’s going to call Santa’s number one elf, Jingle Bells (McFadden). He answers the phone as the number one elf and I don’t know if that’s confirmed elsewhere. He could just be really full of himself. With him is, get this, Jangle Bells (Bradley Bolke) who has a really of the era design to him with shaggy, blond, hair. I was expecting him to introduce himself as the number two elf, but he does not. Jingle doesn’t seem to think highly of him and boots him off the phone. He then just says “Yes, Mrs. Claus,” a whole bunch and we’re not privy to the other side of the conversation. When he hangs up the phone, Jangle asks “Who was that?” and Jingle responds in an exasperated manner, but maybe Jangle was just being polite and not listening in on the conversation?
We cut back to Mrs. Claus as the elves assumedly head her way. She’s admiring her reflection in a mirror while wearing Santa’s hat and remarking that she could pull off the look. This launches us into another original song, “I Could be Santa Claus.” It’s a song about how she thinks she could pull off the gig and she’s pretty convincing. Why not? This could almost be a female empowerment type of song if the special decided to run with it, but no. Jingle and Jangle arrive at the end and are surprised to find Mrs. Claus in Santa’s suit. It’s not played off salaciously or as if this is some major faux pas, which could have worked comedically. Instead it’s just general surprise, and then they move on. Apparently, just their look of surprise is enough to convince Mrs. Claus that she can’t be Santa and she takes the outfit off and declares they need to move onto Plan B. I guess her heart just wasn’t in it? Plan B is for the elves, and a diminutive little Vixen, to head south and find some Christmas spirit. Mrs. Claus is convinced that’s all it will take for Santa to feel motivated to resume his usual Christmas activities.
When the two leave, there’s a familiar music sting that’s pulled right from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. It sounds like it’s done on a xylophone. You’ll know it when you hear it, it’s apparently the reindeer take-off sting. Mrs. Claus heads back inside to do some ironing while Santa asks what’s going on. Apparently everyone hears that xylophone when reindeer fly? She tries to be evasive, but rather poorly. Santa gives her a chance to tell him if she thinks he’s making the wrong decision, but she declines to challenge her husband. He can tell she’s up to something and she comes clean about the mission Jingle and Jangle are on with Vixen, though she doesn’t tell the boss she put them up to it. Santa is concerned for their safety, especially Vixen since she’s just a baby (they really should have taken a bigger reindeer, or why not two?). I get the impression he doesn’t care what happens to the dumb elves. He also references the Miser Brothers and his doubt that the two can get past them. Santa has no other choice but to get out of bed, put on his Sunday best, and set off on Dasher to go after them.
We then find the trio as they have to pass between the two warring step brothers: Heat Miser (George S. Irving) and Snow Miser (Dick Shawn). These guys, as best as I can tell, are a big part of why this special is beloved by some. Heat Miser is a round and brightly colored fellow with red-orange hair that resembles a flame. He’s like the Burgermeister, but colorful. Snow Miser looks like Dick Van Dyke with hair made of ice. The snow effect is just okay and looks more like aloe vera gel to me. They’re basically sitting on clouds and fighting over where it should be hot and where it should be cold in the world. The elves know they should avoid them, but are pretty damn terrible at piloting reindeer (Mrs. Claus, who has continued to narrate this adventure, puts the blame on the baby reindeer and I am not having any of that). They fly right in between the two and a burst of light from Heat Miser knocks them from their reindeer. So much for Plan B.
The special decides to just “yada yada” the whole falling from the reindeer thing as we next find the two back on Vixen flying through the sky. Seriously, do elves bounce or something? We were denied an incredible midair rescue by Vixen. The pair fly over a town and decide it’s as good as any to find some Christmas cheer. Southtown, USA is the chosen destination, but the elves are not accustomed to traveling these parts. They land in the street and are surprised to see them empty. A cop (Bolke) comes up on a bicycle and do you think he’s going to be helpful? No, of course not, he gives them a ticket for riding a “Vixen” the wrong way on a one way street. The stupid elves think the problem is people being unaccustomed to reindeer, so they put socks on her ears to try and pass her off as a dog. Sure. They then find a woman and approach her about Christmas. She’s horrified by their “dog,” which they have dubbed Rover, but the mere mention of a dog proves disastrous. The woman was holding her hands in one of those warmers that have a hole on each side, only it’s not one of those warmers. It was actually a cat this whole time who freaks out when Jangle tells Vixen to bark like a dog, which she does. The cat turns the tables though and chases Vixen, who is apparently afraid of cats as she bolts forcing the elves and woman to chase after her.
We next find Santa who has also made his way to Southtown, USA. How did he know the elves would end up here? I guess we’ll just attribute it to Christmas magic. Or reindeer somehow leave their scent floating in the sky when they fly. Santa is talking to the same cop who gave the elves a ticket and he confirms he saw the pair earlier and seems delighted at the idea of a judge throwing the book at them. This guy sucks. Thankfully, Dasher was smart enough to hide in the bushes and doesn’t come out until the cop leaves. Santa expresses worry to the reindeer about the pair and assumes they must be scared to death. We then cut quickly to the trio high in a tree and Jangle remarks he’s scared to death. That Santa sure is perceptive, isn’t he? Jangle is ready to bail while Jingle is happy to blame everything on his elf partner. Jangle at least has the bright idea that if they want to find Christmas spirit they should look to the children. Jingle thinks that’s a great idea and they remove themselves from the tree.
The pair are shown approaching a school and they’ve removed their jackets because it’s quite hot. Vixen also isn’t doing too well. She’s not accustomed to heat so the two decide to just leave her in a shady spot in the town where cops hope you get incarcerated for riding an animal the wrong way on a one way street. This will go well, I’m sure. The elves then approach the kids who are just playing with balls. They recognize the two as Christmas elves right away and then also share they know that Santa is taking a holiday – it was in all the papers! Things get confusing when the kids then express no interest in Santa and remark how they’re too old to believe in him. But, he was just reported on in the paper? I am so confused. Do they think papers only print lies? This is the opposite of Yes, Virginia. The elves are soon equally confused when the kid points out that they have bigger problems. Naturally, it’s the dog catcher and he’s got Vixen. The elves can’t continue their conversation on the subject of Christmas as they now need to chase after the truck that’s making off their dog, I mean, reindeer.
The kid heads home and our narrator informs us he’s somehow pretty important. Outside his home, he runs into Santa Claus. That’s when he introduces himself as Ignatius “Iggy” Thistlewhite (Colin Duffy) and asks Santa for his name. He was apparently not prepared for someone to ask him his name. He’s also not great when put on the spot since the only thing he can come up with is Claus. Why not just go with Chris? Iggy shares that he saw a couple guys dressed like Christmas elves and Santa can only respond with a sneeze. This gets the attention of Iggy’s mom (Rhoda Mann) who insists on inviting him in to give him something for that cold. He accepts and inside we meet Mr. Thistlewhite (Ron Marshall) as well and everyone sits around the table and Santa asks more about what happened earlier. This ends up leading into a conversation about believing in Santa. When Iggy asks his dad if he believes, he responds in the affirmative. He then turns to Santa who also confirms he believes.
Time for another song. This one is called “I Believe in Santa Claus” and it’s pretty self-explanatory. Santa kicks it off and then Iggy’s dad picks it up from there. It’s a bit odd as he starts singing about a time when he thought he grew out of believing and the camera zooms in on a picture of Mr. Thistlewhite as a kid with his parents. He looks like Iggy, but what’s really weird is his mom looks almost exactly like the current Mrs. Thistlewhite. Did this guy marry a woman because she reminds him of his mother? His first name must be Oedipus. We’re treated to a flashback, and this special does something I hate. The dad stopped believing in Santa until something happened. What do you think that was? Why, it was Santa himself! He woke the little bastard up to basically admonish him for not believing anymore. Now, imagine you’re a kid who is starting to doubt all of the Santa stuff and you’re watching this. Wouldn’t it just make you wonder why he doesn’t reveal himself to you like he did here? We’re creating some unreal expectations here, folks. More specials need to deprive the main characters of actually seeing Santa.
Poor Mrs. Thistlewhite doesn’t get to sing her own section and the song ends with Iggy seemingly feeling bad for not believing. Well, that’s all it took to right this ship. With Iggy’s belief in Santa restored, the real thing can now ask some more about his friends. Apparently, Iggy had yet to get to the part about the dog catcher which immediately worries Santa. He’s also smart enough to figure out that the dog in question must be Vixen and we cut to poor, sick, Vixen in the pound looking mighty miserable. The attendant at least knows something isn’t right as we see him holding a thermometer and he looks a little concerned. The camera zooms in on Vixen, who sheds a few tears. Aww!
Santa gets directions to the pound and heads off. He’s in such a rush that he summons Dasher and the two take off right in front of the Thistlewhites. They’re surprised, but not too surprised, and that clever Iggy figures out that Mr. Claus is really Santa Claus! He remarks to his dad that he wishes he could do something to help Santa and his elves and his dad tells him when he has a problem he should take it straight to the top like a true Karen. That means going to the mayor to inquire about getting the reindeer released. Mrs. Claus interrupts to inform us that Jingle and Jangle were told to do the same by the man at the pound and we’re soon introduced to the mayor of Southtown. This laughing, giggling, asshole of a mayor (Marshall) of course doesn’t believe their story. That’s not what makes him an asshole, it’s his reaction to the whole thing. Iggy is there to share what he saw, but the mayor is not buying it, but he’s willing to make a deal. He’ll believe their story if Santa makes it snow in Southtown. And not only that, he’ll free the reindeer from the pound and spread the word about Santa and all that. Jangle accepts, much to the chagrin of Jingle, and the trio take their leave.
Song time! The mayor is apparently something of a believer since he runs out into the streets to sing his own song, “It’s Gonna Snow Right Here in Dixie.” Dixie, eh? As he prances about and sings his little song I’m now noticing that the population here is very white. There is not a single individual of color to be found anywhere in this town. A big part of the song is about how excited he is that it will be “all white overnight,” which is just moving us into uncomfortable territory. Let’s move on. The song sucks anyway.
Santa is able to get Vixen released. He apparently travels with cash. The little reindeer is so sick that Santa can’t waste any time looking for Jingle and Jangle and heads back to the North Pole with Vixen across his lap. This leaves Jingle and Jangle, along with Iggy, to sit and ponder how to free their reindeer and make it snow, even though part of that issue has been resolved with them not knowing. Now it’s Jingle’s turn to have a supposed great idea, which is just to call Mrs. Claus. I guess they dialed collect, but it works and that night Mrs. Claus arrives with a reindeer pulling a different sleigh than Santa’s typical one. The trio are waiting for her on a rooftop and she seems pretty happy to see them. She also has a plan – they’re going to go see Snow Miser! Iggy is apparently coming too.
Time for the part that everyone seems to love best. We’re a half hour into this 50 minute special and we’re just now finally getting to the Snow Miser song. It has a thumping beat and this obnoxious horn section to announce the arrival of the character. He comes dancing in looking like a snow-themed Dapper Dan and he has a bunch of tiny versions of himself dancing around as well. How did those guys come into being? It is a fairly entertaining number, though I don’t think the lyrics matter much. It’s all about those comical sounding horns. When he’s done doing his thing, Snow Miser comes across as a pretty affable guy. He’s hospitable towards Mrs. Claus and crew, but when she requests he make it snow in Southtown he has to inform her the only way that can happen is if Heat Miser okays it.
You know what that means – off to see Heat Miser! The special cuts right to the chase and we join Heat Miser already into his own song. It’s the exact same song as Snow Miser, just with different lyrics to suit Heat Miser. He also has his own minions, but they don’t look like him. They look like little gremlins or monsters. Heat Miser also gets to show off his fire powers which exposes the limitations of stop-motion animation. Their solution for fire is just colored cotton. In the past they used foil or colored paper and I can see why they would feel that’s fine for standing flames, but not for Heat Miser’s fire breath. Heat Miser isn’t as helpful as his brother and demands something in return for letting it snow for one day in Southtown – The North Pole! Mrs. Claus calls Snow Miser on a video phone – pretty fancy for a cloud dweller. He has no interest in surrendering the North Pole to his brother, which comes as no surprise. Now it’s Mrs. Claus’s turn to behave like a Karen and go over the heads of the two squabbling siblings – to their mother!
Who do you suppose is the mother of these two boys? Iggy can’t even guess it so I guess he’s not too bright. If you guessed Mother Nature (Mann) then you are correct! Everyone acts scared and intimidated over going to see her, but when they do we find she’s just a pretty normal looking old woman. Only she has a bird’s nest in her hair. Honestly, pretty underwhelming character design. They couldn’t even make her a tree or something? She’s fine though, very accommodating, and immediately summons her boys to her side with a bolt of lightning. The two grumble, but Mother Nature informs them how this is going to all go down. Snow Miser is going to make it snow in Southtown for one day and Heat Miser can bring summer to the North Pole for one day as well. They try to protest a bit, but another bolt of lightning silences the pair and they do as their mother tells them.
Time to check in with Santa who has returned to the North Pole (it’s still frozen). He puts Vixen in his own bed and finds a note from his wife informing him that she went after Jingle and Jangle. Satisfied she can handle things, Santa settles himself into a rocking chair for a little rest. Down in Southtown, the snow is falling. The mayor is shown taking a phone call from his wife where his wife is instructing him to wear his goulashes, bundle up, and so forth and he’s doing the whole “What?!” schtick until he finally looks outside. We then jump back to the North Pole where Mrs. Claus and Jingle are rousing the old man from his slumber with a newspaper. The headline concerns the snow in Southtown and Jangle enters with more papers about a day off for Santa. He looks them over and informs his wife that she was right the whole time, but his conclusion is that the world is giving him a day off and he settles in for more nap time. Mrs. Claus can only shrug in the direction of the elves.
Mrs. Claus then returns to her narration duties to inform us that the children of the world became committed to giving Santa a day off. Now we get a multi-cultural group of children running over a map, writing letters, and wrapping gifts. They’re basically returning the favor and sending them to Santa and Mrs. Claus tells us they had more fun that December than any they could remember. Santa is then shown waking up and stumbling around. It’s like he’s having a senior moment as he just wanders the grounds grumbling taking note of the quiet workshop and sleeping reindeer. He pauses outside as a bird delivers a letter to him. He opens it up and it’s a picture of a sad, crying, girl with the message, “Dear Santa, I’ll have a blue Christmas without you.” I guess she wasn’t one of the kids having the most fun ever. This begins the song, “Blue Christmas.” Pretty surprising to see a licensed song enter at this stage of the production. I guess since this wasn’t adapted from someone else’s song they had room in the budget for a different one. The song is sung by a little girl (Christine Winter) and a children’s choir (The Wee Winter Singers) and it’s an even more somber version of the song compared with the Elvis version. It’s nice though. Most may like the Miser Brothers and their song, but I like this more. I will concede it’s weird the girl is clearly drawing a blue Christmas tree while singing about a green one, and the lyrics don’t work as well when they’re supposed to be about Santa and not a former lover. Especially sung by kids. Let’s not think about this anymore.
One letter is apparently all it took. If all of those kids were bullshitting everyone and really wanted Santa to come bring them toys, then they have this girl to thank. Santa, feeling especially vigorous all of a sudden, announces that Christmas is back on! Santa can’t take a day off on Christmas, he has stuff to do! Santa assembles the troops and starts barking orders and asserts that he’s feeling just fine. Set to the tune of “Sleigh Ride,” everyone gets back to work as Santa announces, “Tonight – we ride!” There’s almost a violence to how he says it, like they’re about to go crack some skulls. Might I suggest they start with that asshole mayor?
Santa flies off with a complete team of eight reindeer, including wee little Vixen. We get a partial moon shot as we head to Southtown, USA where the mayor has put up a sign designating it Santa Claus Lane. I bet you can guess the song chosen for this section. That makes two full songs they had to pay for. Santa reveals himself to the entire town as the sleigh touches down and slowly makes its way literally down Santa Claus Lane. Kids and adults are there to wave him along before he returns to the sky. Mrs. Claus gets the last word as she narrates over children, including Iggy, finding their gifts under the tree the next morning. She affirms you can always count on Santa Claus which takes us into a reprise of “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” Santa leaps from his bed and puts on his coat. He jumps into his sleigh and they take off into the night sky. As they fly towards the full moon, the special comes to an end. There will never be a year without a Santa Claus.
That wasn’t as bad as I remembered. I still think this is a pretty mid-level Christmas special. It’s just too uneven for me. The first chunk of the special almost feels unneeded. They could have easily just jumped to taking their concerns to Snow Miser to bring snow to a place in need of Christmas cheer, but it’s like we have to screw around for a half hour first because ABC wanted a full hour broadcast. I found it funny how Mrs. Claus narrates that Iggy is very important to the story, and then he proceeds to just be along for the ride. Yeah, he had to pass along the information about what happened to Vixen and the elves to Santa, but that’s it. Anyone could have done that. For as memorable as the Snow and Heat Miser are, they’re not in this one a whole lot. They did more recently get their own Christmas special, but I have never heard anyone recommend it nor do I have any interest in checking it out for myself.
What I did like about this one is that the music by Maury Laws is very similar to the past Rankin/Bass specials. As I mentioned during the write-up, some music and sound effects are lifted straight from them while a lot of the instrumentals just call-back to them without exactly duplicating them. It helps to create this cohesive feel to everything. I’m surprised they didn’t drop a “Jessica” somewhere in reference to Mrs. Claus or make the elves resemble the old ones a bit more, but it still feels like a sequel or at least like this is the same Santa from before.
What bothers me most about this one is just the missed opportunity for a better story. I think I would have rather seen a Christmas where Mrs. Claus steps into the role of Santa. Maybe she would have found it’s really hard to do what he does and have some mishaps, but still get it right in the end. She so rarely steps into the spotlight, and even though the special didn’t take that path, this is still more Mrs. Claus exposure than we’re accustomed to. She did at least orchestrate the resolution to the story, even if it was just complaining to the manager. I also would have preferred an ending where Santa does just take a day off. The world lets him know how appreciative they are and he returns the following year with renewed vigor! Instead, there’s an outpouring of love and one kid is sad she’s not getting presents. Crisis averted, Santa is magically feeling better and Christmas is back on!
I guess what I’m saying is, there was a chance to subvert this one a bit, but Rankin/Bass decided to just pull a fake-out. The title is a lie as there never was a year without Santa. He just needed a little extra motivation one year. And we never did get to see Heat Miser bring warm weather to the North Pole. I kept waiting for the special to come back to that. I fully expected an ending with Santa and the Mrs. enjoying the sun at the beach for a day after the holidays. We were denied seeing Santa in a bathing suit. What a pity.
If you’re one of the people who does love this holiday special then you probably know where to find it. It still airs on cable each year and it’s sold on physical media and on streaming networks. If you’re opposed to paying, it’s also pretty easy to find online for free without having to go anywhere seedy. For me, I consider this one a little better than most of the other Rankin/Bass specials, but I also dislike most of them, which is why I rank it at #169 out of 209. Too low? Too high? Just right? If you have opinions to share, let me know in the comments. Hopefully, no one reading this will have a blue Christmas over it.
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