‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974) Review

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974) Review

Back again with another TV special from Rankin/Bass. This time it’s a take on Clement Moore’s classic poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. It’s rendered in the same animation style as Frosty the Snowman, but somehow, feels cheaper than Frosty. There are times when characters’ mouths don’t move to the words, and there are many still images, or at least scenes with limited motion. 

Everyone knows the poem. “’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” Well, they took it literally. There are two stories going on. There’s Joshua Trundle, a clockmaker, and Father Mouse, who lives in Trundle’s house with his family and helps Trundle with clocks, as depicted in the opening. Father Mouse’s son sends an anonymous letter to Santa, claiming he doesn’t exist, so Santa sends everyone’s letters back to them and isn’t coming to bring gifts for everyone, which has everyone in Junctionville rattled. Trundle tries to make a clock that’ll play a song designed to bring such joy, it will convince Santa to stop in on Christmas Eve and drop off gifts. 

Too bad the song sucks. 

I don’t know why, but it seems like Rankin/Bass could never duplicate the unmitigated success they had (I’m referring to the original Rudolph) in expanding a Christmas song/poem into a Christmas TV special, no matter what they tried. I admire the parts of the poem that are depicted, but the expansion on the story is a little superfluous. I mean, it’s not dragged out or anything, which is a plus, but the whole concept of a giant singing clock doesn’t do much for me.    

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas is innocent yuletide fare, but not an essential to be viewed come the holiday season. The songs are sub-par, and the characters aren’t as memorable as other Rankin/Bass productions, though it still has a certain charm to it.