Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970) – Rewatch

This qualifies as one of the top notch Rankin-Bass shorts. It attempts to explain as many Santa Claus myths as possible from his infancy and discovery by the Kringles to his marriage and the beginnings of his snow white beard. It’s almost an hour long, yet most of the story is so brisk that it feels much shorter than Rudolph. While it has a lot of supporting characters, particularly the delightful Burgermeister Meisterburger, none of them outshine or pull away from Santa Claus’s tale, the main attraction. It’s only slightly eye-rolly when they try to shove the Jesus story into an otherwise secular Christmas tale. Bonus points for the voice work of Fred Astaire as the narrator, Mickey Rooney as Santa, and Keenan Wynn as Winter.