Rating:
Mickey Rooney returns as the voice of Santa Claus in this 1974 Rankin-Bass Christmas special, but instead of being the jolly, generosity-obsessed man we know from Santa Claus is Coming to Down, he’s a cynical old turd. As the show starts, he decides he’s not going to make his annual flight this year, in part because he feels the world is a cruel place lacking in Christmas spirit but mostly because he just doesn’t feel like it and would rather stay in bed. I must say, this is a side of Santa we don’t often see.

However he rationalizes it to himself, his decision is final. Santa Claus ain’t givin’ presents to nobody this year!

This is big news. Front page stuff.

Now, I’m no professional journalist, but what in the hell kind of punctuation is that? “Santa says-” too tired! Somebody working at The Daily Tribune needs to consult his AP Style Manual, methinks. Don’t quotation marks generally go around, you know, the quote part of something? And what the hell is that hyphen doing in there?

But that’s a digression. Mrs. Claus doesn’t like her new lazy grouch of a husband, so she sends two elves, Jingle and Jangle, out into the world to find some proof that Christmas spirit still exists so that Santa will be convinced to get out of bed and take on the onerous task of working one night out of an entire year.

And that’s the real story, of Jingle and Jangle searching for some Christmas Spirit. They hop on Vixen (who is revealed in this story to be a girl, which blew my mind—I’d always assumed all the reindeer were male) and fly off to Southtown, U.S.A. It seems to them as good a place as any to find some peace on Earth and good will to men.

But that’s because they’re idiots.

They’ve barely touched down in Southtown before a policeman—who I guess is supposed to be a typical southern sheriff but is clearly an English constable—writes them a ticket for wearing funny looking suits on a Sunday and Vixen is captured by the dogcatcher.

Then some other stuff happens, but none of it is particularly interesting. I’m sorry to report that this particular Christmas special isn’t such of a much. It never works its way into your heart and mind they way Rudolph and Charlie Brown do, so after an hour of story and song you end up no richer for the experience. That’s unfortunate, but not every Rankin-Bass special can be an enduring classic, and they have plenty of those to their credit to be proud of.

There is, however, an aspect of The Year Without a Santa Claus that people remember very fondly, and deservedly so. People love the characters of Snow Miser and Heat Miser, and in particular the songs they sing.

The Misers are brothers, one in charge of making it snow in the northern part of the world, the other in charge of keeping it so hot in the southern part of the world (in this cartoon, as in real life, the southern hemisphere doesn’t count). They’re constantly bickering in a comical way, and they look pretty funny, so they’re the definite standouts of the piece. They’re also set up early on as the villains, but then when they actually feature in the story they’re basically helpful the whole way through.

As cartoon characters often do, each sings a song all about himself. Actually, it’s the same song with different lyrics for either character, but it’s a darn good one. I’m sure you know the song, even if you can’t remember if you’ve ever seen the cartoon it comes from.

Jam on this:

Unfortunately, two jaunty numbers alone do not a classic Christmas special make. If you miss out on The Year Without a Santa Claus this season, you’re not really missing out on anything.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
• The Santa Clause 2
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Frosty Returns
• Nog is Not Just a Ferengi