Favorite Christmas Shows Countdown: #10 Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

#10 Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Rankin Bass is well known for their many holiday themed productions. Perhaps the most well-known and renowned one would be Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Frosty the Snowman is also a well-known production. For his part, my brother likes The Little Drummer Boy, as he’s a fan of that song. All are great, but I like one in particular. In this production, Rankin Bass tells a story about the origins of Santa Claus.

Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town takes the old song, and through it, tells a story about how Santa came to be, and exist. Of course, the real story is much different, with many different interpretations from many different cultures. So what this production tried to do was combine many of the cultures stories into one coherent narrative, and I believe they were successful.

The story is told by a friendly mailman (Fred Astaire) who delivers mail in the north. He apparently knows Santa well, and tells the story to the voices of the children who have sent letters to Santa. He begins by saying that many years ago, in a tiny town far in the north called Sombertown, a child named Claus was cast out by the grouchy old ill-tempered, child-hating Mayor of Sombertown, Burgermeister Meisterburger (Paul Frees). 

The child ends up at the home of the Kringles. The Kringles are a family of little people who make toys, but they have no way to ship the toys to the children of Sombertown. They would take them, but the forest which they live in is also inhabited by the nasty Winter Warlock (Kennan Wynn).

The Kringles adopt the baby Claus into their family and name him Kris Kringle (Mickey Rooney). He eventually grows into a man and decides to make the trip to Sombertown, as he’s bigger than the rest of the Kringles. The Kringles fashion him their trademark coat and hat and he is off. He narrowly avoids the Winter Warlock, and when he arrives in Sombertown, confronts Meisterburger. 

The Mayor naturally takes a dislike of Kris, and swears out an arrest of Kris and anyone who plays with toys in his town. Kris narrowly escapes only to be captured by the Winter Warlock, but shows compassion to the wizard, and he begins to melt his cold exterior. Eventually, the Warlock reforms, and changes his name to simply Winter.

Throughout the course of the film, you learn (at least for the purposes of the story) many of the traditions, such as why Santa leaves toys in the stockings (to hide them from Meisterburger) and how the reindeer learn to fly (to help Kris and the others escape from jail when they are captured) and also why Santa goes down the chimney (because the doors in Sombertown were ordered locked)

Kris, and a penguin he befriends named "Topper"

Things get so bad that eventually Kris and the other Kringles (including a teacher from Sombertown who he befriended and fell for named Jessica) have to go into hiding. Kris grows a beard, and the whole party makes tracks for the North Pole where they set up shop. Kris also begins to go by his real name, Santa Claus, to avoid the ties to the Kringle name.

When my friend Elliott grew out his beard, many remarked how he looked like Santa.
I leave it to you to decide

As world of Santa’s delivery’s spreads, he becomes stretched thin, and decides to make one trip each year, choosing Christmas as he believed it to be the holiest and most magical night of the whole year. And that’s how the origins of Santa Claus came to be.

Obviously it isn’t the whole story, but for children (and frankly, adults) it’s a great take on the character and events. The film is cast well, with Rooney, Wynn, and the rest exceptional for their parts. Rooney especially would go on to play Santa Claus many more times throughout his career. The mailman even dances a bit, a take on Astaire’s career as a dancer on stage.

The film is a musical, to be sure, as many of the Rankin Bass productions are, but the story is coherent, entertaining, and enjoyable to watch each and every year. It is, perhaps, my all-time favorite of their productions and one that has had a lasting impact.