This Classic Christmas Movie Turns 50 This Year

Published: December 13, 2024

This Classic Christmas Movie Turns 50 This Year

By Movieguide® Contributor

THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS is one of the most iconic Christmas movies, largely remembered for its zany brothers, Heat and Snow Miser.

The beloved movie first aired in 1974, continuing a string of stop-motion masterpieces by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. The movie was adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Phyllis McGinley, who had penned the original story for Good Housekeeping. The movie, however, has key additions, as the Miser brothers are not present in the original story. Their addition proved to be important as they are what initially sold the story to those who worked on the movie.

“When I got a script from [collaborator] Romeo [Muller], I could see the magic in his writing! It was very easy for me to conjure up an image of all the characters that would be involved,” the movie’s character designer, Paul Cocker Jr. told Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt.

The memorability of these characters was further ingrained when composer Maury Laws added their iconic songs into the mix.

“I tried to come up with something that matched the braggart, over-the-top nature of their characters,” Laws told Goldschmidt. “They were rooted in vaudeville, will all of their show biz minions.”

While kids love the movie, it has always been primed for adults. The plot focuses on a Santa Claus who is tired and feels underappreciated, and because of this, he decides to take the year off. While Christmas is undoubtedly a time of joy and cheer, adults can still relate to the Santa Claus portrayed in this movie, and his subversion of traditional Christmas messaging can even be a welcome change.

Though Jules and Bass would go on to create more holiday specials after THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS, none would capture the magic found in this movie or their previous classics, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, FROSTY THE SNOWMAN and SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN.