Stop Motion

Widely considered the Christmas Classics, these claymation movies rerun every year. Created by Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, these hour long specials have become a staple in many childhoods across the world. Here is a list of some of the best ones to watch this season:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

The first of Rankin/Bass’ claymation hits, this story revolves around everyone’s favorite red-nosed reindeer and how he became the lead on Santa’s sleigh. Accompanied by an eccentric miner named Yukon Cornelius, a dentist-in-training elf named Hermey and the occasional Bumble, Rudolph sets off to be on his own. Along the way, he discovers how being different can end up being the best thing you can be.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of the most popular and longest running Christmas specials to date, making it an official Christmas Classic.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970)

In the dreary city Sombertown, a baby is dropped on the steps of the government building. With nothing but a name tag labeled “Claus,” the baby is sent away to a nearby orphanage. Tragically, the baby is lost in a freak snowstorm. Once the weather subsides, the elf family named the Kringles find the baby and adopt him, naming him Kris. Throughout this film, viewers grow up alongside Kris, and watch him grow into the jolly man in the red suit.

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Considered one of the best stop motion movies in the Rankin/Bass wheelhouse, The Year Without a Santa Claus follows the days before that one fateful Christmas, when Santa took a holiday. With having an awful cold, and the assumption that children don’t believe in him anymore, Santa tells the elves at the North Pole that they’re “staying home this year.”  To save Christmas, Mrs. Claus teams up with elves Jingle and Jangle to show Santa that there are kids out there that believe and need him this year.

Full of upbeat songs like “I Could Be Santa Claus,” the beautiful ballad “I Believe in Santa Claus” and the iconic Miser Brothers, there’s nothing shy of wonderful in this holiday special.