science

The Year Without a Santa Claus

The Year Without a Santa Claus is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Year Without a Santa Claus rather than just read about it. In short: The Year Without a Santa Claus is a 1974 stop-motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book.

Key takeaways

The Year Without a Santa Claus belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Year Without a Santa Claus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Year Without a Santa Claus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Year Without a Santa Claus is a 1974 stop-motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book. It is narrated by Shirley Booth (her final acting credit before her retirement from acting) and stars the voices of Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn and George S. Irving. It was originally broadcast on December 10, 1974, on ABC.

Plot Santa Claus awakens with a cold in early December. When a Christmas elf doctor sarcastically says that nobody cares about Christmas like they used to, Santa decides to forego his annual Christmas Eve journey. Hoping to change Santa's mind, Mrs. Claus instructs two elves named Jingle and Jangle to seek evidence of Christmas spirit. Jingle and Jangle leave with Santa's youngest reindeer Vixen and land in Southtown, a small town in the Southern United States. Unfortunately, their efforts to find Christmas spirit are fruitless, and Vixen is detained by a dog catcher and taken to the local pound. After learning that Vixen is missing, Santa travels to Southtown, disguised as a civilian named "Klaus". There, he meets a boy named Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite and his family. After Santa leaves to rescue Vixen, Iggy realizes Santa's true identity and resolves to help. Iggy meets up with Jingle and Jangle, who are on their way to request help from the jovial mayor of Southtown. The mayor laughs off Jingle, Jangle, and Iggy's stories, but he jokingly agrees to release Vixen if the elves can make it snow in Southtown. Unbeknownst to them, Santa has already visited the pound, freed Vixen, and returned to the North Pole. The elves request help from Mrs. Claus, who collects the trio and brings them to the realm of Snow Miser, the keeper of cold weather, to dispatch snow to Southtown. Snow Miser informs them that Southtown is situated within the domain of his step-brother, Heat Miser, who would never allow it. They approach Heat Miser, and he offers to cooperate if Snow Miser allows him similar control over the North Pole. When neither brother proves willing to give in to the other's wishes, Mrs. Claus brings the dispute to their mother, Mother Nature, against the brothers' protests. Mother Nature summons Snow Miser and Heat Miser to her, and forcefully persuades her sons to reach a compromise where Heat Miser will let it snow in South Town and Snow Miser will allow one warm day at the North Pole. The mayor of Southtown, stunned by the snow and realizing the elves were telling the truth, puts out a call to give Santa Claus an official day off for the upcoming Christmas. The news crosses the world, and as Christmas approaches, the children of the world send presents to Santa, generating international headlines. Touched by the outpouring of generosity, Santa decides to embark on his yuletide journey after all. Mrs. Claus remarks that "yearly, newly, faithfully and truly, somehow Santa Claus always comes".

Voice cast

Songs "Sleigh Ride" (instrumental) "The Year Without a Santa Claus" "I Could Be Santa Claus" "I Believe in Santa Claus" "It's Gonna Snow Right Here in Dixie" "The Snow Miser Song" "The Heat Miser Song" "Blue Christmas" "Here Comes Santa Claus" "The Year Without a Santa Claus (reprise)"

Release

The special premiered in 1974 on ABC and aired annually on Freeform during its 25 Days of Christmas programming block until 2017. As of 2018, American Movie Classics airs the uncut special as part of the Best Christmas Ever block. The special also airs on Warner Bros.-owned TNT and TBS as part of the All I Watch for Christmas block, the only Rankin/Bass special that TNT and TBS air. Warner Bros. Entertainment currently distributes the special through their ownership of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass Productions library.

Home media The special was released on VHS by Vestron Video on September 5, 1991, as part of their Christmas Classics Series, which is distributed by Family Home Entertainment. Warner Home Video released the special on VHS on September 2, 1992, and re-released it on VHS on September 28, 1999. The special was released on DVD on October 31, 2000, and re-released on the Deluxe Edition DVD on October 2, 2007. Warner Home Video released the special on Blu-ray on October 5, 2010, making it the first Rankin/Bass production to be released on that format.

Remake and sequel A live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on NBC on December 11, 2006, and was released on DVD the following day. It follows largely the same plot as the original special. A sequel titled A Miser Brothers' Christmas was released in 2008, produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Cuppa Coffee Studios, and it also uses stop-motion animation. Mickey Rooney reprised his role as Santa Claus, and George S. Irving reprised his role as Heat Miser. Dick Shawn and Shirley Booth, both of whom died prior to the film's production, were replaced by Juan Chioran and Catherine Disher as Snow Miser and Mrs. Claus, respectively.

See also List of animated feature films List of Christmas films List of Rankin/Bass Productions films List of stop-motion films Santa Claus in film

Notes

References

External links The Year Without a Santa Claus at IMDb Review by critic Jayson Harsin at Blogcritics Magazine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Year Without a Santa Claus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Year Without a Santa Claus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Year Without a Santa Claus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Year Without a Santa Claus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Year Without a Santa Claus

In research: The Year Without a Santa Claus appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Year Without a Santa Claus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Year Without a Santa Claus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1970s American television specials, 1970s animated television specials, 1974 American animated films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Year Without a Santa Claus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Year Without a Santa Claus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Year Without a Santa Claus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Year Without a Santa Claus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Year Without a Santa Claus in simple terms?

The Year Without a Santa Claus is a 1974 stop-motion animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. The story is based on Phyllis McGinley's 1956 book.

Why does The Year Without a Santa Claus matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Year Without a Santa Claus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Year Without a Santa Claus.