‘Twas the Night Before Christmas is a Rankin-Bass animated TV special from 1974. I loved this movie as a kid, although it seemed much longer to me than it actually is. When ABC Family started re-airing it and I saw it for the first time as an adult I was taken aback that it’s only 30 minutes with commercials. It seemed like a full length movie to me as a kid.

The movie is based on the famous poem and centers around 2 families one human and one mouse. Thanks to one of the mouse children Santa is not planning on visiting their town that year. The human father is a clockmaker who is hired to create a special singing clock that will lure Santa there as he flies by the town, but of course the little mouse manages to screw that up too. Don’t worry everything turns out ok in the end. If it it didn’t it would be a pretty bad Christmas movie.

I loved the music in the movie as a kid, and still do today. Though I’m not sure if those feelings are entirely based on nostalgia for the songs. Here’s the song that entices Santa to visit the town and not bypass them after all.