There are many Christmas animations for children during the holidays. We know the originals (Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, Rudolphs Shiny New Years etc..) Two of my favorite that don't get shown as much are "A Year Without A Santa Claus" and this gem "Twas the Night Before Christmas." It tells the tale of two families just before Christmas. One is a human family with a father who is a clock maker. The other is a family of mice with an intelligent male mouse named Albert who doesn't believe in Santa Claus. After Albert writes a letter to Santa Claus, telling him that he and the townsfolk no longer believe in him, Saint Nick decides to blacklist the town and remove them from his itinerary.

When the clock maker finds this out from Father Mouse he decides to make a special clock that at midnight will chime and sing a wonderful song to apologize to Santa and bring him back to the town.

The animation isn't anything special, but the story and voice acting is terrific. It really grabs your attention and keep you watching. The songs and music are also great and little kids will love it. It's still one of my favorite Christmas specials. For some reason it doesn't come on every year anymore. If it does, it's only shown once and I must miss it. I just ordered the DVD off of Ebay. It comes with the sequel to Frosty the Snowman. I'll let me 2 year old watch it this Christmas. A must see for the whole family. Watch for it this holiday on T.V.

The program is set in the fictional town of Junctionville, New York around the turn of the 20th century. Santa Claus is offended by an anonymous letter printed in the town's newspaper (and signed "all of us") claiming that he doesn't exist. In response, Santa returns the entire town's letters to them unopened. Upon reading the anonymous letter printed in the newspaper, Father Mouse — a mouse assistant to the human clock maker Joshua Trundle — immediately suspects that his brainy son Albert is its author. Albert confirms his suspicions, repeating the letter verbatim to him.

Father Mouse and the Trundle Family devise a plan to appease Santa by building a singing clock tower for him, built with a special recording to play a song to coax him not to bypass Junctionville on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, Albert enters the clock to explore it without permission, and inadvertently causes it to malfunction in front of the whole town, seriously damaging Trundle's professional reputation. Furthermore, the Mayor, publicly embarrassed at the clock tower's failure, refuses to give the Joshua access to it for repairs.

Confessing his mistake, Albert volunteers to repair it himself and Father Mouse tells Joshua of the situation before waiting at his bed with worry on Christmas Eve. Although Albert does not complete his task until about one minute after the midnight deadline, the clock does play its song within earshot of Santa which convinces him to turn around and come to town after all.

I just watched this again for the first time in 30 years. Funny thing is I remember most of this cartoon. Its not one of my favorites but its still enjoyable. I will watch it again. The best audience for this film is most likely small children but if you are a good parent you will watch this with them.

I have always loved animation and Christmas specials. Rankin/Bass had already done some of my absolute favourites like Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman and Santa Claus is Comin' To Town, and I remembered Twas the Night Before Christmas from childhood. So I thought to myself, why not revisit it?

I am so glad I did. It really is a treasure. I personally would loved for it to be a tad longer, however the story still charms and the message still resonates. The animation perhaps is not the best I've seen from Rankin/Bass but it does have a certain warmth to it.

I just love the music. All the Rankin/Bass specials have great music, and Twas the Night Before Christmas is no exception. The incidental music sparkles and of the songs Even a Miracle needs a hand makes me sing along and I have to say I forgot how emotional Give your heart a try was.

Twas the Night Before Christmas has very good writing also, with the reciting of the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas bringing me back to my mum reading it at Christmas Eve to help us sleep and several parts coming across as touching. You really relate to the characters as well, even Albert, who wouldn't love talking mice though? The voice acting is very dynamic, with Joel Grey especially impressive. In conclusion, a Christmas treasure that brought all those memories back. 9/10 Bethany Cox