Another one of my favorites!
Santa is tired, guys. Working one all-night shift a year is tough. Although I suppose the preparation is intense. Santa's doctor displays terrible bedside manner and tells Santa to stay home because nobody cares about Christmas anymore anyway. Cue title song. The children, they cried. They thought Santa had died! I would cry over that too.
Mrs. Claus, disturbed by her husband's lackadaisical behavior, decides to take on the role of Santa herself. She admits she's fantasized about it a lot. Then the two main elves, Jingle and Jangle, talk her out of that plan pretty quickly. Mrs. Claus's plan B is to send them (along with vixen the reindeer) to find someone to perk up Santa's morale.
There's a cute little married moment between the Clauses where he lets on that he knows she's up to something, because she looks like she's not up to anything. He is not pleased to learn that Jingle and Jangle have gone into the world unsupervised. Santa seems to find them rather incompetent. And Vixen is just a baby!
Mrs. Clause forgot all about the Miser brothers-- the real stars of this special.
The elves and reindeer reach Southtown, USA, and run afoul of a traffic cop. They assume reindeer are unwelcome in the south. Their solution? Disguise her as a dog by putting socks on her antlers. The absurdity is my favorite thing about this special.
The elves meet some kids, who tell them that Santa is taking a year off, and THEN that they don't believe in Santa. That makes no sense. One has to exist in order to take a year off.
Santa has arrived in Southtown to search for his wayward employees, and is taken in by the Thistlewhite family, who epitomize Southern hospitality. But their son, Ignacius, does not believe in Santa Claus. Santa and Mr. Thistlewhite sing a very lovely song about believing in Santa Claus. I LOVE the music in this special. Straight-up love, no irony. Ignacius is moved by the song. He tells "Mr. Claus" the bad news: Vixen was taken away by the dogcatcher.
Poor Vixen is in the pound. The pound employees apparently didn't notice that the alleged stray dog had antlers and hooves. Santa flies away, which makes the Thistlewhite family realize who their guest actually was. Ignacius has the revelation, "I bet that dog was a baby reindeer!" His dad wisely points out that the dog pound won't know how to take care of a reindeer. He advises his son to go to the mayor. Jingle and Jangle have received the same advice, and the mayor has a good laugh at the three of them. He then decides that he will help them only if they can make it snow.
Santa, unsurprisingly the most sensible of the bunch, simply goes to the pound and pays the fine to get Vixen out of hock. Then he takes her home, because the heat is making her sick. It always moved me that Santa was so genuinely concerned about a baby reindeer.
Jingle, Jangle, Ignacius and Mrs. Claus go to see Snow Miser. Yay! Showstopping "I Am" song from Snow Miser, who describes Santa as "the best advertisement snow business ever had."
He also refers to Heat Miser as his stepbrother. Weird. They have to take their case to Heast Miser, which means YAY-- another even more showstopping number.
Heat Miser doesn't see why he should do the Clauses a favor. He also refers to his brother as a "tooty fruity snow cone." Hee. The brothers can't agree, so Mrs. Claus goes over their head to their mother: Mother Nature. Whom both Misers refer to as "Mother" so I don't know why Snow Miser said "stepbrother" before. Mother Nature whips her boys into shape. So it snows in Southtown. The mayor now believes in Santa Claus. But all is not repaired just yet: Santa's still tired.
But in comes the outpouring of love! The children sing "Blue Christmas" to Santa, which is kind of weird because I associate it with Elvis. But it also kind of brings a lump to my throat. Shut up. That song always gets to me, even when Elvis sings it. Santa is spurred into action! They sing "Here Comes Santa Claus" (by "they" I mean an unseen chorus). I'd forgotten that. Mrs. Claus assures us that there will never, ever be a year without a Santa Claus. Happy reprise of the title song. All's right with the world.
Visuals: 4 out of 5
Spirit: 4 out of 5
Nostalgia: 3 out of 5
Humor: 4 out of 5
Music: 5 out of 5
Overall: 4 out of 5
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