One of the lesser known and lesser shown Rankin-Bass specials. I never saw it until I was a teenager. Here we meet Santa's donkey, Spieltoe (I thought it was "Steeltoe", but the internet corrects me), who is voiced by the same voice actor as Allan-a-Dale the rooster in Disney's Robin Hood. He shows around the North Pole stables, which has a nativity set in the corner. He points out that the donkey is wrong. You see, that donkey was his ancestor, Nestor! (hee, that rhymes) Spieltoe then launches into a song: "Everyone knows about Rudolph, but there's someone else you should know..." See, this special is kind of the religious equivalent of Rudolph. Nester is picked on incessantly because of his abnormally long ears.
When we fade into the story proper, the animals are celebrating the winter solstice when a soldier of the Roman Empire comes in to buy donkeys, and for some reason he is so outraged that the owner would even think of selling him a long-eared donkey that he refuses to pay for the other donkeys. So the owner throws Nestor out of the barn and into a snowstorm, because all humans are jerks. Nestor's mother follows him, and warms him with her body, but she freezes to death. Harsh. Bambi levels of harsh.
Nestor soon meets a cherub. Not an angel, a cherub. She explains "Angels inspire humans. Cherubs inspire animals." She tells him that his ears are a special gift and he has a destiny. Then she leads him to Bethlehem. Well, part of the way. There's a montage of their travels and animals along the way laughing at Nestor's ears, over a song about how cruel it is to laugh at people and make them cry. Kind of preachy.
The cherub departs, leaving Nestor to fend for himself. He tries to find work, but apparently it's hard to do the usual work of a donkey when your ears drag to the ground. But he at least finds a barn to stay in, with a new owner. And who should show up but Mary and Joseph. They choose Nestor to take Mary to Bethlehem, because he looks gentle.
They ride through a blinding storm. Nestor's large and ultra sensitive ears allow him to follow the voices of the angels to Bethlehem, and it's his idea to take shelter in a stable, because that feels like home to a donkey who misses his mother.
And, after the birth, we go straight to "when Nestor returned, he really was a hero!" It shows him reuniting with the owner who kicked him out at the beginning. Why would he go back there? For that matter, how do they know what he did? Oh well, don't overthink it.
Closing song tells us to be thankful for Nestor. We see some more shots of the North Pole, and I'm pretty sure Rankin and Bass are reusing footage. That's okay, Disney does it too. I like this special for uniting the Santa and Jesus aspects of Christmas-- often, people get caught up in thinking it's either/or, that if you have Santa then you don't have Jesus, but you can actually have both. There's room in the human spirit for Christmas to mean multiple things, and Santa was originally supposed to epitomize Christian values of generosity and unconditional love.
"Though, Rudolph, I just love you, I know you'd want it said. Nestor's ears are lovely as a reindeer's nose is red."
Visuals: 4 out of 5
Spirit: 5 out of 5
Nostalgia: 1 out of 5
Humor: 1 out of 5
Music: 2 out of 5
Overall: 3 out of 5
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