'Twas the Night Before Christmas

7.3
1974 0 hr 25 min Animation , Family

When a town learns that Santa Claus has struck it off his delivery schedule due to an insulting letter, a way must be found to change his mind.

  • Cast:
    Joel Grey , George Gobel , Tammy Grimes , John McGiver , Allen Swift

Similar titles

A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story
The comic mishaps and adventures of a young boy named Ralph, trying to convince his parents, teachers, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect Christmas gift for the 1940s.
A Christmas Story 1983
Home Alone
Home Alone
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister makes the most of the situation after his family unwittingly leaves him behind when they go on Christmas vacation. But when a pair of bungling burglars set their sights on Kevin's house, the plucky kid stands ready to defend his territory. By planting booby traps galore, adorably mischievous Kevin stands his ground as his frantic mother attempts to race home before Christmas Day.
Home Alone 1990
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Instead of flying to Florida with his folks, Kevin ends up alone in New York, where he gets a hotel room with his dad's credit card—despite problems from a clerk and meddling bellboy. But when Kevin runs into his old nemeses, the Wet Bandits, he's determined to foil their plans to rob a toy store on Christmas Eve.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 1992
Dashing Through the Snow
Dashing Through the Snow
Stranded at an airport at Christmastime, Ashley Harrison accepts a ride from Dash Sutherland, who has just rented the last car in town. As the pair heads north, their adventures include car trouble, adopting a puppy and being secretly tailed by federal agents, who believe Ashley is up to no good. With a hint of romance gradually filling the air will these two fall in love or will their journey bring about an unexpected road bump to romance?
Dashing Through the Snow 2015
The Christmas Note
The Christmas Note
Having just moved back to her hometown without her serviceman husband but with her young son, Gretchen Daniels finds her life in disarray as Christmas approaches. But she discovers new purpose when she helps to deliver a message to her neighbor, Melissa, which makes her an ally in the quest to find the neighbor's sibling she never knew she had. The women become bonded not only by the search, but by the understanding that being there for each other means they're no longer alone. This friendship becomes the greatest Christmas gift of their lives. Based on a bestselling novel by Donna VanLiere.
The Christmas Note 2015
Magic Stocking
Magic Stocking
A young widow finds a tattered old Christmas stocking at a Holiday craft sale, but is skeptical of its magic when it seems to create small trinkets on its own.
Magic Stocking 2015
A Christmas Reunion
A Christmas Reunion
A Madison Avenue executive, Amy, discovers an unusual Christmas surprise when she inherits her Aunt’s hometown bakery. The real surprise comes when she learns the other half of the bakery was left to her long-ago boyfriend, Jack. Unresolved personal issues resurface between them, as the exes return home to co-manage the store, along with its traditional holiday cookie bake-off.
A Christmas Reunion 2015
A Baby for Christmas
A Baby for Christmas
It's Christmas with the Chandlers but no one seems to have the Christmas spirit - except for Stephanie, that is. Marci and Blair are obsessing over being the perfect parents, Myra and Donald have retired and suddenly feel useless and Elizabeth is bending over backwards to get a promotion at work. Add to that Stephanie's blooming romance with Lawrence - who is torn between being with her and continuing his mission work - and Christmas seems to be taking a back seat. That is, until a group of kids at an orphanage helps the family to realize that there's more to Christmas than wrapping gifts and baking cookies.
A Baby for Christmas 2015
The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Muppet Christmas Carol
A retelling of the classic Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, miser extraordinaire. He is held accountable for his dastardly ways during night-time visitations by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
The Muppet Christmas Carol 1992
Miracle on 34th Street
Miracle on 34th Street
Six-year-old Susan Walker has doubts about childhood's most enduring miracle—Santa Claus. Her mother told her the secret about Santa a long time ago, but, after meeting a special department store Santa who's convinced he's the real thing, Susan is given the most precious gift of all—something to believe in.
Miracle on 34th Street 1994

Reviews

Solemplex
1974/12/08

To me, this movie is perfection.

... more
Evengyny
1974/12/09

Thanks for the memories!

... more
Afouotos
1974/12/10

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

... more
InformationRap
1974/12/11

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

... more
tmramgrl2000
1974/12/12

I think it's such a nice story with wonderful music. The story of Cornelius and his change of heart. I love the relationship between father mouse and the clock maker. I think overall it's a great Christmas story! If you follow the story of Cornelius I think you'll really see some growth. It's a beautiful story!

... more
butterflyces
1974/12/13

I would recommend this to anyone, especially to people wanting to teach their small children about having faith. Awesome movie - I grew up watching it with my family. I can sing along and I definitely tear up at a few of the parts. I also wanted to comment about how sad I was when they took out the song "Give your heart a try" (I think that's the one they cut) so I bought it on DVD (the DVD is called Frosty's Winter Wonderland but Twas the Night Before Christmas is on it). I was so thrilled to find it!!! Now that's what I show to my kids.My son really enjoyed it too! (My daughter is 1 - she liked dancing around the room with me to the songs). Definitely an underrated, superb movie about faith, love, and the miracles of Christmas!

... more
memckinz
1974/12/14

This may quite possibly be the best Christmas special out there. It is just like Braveheart, except minus the warriors and plus Christmas, Mice and a Clock Maker. My sister and I are in our mid-twenties and we watch this movie multiple times a year. Who doesn't love singing mice? It is a heartfelt tale that will encourage children of all ages to believe in Santa. Claymation is great, but few things are as Christmas-y as animated mice and humans co-habituating. You will laugh, you will cry, you will eat all three flavors out of the holiday popcorn tub that your mom bought you. Stay up late to catch it, or hunt online to buy it, it is a must have for every Holiday movie collection.

... more
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
1974/12/15

UPDATE: Gentle readers, do not be fooled by the fact that this IMDb review has received so many negative (un-"useful" votes). ALL of those votes were cast by the same person, a very sad individual with too much free time on his hands ... who sends me emails at regular intervals, demanding that I change this review to make it more favourable. Now, here's my review:Oh, what a piece of crap is this. Why do American television companies see Christmas as an opportunity to produce so many crap-awful specials? In Britain, Christmas is just an opportunity for the TV stations to show a James Bond movie.I ought to have been warned off watching "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" when I saw that it was produced by Rankin/Bass, a production company that has churned out far too much unwatchable rubbish. But I'm a great fan of Tammy Grimes and Joel Grey, and John McGiver is very high on my list of all-time favourite character actors, so I sought out this animated film when I saw that they were listed in the cast.This story is awful. It's intended for kids, but kids deserve something better than this. The animation is terrible: far below Rankin/Bass's usual wretched standard. Joel Grey and Tammy Grimes are wasted in badly-written roles. Tammy Grimes was a very sexy actress with a very distinctive voice (and a cod accent), so it's disturbing to hear her voice issuing from the badly-animated mouth of a badly-drawn MALE character.Worst of all is the character written for poor John McGiver. He plays a blowhard mayor, and the scriptwriter has given McGiver a terrible gimmick which is difficult to perform and not funny at all. Every single time McGiver speaks, his character launches into a bombastic speech with lots of long complicated esoteric sesquipedalian words, but invariably he gives up the struggle halfway through the sentence, says 'Aw, heck!' and then uses plain speaking to say what he'd meant to say in the first place. I always considered McGiver a brilliant actor, but he can't transcend this terrible running gag which isn't funny.I give somebody some credit for casting George Gobel in the lead role of a mouse. Gobel was a very self-effacing actor who deserved to be better known, and who was (elsewhere, not here) extremely funny in a soft-spoken and low-key way. His established persona fits perfectly with the mouse character he plays here. Too bad it's so terribly written.This cartoon is ostensibly based on the famous poem "A Visit from St Nicholas", known incorrectly as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and traditionally credited to Clement Moore ... but the link is very tenuous indeed. (The poem mentions a mouse, and this cartoon is full of talking mice.) On top of everything else, we now have solid evidence that Clement Moore stole the credit for this poem, which was originally published anonymously. In the year 2001, a letter surfaced which Moore wrote to the editors of the newspaper that originally published this poem, asking whether any of the editors knew the name of the poem's author. When they replied that they did not, Moore waited until the death of the poem's true author, and then he took credit. None of Clement Moore's own poems show even a glimmer of the talent present in "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" ... by which I mean the poem, not this terrible animated cartoon. There is substantial forensic evidence that the true author of this beloved poem was Major Henry Livingston, Jnr, scion of a patriotic family that helped finance the American Revolution.Parents, let your kids do anything at all on Christmas rather than letting them watch this horrible cartoon. It will turn their brains into figgy pudding. I'll rate "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" zero points out of 10. Bah, humbug!

... more