Santa Claus Is Coming to Town was on television tonight and Dale and I caught a good chunk of it. Sam, Pete and I watched this almost yearly while growing up. I loved the song as a kid and particularly liked Fred Astaire's version of it. The following is from Wikipedia:
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion television special, made by Rankin-Bass with models carved from wood (as with most Rankin-Bass specials). The film stars actor Fred Astaire as S.D. Kluger, the narrator, and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus (a role which he would frequently play later on). The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus-related Christmas traditions came to be. It is based on the hit Christmas song of the same name, which was introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934."
I didn't see this special too often during my high school and college years but rediscovered it again in my mid-20's when it was released on home video; something that didn't exist when I was a kid. I catch it now every few years and it does bring back some wonderful childhood Christmas memories.
