Here’s where you can stream all of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials
Here’s where you can stream all of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials
The names behind the scenes may not sound familiar, but these Christmas classics certainly should!
While you might not know the individual names Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, chances are pretty good that you know some, if not all, of the iconic stop-motion holiday specials that the duo created as Rankin/Bass. The duo, who teamed up in the early 1960s to create their “Animagic” style, are responsible for Christmas classics like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “The Year Without a Santa Claus,” and “The Little Drummer Boy,” but are responsible for over a dozen different holiday specials across a decade and a half.
Many of these hits from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s will sound familiar and might even be staples in your annual family Christmas traditions. Others, however, like 1981’s “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold” or 1978’s “The Stingiest Man in Town” might not be very high up on your watch list, if you’ve ever heard of them at all.
Most of the well-known Rankin/Bass classics are available across various streaming platforms, however, some of the team’s specials have not yet found their way to streaming, so you might be out of luck while searching for some of the deep cuts. And, while some of the bigger name titles like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” are available on subscription streaming services, many of the others are only available to buy or rent.
So, check out our list of how to stream all of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials this holiday season, and snuggle up for a healthy dose of holiday nostalgia.
How to watch Rankin/Bass Christmas specials:
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Frosty the Snowman
December 7, 1969A discarded silk top-hat becomes the focus of a struggle between a washed-up stage magician and a group of schoolchildren, after it magically brings a snowman to life. Realizing that newly-living Frosty will melt in spring unless he takes refuge in a colder climate, Frosty and Karen, a young girl who he befriends, stow away on a freight train headed for the north pole. Little do they know that the magician is following them, and he wants his hat back!
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Frosty's Winter Wonderland
December 2, 1976Years have passed since Frosty left for the North Pole, but his promise is kept when he hears news of the first snowfall of the season, and decides to return.
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Jack Frost
December 13, 1979Pardon-me Pete, the official groundhog of Groundhog Day, tells the story of Jack Frost, who falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begs Father Winter to make him human so that she can see him. His request is granted, but only on the condition that by the Spring he has a house, a bag of gold, a horse and a wife. But Jack finds that life as a human is more complicated than he thought.
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Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
December 3, 1977Nestor the donkey is a bit of an oddity—his long ears are enough for six donkeys and stretch all the way to the ground. One night, when Nestor is locked out in the cold, he begins to wander the desert.
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Pinocchio's Christmas
December 3, 1980As Geppetto prepares for Christmas, Pinocchio joins a puppet show to earn money for a present. There he meets and elopes with the beautiful girl puppet, Julietta, leaving Geppetto alone and worried.
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Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
July 1, 1979Winterbolt is trying to make the North Pole his evil wonderland, and it is up to Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and others to stop him.
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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
December 6, 1964Sam the snowman tells us the story of a young red-nosed reindeer who, after being ousted from the reindeer games because of his glowing nose, teams up with Hermey, an elf who wants to be a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius, the prospector. They run into the Abominable Snowman and find a whole island of misfit toys. Rudolph vows to see if he can get Santa to help the toys, and he goes back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. But Santa’s sleigh is fogged in. But when Santa looks over Rudolph, he gets a very bright idea…
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Rudolph's Shiny New Year
December 10, 1976Rudolph must find Happy, the baby new year, before the midnight of New Year’s Eve.
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Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
December 14, 1970A postman, S.D. Kluger, decides to answer some of the most common questions about Santa Claus, and tells us about a baby named Kris who is raised by a family of elf toymakers named Kringle. When Kris grows up, he wants to deliver toys to the children of Sombertown. But its Mayor is too mean to let that happen. And to make things worse, the Winter Warlock lives between the Kringles and Sombertown.
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The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow
December 19, 1975A young shepherd, Lucas, is blinded by lightening, and some kindly nuns at a nearby abbey take him in. Sister Catherine describes snow to Lucas, who has never seen it. Lucas gets chosen to play an angel in the abbey’s Christmas pageant, and the Christmas snow that falls during the pageant works a small miracle.
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The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold
December 23, 1981Sent in search of a Christmas tree, cabin boy Dinty Doyle lands on a mysterious, uncharted Irish island where he accidentally releases a bad-tempered banshee from her pine tree prison. Leprechaun Blarney Kilakilarney knows that in order to survive, the banshee will try to swipe his clan’s pot of Christmas gold. With some magical assistance from Lord Patrick, the king of the wee folk, Dinty and Blarney make a plan to outwit the gold-hungry hag before Christmas morning dawns.
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The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus
December 17, 1985The Great Ak calls a council of the Immortals to ask that Santa Claus be given immortality. And to justify it, he tells the history of Santa Claus. The Ak found an abandoned baby and gave it to a lioness and a fairy to raise, who named him Claus. When Claus grew up, the Great Ak showed him the evil and hardship in the world and Claus decides to live there and relieve some of the suffering. He decides to make toys for orphans, but King Awgwa, the ruler of the valley where Claus lives doesn’t want the children to be happy, and there is a great battle among Immortals.
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The Little Drummer Boy
December 19, 1968After being kidnapped and escaping, young drummer boy Aaron searches for his camel and finds him in the Nativity of the Baby Jesus. Aaron gives Baby Jesus the only gift he has, a song on his drum.
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The Little Drummer Boy Book II
December 13, 1976Aaron, the drummer boy, struggles to protect a bellmaker’s great silver bells from seizure by Roman soldiers
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The Stingiest Man in Town
December 23, 1978This cartoon version of A Christmas Carol hails from the production house of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass—the team that brought you just about every other Christmas special you saw as a kid (including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Reinvented as a 49-minute musical ghost story, it stars the voice of Walter Matthau as the bedeviled Scrooge and Tom Bosley as the Jiminy Cricket-type narrator, B. Humbug, Esq.
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The Year Without a Santa Claus
December 10, 1974Feeling forgotten by the children of the world, old St. Nick decides to skip his gift-giving journey and take a vacation. Mrs. Claus and two spunky little elves, Jingle and Jangle, set out to see to where all the season’s cheer has disappeared. Aided by a magical snowfall, they reawaken the spirit of Christmas in children’s hearts and put Santa back in action.
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'Twas the Night Before Christmas
December 8, 1974When 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.
