Jingle Bells: [answers the phone] Hello? Jingle Bells, number 1 elf speaking. May I ask who is calling please? Oh, hi, Mrs. Claus. Yes, Mrs. Claus. Okay, Mrs. Claus. Sure thing, Mrs. Claus. Right away, Mrs. Claus.
[hangs up]
Jangle Bells: Who was that?
Jingle Bells: That was… Ooh.
The Year Without a Santa Claus is my favorite silly Christmas special. This was pretty standard issue Rankin Bass stuff, jerky stop motion animation, sappy songs, and voices provided by has been actors. Mickey Rooney and Shirley Booth played Mr and Mrs Claus, but my favorite characters where Dick Shaw’s Cold Miser and George S Irving’s Heat Miser.
It helps that this bit of silliness came out in 1974 when I was 12 years old and many of the silly jokes were perfect for me and little brother. I think Rankin Bass did a great job of adding these bizzaro world characters like Heat Miser and Cold Miser to a Christmas story. Who needs just Santa and Elfs when you can have the offspring of Mother Nature duking it out?
I found a tin of Heat Miser Altoids a couple of years ago and searched in vain for a matching box of Cold Miser Altoids. Seems they didn’t make any-though the Abominable Snow Man did get his own box of Altoids. I think Snow Miser was robbed!
There was a live version of The Year Without A Santa Claus starring John Goodman that was a bit of fun. It had a number of inside jokes to other Christmas specials, as when Santa tells a store clerk who wants a bb gun that he’ll shoot his eye out. But it wasn’t the same as the Rankin Bass version.
There is a new Miser Brothers Christmas, but I haven’t seen it yet. I think ABC should have aired it on ABC and not ABC Family, but that’s just me. From what I have seen, I think I’ll stick with the 1974 version of Heat Miser and Cold Miser.
