I love Christmas.  If it were possible I would marry Christmas and have little half Jon, half Christmas babies and celebrate the season all year round.  I wouldn’t be excited about changing little Christmas diapers but what a dream come true that would be.  No offense to my wife and children but c’mon.  Who wouldn’t want to marry a wonderful holiday (sorry Guy Fox day, you don’t count).

Way, way back in the long time ago I watched “Pee-wee’s Christmas Special” when it aired as a prime time special.  I still try to watch this special every year.  It has everything: Grace Jones, the Del Rubio Triplets, Fruitcake.  What more can one man want?  Part way through the special the King of Cartoons shows up and shares a (very) truncated version of a cartoon called “Christmas Comes but Once a Year”.  I spent years trying to track down the full version of this cartoon.  But being 10 years old and without the invention of the internet it was nearly impossible.  Years later I finally tracked it down and learned that it was a 1936 cartoon that came out of Fleischer Studios.

The story takes place on Christmas morning in an orphanage.  All the little kids wake up and sing a song about Santa Claus only to find that all of their gifts are complete garbage and break after a few minutes of play.  As they all lay on the floor crying (which makes my daughter very, very sad) the hero arrives in the form of Professor Grampy, inventor.  He completely tears the orphanage apart in order to create new toys for the children.  It is a phenomenally cool cartoon and one of my favorites for the holidays.  You may notice a very cool animation technique that came out of Fleischer Studios that used 3D models mixed with cel animation.