Christmas is an occasion for the whole family to gather together. This is also a big holiday in the West and quickly spread to Eastern countries. On this day, the family will have a small party together, have fun and watch special movies together.
Christmas movies are considered an indispensable "spiritual food" during the holidays, especially for children. To increase the happy and cozy atmosphere of the family when gathering during the holidays, parents can watch meaningful movies with their children about this special occasion.
And in the article below, I have compiled the 7 best Christmas animated movies of all time in the 1960s, most suitable for children to watch with the whole family on Christmas Eve.
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
IMDb RATING: 8,3/10
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, and features the voices of Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Tracy Stratford, and Bill Melendez. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Melendez, the program made its debut on CBS on December 9, 1965. In the special, Charlie Brown (Robbins) finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. After Lucy van Pelt (Stratford) suggests he direct a neighborhood Christmas play, his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers when he chooses a puny Christmas tree as a centerpiece.
After the comic strip's debut in 1950, Peanuts had become a worldwide phenomenon by the mid-1960s. The special was commissioned and sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company, and was written over a period of several weeks, and produced on a small budget in six months. In casting the characters, the producers took an unconventional route, hiring child actors. The program's soundtrack was similarly unorthodox, featuring a jazz score by pianist Vince Guaraldi. A Charlie Brown Christmas received high ratings and acclaim from critics. It received an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and became an annual presentation in the United States, airing on broadcast television during the Christmas season for 56 years before becoming exclusively available on Apple TV+ streaming service. Its success paved the way for a series of Peanuts television specials and films.
2. Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer (1964)
IMDb RATING: 8,0/10
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a 1964 stop motion Christmas animated television special produced by Videocraft International, Ltd. and currently distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution. It first aired December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The special was based on the 1949 Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the special has aired on CBS; the network unveiled a high-definition, digitally remastered version of the program in 2005, re-scanned frame-by-frame from the original 35 mm film elements.
As with A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer no longer airs just once annually but several times during the Christmas and holiday season. It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in the United States. The 50th anniversary of the television special was marked in 2014, and a series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014. A special exhibit was also mounted at the Masterworks Museum in Bermuda where the original puppets are held. In 2019, Freeform started airing the special as part of its 25 Days of Christmas/Rankin-Bass Christmas holiday programming block.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was initially met with a positive reception among critics, who praised the voice acting, soundtrack, animation style, characters, and sets. Although the special continues to receive this praise, critics have become more skeptical of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's core themes and overall message, particularly those on bullying, outcasts, and leadership. Despite these analyses, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is often regarded as one of the best Christmas films ever made, being featured on numerous "top ten" lists. It has become widely popular among both young children and adults familiar with the Christmas season, and has garnered a large cult following since its initial debut.
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
IMDb RATING: 8,3/10
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a 1966 American animated television special, directed and co-produced by Chuck Jones. It is based on the 1957 children's book of the same name by Dr. Seuss, and tells the story of the Grinch, who tries to ruin Christmas for the townsfolk of Whoville below his mountain hideaway.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was produced by The Cat in the Hat Productions in association with the television and animation divisions of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, where Jones was under contract at the time. The special required 11 to 14 months of production time to complete. Originally telecast in the United States on CBS on Sunday, December 18, 1966, it has gone on to become a perennial holiday special. The special features the voice of Boris Karloff as the Grinch and the narrator.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas was first released as part of the Dr. Seuss Video Festival on VHS, CED, Laserdisc, and Betamax in 1982. It was reissued several times throughout the '80s and '90s. The special was released to the VHS and DVD formats in 1999 and 2000 by Warner Home Video.
4. Frosty the Snowman (1969)
IMDb RATING: 7,3/10
Frosty the Snowman is a 1969 American animated Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. It is the first television special featuring the character Frosty the Snowman. The special first aired on December 7, 1969, on the CBS television network in the United States, airing immediately after the fifth showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas; both scored high ratings. The special has aired annually for the network's Christmas and holiday season every year since.
The special's story follows a group of school children, led by a girl named Karen, who build a snowman called Frosty and place a magician's hat on his head, which makes him come to life. Unfortunately, however, after noticing the high temperature and fearing that he would melt, Frosty, along with Karen and a rabbit named Hocus Pocus, must go to the North Pole to be safe from melting.
5. 101 Dalmatians (1961)
IMDb RATING: 7,3/10
One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a 1961 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions with distribution by Buena Vista Distribution. Based on Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wolfgang Reitherman with a script written by Bill Peet. With the voices of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer, David Frankham, and Frederick Worlock, the film's plot follows a litter of fifteen Dalmatian puppies, who are kidnapped by the obsessive heiress Cruella de Vil, wanting to make their fur into coats. Their parents, Pongo and Perdita, set out to save their puppies from Cruella, in the process rescuing eighty-four additional ones, bringing the total of Dalmatians to one hundred and one.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released to theaters on January 25, 1961, to critical acclaim, and was a box office success, pulling the animation studio out of the financial slump caused by Sleeping Beauty, a costlier production released two years prior. Grossing $14 million domestically in its original theatrical run, it became the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year in the North American box office. Aside from its box-office revenue, the employment of inexpensive animation techniques—such as using xerography during the process of inking and painting traditional animation cels—kept production costs down. Counting reissues, the film grossed $303 million worldwide, and is the twelfth-highest-grossing film in the North American box office when adjusted for inflation.
6. Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)
IMDb RATING: 7,6/10
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge. The special first aired on December 18, 1962, on NBC and was the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television.
Jim Backus provides the voice of Magoo, with additional voices provided by Paul Frees, Morey Amsterdam, Joan Gardner, and Jack Cassidy. The special is directed by Abe Levitow and features songs composed by Jule Styne, with lyrics by Bob Merrill, while Walter Scharf arranged and conducted the orchestral score.
The special was first released on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc in 1982 by Paramount Home Video on behalf of UPA.and Also Re-Issue on VHS 2 Times Like 1988 and 1994 by Paramount. It made its DVD debut in 2001 by Goodtimes Home Video and had multiple re-releases on the format. On November 16, 2010, it was released on Blu-ray.
7. Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970)
IMDb RATING: 7,7/10
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions in New York, New York. The film is narrated by Fred Astaire and stars the voices of Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, Robie Lester, Joan Gardner and Paul Frees, as well as an assistant song performance by the Westminster Children's Choir. The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Clause-related Christmas traditions came to be. It is based on the hit Christmas song, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town' ', which was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie for Leo Feist, Inc. and introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934; and the story of Saint Nicholas.
The special was created using Japanese stop motion animation called "Animagic", in which all the characters are made out of wood and plastic and animated via stop-motion photography. The special was originally telecast December 13, 1970, by ABC, which continues to air the special every year, along with its sister network Freeform, as of 2022.
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