The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966)

In all fairness this is your quintessential movie from the 60s. The plot is loose, the acting is dry, and the budget is low. However, I can see the charm it had in its time, especially to children. My first time seeing it was tonight with the Mystery Science Theatre however and that was absolutely more enjoyable than the original would have been.

I'm surprised that the rating is only 3.8. Okay, I admit this movie is bad, but it's not that bad. It's mostly because I actually do really like the ending of this film. The plot is that Santa has to raise enough money for a full year's worth of rent as his landlord bought the North Pole. Merry Christmas Month, by the way! So, he becomes a mall Santa to make ends meet. I actually do like the ending of this film. Santa is still short so he gets help from a kid and he gets help from all the kids who give him money to pay rent. I thought that was sweet.Still, a lot of it was pretty dumb. How can he make a year's worth of rent in a single work month? Trust me, I know how that works. The guy who originally owns the store doesn't seem to believe in Santa. This is a world where Santa doesn't hide his existence as he has to pay rent for crying out loud! It is kind of a nice looking film. It's still pretty dopey but at least it's not "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" or "Santa Claus". **

Back when HBO was in it's infacy, every year at Christmas they would show this wonderful film, I just saw it again recently and it hasn't lost any of it's charm after all these years.You know the basic storyline: Phineous T. Prune hates Santa for some reason and wishes to stop Christmas, and he has the way and the means to do so, for he holds the deed to the North Pole, so in other words: he's Santa's landlord! And if Prune can evict Santa for non payment of rent, Christmas will be no more!!! But Santa gets help from the one source he knows he can count on: Sam Whipple, an attourney who always says "Why can't every day be Christmas?" and the two team up to try to stop Prune. Will Sam and Santa find the way to pay the rent, or will Prune win, thus ending Christmas altogether? The one thing that has remained with me through the years of seeing CTAW was not only the songs, or the sentimentality of the film, or even the effect of Santa's sleigh (these days, it looks cheap but brings back memories) is that Santa is human, and therefore has human traits. This will become apparent in the last few minutes of the film, and that anyone can forgive another person, for any reason.If you have never seen this film, go out and seek a copy and see it. It's 90 minutes of Christmas joy you could make a yearly tradition.

I first saw this film back in 1966 at a Saturday matinée. Years later It popped up on HBO sometime in the early 80's. I have not seen it again until I saw the DVD on sale. Back around the time the film first came out. I was a kid living in New York City. This film holds special memoires for me. Paul Tripp was hosting a children's show called Birthday House at the time. I remember him talking to us kids watching at home about the movie. Sonny Fox was known for hosting Wonderama. Another children's show that aired on Sunday mornings on WNEW channel 5 in the New York area. Sadly this might be the only film record of these two people and the local children's shows that aired in the New York City viewing area during the 1960's.