About Christmas TV History

Friday, July 26, 2013

Animation Celebration: Santa and the Three Bears

Welcome back to Christmas in July: Animation Celebration!  July is the special time of the year that I turn the blog over to my readers.  All month long I'm posting essays written by people eager to share their passion and memories for animated Christmas entertainments. 

Today's essay recalls 1970's animated classic Santa and the Three Bears.  This post comes to us from Jakki Hanna, the founder of the blog Tis the Season and the Yahoo group Christmas Movies and Music.  She also wrote the essay about Santa Claus is Comin' to Town earlier this month.  Thanks Jakki!


Santa and the 3 Bears is a heartwarming animated tale about 2 precocious bear cubs experiencing Christmas for the very first time, with the help of a jolly park ranger. Mama Bear would rather be hibernating, but can't resist the cub's enthusiasm to know more about this exciting time of year and decides to make an exception if they agree to sleep the rest of the winter after Santa's visit. The film was released in 1970 and originally ran 76-minutes in theaters, but was eventually cut down to 45-minutes for TV airing. Though it has been mistakenly credited as a Hanna-Barbera production, there is in fact no official connection.




This simple little story has been a favorite of mine for years. I still recall the first time I ever saw it and how it stuck with me years before I knew it by name. It was a weekday afternoon during Christmas break in the late '80s and came across it as I was flipping channels on television. I was excited to see something Christmas related airing at a time of day when all you would usually find is talk shows, soap operas and toddler programming. This was well before 24 hour cartoon networks and easy accessibility to movies through DVD and Netflix, so it had my full attention!


Santa & The Three Bears is not a frenzied, hysterical Christmas special, as commonly seen today, but instead has a understated, classic charm. It also lacks a villainous plot, choosing instead to focus on the discovery of Christmas and all it entails. As the ranger explains our human traditions to the cubs, even a child familiar with Christmas can't help but be drawn in. Christmas just has a profound effect on all who celebrate it, in a way that can't really be explained. This special captured the mystery of that miracle, but is also a snap shot of youthful innocence, where the magic of Santa's visit is all too real.


I often thought back to this special and wondered if I would ever know what it was, though I knew I would recognize it in an instant if fate was ever kind enough to cause me to stumble upon it once again. Then one extraordinary summer day, many years later, I was browsing used VHS tapes at a local thrift store. I suddenly came across the title, Santa and the Three Bears. While the cover art did not look quite like the animation in my memory, the title and description sounded exactly right. I took a chance, popped it in my VCR when I got home, and in an instant, was transported back to that winter afternoon in the late '80s with all the hope and wonder of a child.




2 comments:

  1. Great blog Jakki!!! This is another lost classic that deserves more credit than it gets. I agree that it has a classic innocence to it..its not busy or trying to force a lot into a small amount of time but rather it gives the viewer time to feel and enjoy the spirit of christmas!!

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  2. Isn't it great to find a VHS tape of an old Christmas special--and discover a lost classic? I love that feeling too! Thanks for sharing.

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