Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, just one of many holiday classics from Rankin-Bass, will air on ABC December 5 at 8 pm. The special takes a look at young Kris Kringle as he opens a gift factory to provide toys for children. Unfortunately, Burgermeister Meisterburger, the lands tyrannical ruler, won't allow toys, so Kringle gets help from Mother Nature, not to mention some elves and reindeer. This same story was also made into a movie. The name of that movie? That's right, 1978's The Deer Hunter. Though I think some artistic license was taken with the theatrical adaptation.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town features the voices of Fred Astaire, Mickey Rooney and Paul Frees. Rooney plays the role of Kris Kringle/Santa Claus, because as we all know, Santa himself was banned from Hollywood during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the late '40s and early '50s. Apparently that wasn't a good time to be wearing so much red.

CBS will air the beloved Christmas specials Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman on the same night, Friday, December 8.

Wait a second. December 8? Isn't that a little eary for a classic Christmas special? I know that every company starts to celebrate and advertise Christmas earlier and earlier every single year (this year all the stores in my area had Christmas decorations for sale right next to Halloween candy in October), but shouldn't shows this classic be aired closer to December 25, or at least repeated later in December after the December 8th airing?