A poor urchin boy makes his way through the blizzarding snow to the run-down old cabin he calls home, where he prepares to spend a cold hungry Christmas all alone...until he is unexpectedly visited by jolly old Saint Nick himself who bursts right through his rickety front door and whisks the little tyke away to his toy workshop where the toys are the all-singing all-dancing kind, and he finally gets to have the kind of magical happy Christmas he never dreamed he would! So I have seen far better animated vintage cartoons about Christmas over the years, including some real gems produced by the Fleischer Studios. This is nice enough though for what it is, it has some lovely rich touches to the animation here and there, like the shadows the church casts over the snow, and all the snow-covered rooftops as well as some of the backgrounds. Even in the earlier Fleischer shorts, snow in particular and backgrounds seemed to be something they were always good at, all of their snowy scenes always have the same warm dreamlike quality to me, and is always quite beautiful to look at. Some of the other designs I do not like as much though, like the button-eyed face of the boy, he looks like a white Bosko. And some of the casually racial stereotypes that seem to pop up in just about every cartoon from the 30s probably won't sit well with the more conscientious of viewers - watch out for the naughty jazz band! I really don't like when the fat lady starts to sing, as it's really bizarre and off-putting and really brings the pace of the short to a grinding halt. If there's one thing I don't care for at all with the old-time cartoons it's all the obnoxious celebrity(of the time) cameos! Overall though the style of the Fleischer animation is one that never fails to at least put a smile on my face. I love their trademark inventiveness with the kinds of sight gags that you'd only ever get in one of their cartoons, like with the makeshift multi-firehose that's hastily made out of the bagpipes! This wasn't anyway near perfect but I could appreciate what it was going for and it's enjoyable enough. It's clear they were still learning the ropes at this point. As a short, it is a shanty for sure, but it's a fun sweet one! Happy hols X