It's certainly one of my favorite of the Rankin/Bass specials.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Apr 17, 2019

It's up to a pair of elves (Jingle Bells and Jangle Bells) to save the day. But first they have to get past Heat Miser and Snow Miser - the best Christmas baddies since the Grinch.

| Nov 29, 2018

Truly terrible.

| Nov 28, 2018

What's more fun than stop-motion animated holiday movies? Absolutely nothing... It also features a badass Mrs. Claus basically trying to save Christmas.

| Nov 28, 2018

The best one of all - and surely we can all agree on this one - is The Year Without A Santa Claus. On top of being an animated Christmas special, it's also a musical with songs like I Could Be Santa Claus and Blue Christmas.

| Nov 26, 2018

The breakout stars were Heat Miser and Snow Miser, bitter rivals and brothers with control over the elements. Their jaunty tune ranks among the catchiest original songs that a Rankin-Bass production ever yielded.

| Nov 26, 2018

You can see why Heat Miser and Snow Miser were the breakout stars of this particular special. They had the best and most energetic production numbers. And they were quasi-villains, and villains get to have all the fun. They're great.

| Nov 20, 2018

The Year Without a Santa Claus is the true classic.

| Nov 20, 2018

This is, like, 15 different specials awkwardly stitched together. That's normally a bad look for Rankin/Bass, but it works here, where the battles of the Miser brothers play nicely off Mrs. Claus's attempts to save the holiday.

| Nov 20, 2018

While Jolly Old Saint Nick and his companions are featured quite heavily, Rankin-Bass still manages to sneak in a good helping of non-specific pagan deities.

| Nov 20, 2018

No, Rudolph isn't the best Rankin/Bass special. Crazy, right?... The thing that really puts it over the top, though, is that it's a story of a group of people banding together to be generous to the Most Generous Man in the World.

| Nov 19, 2018

The Year Without a Santa Claus features, among other glorious moments, the star turns of Heat Miser and Snow Miser. In their enormous big-band numbers, these brothers drive the happy show up to levels of near-hysterical hilarity.

| Nov 19, 2018

With improved Animagic, great original and cover songs, memorable characters, and the right amount of engaging weirdness, this is the rare special that hits its mark on every level.

| Nov 19, 2018

It would be worth taking an hour and having a cookie with Sad Santa, just so he could tell us how to restore our own faith in humanity after this not-so-merry year.

| Nov 19, 2018

1974's "The Year Without a Santa Claus" is a real favorite among the hard-core aficionados of its stop-motion specials. You've got the Heat Miser, the Snow Miser, plus the two elves, Jingle and Jangle. What's not to love?

| Nov 19, 2018

[It] melds the big heart and "true Christmas spirit" of previous specials with the bonkers, hallucinatory imagery of those to come-leaving behind only the slightest hint of treacle.

| Nov 19, 2018

While not Rankin/Bass's greatest effort, The Year Without's most memorable and enjoyable moments involve the dueling brothers Heat Miser and Snow Miser, who perform great, vaudevillian song and dance numbers.

| Nov 19, 2018

This is a sweet piece for younger viewers, promoting "Christmas spirit" and a belief in the jolly Christmas symbol that can make the holiday memorable for kids.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2018

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 9, 2005

What I remember most about [this] is always always the Snow Miser and the Heat Miser -- those warring warlocks of weather; heh, more pagan stuff...

| Jan 4, 2005