First airing on December 8, 1974, the only thing this holiday classic has in common with the original poem by Clement Clarke Moore is the title. Regardless, it has since become a favorite among children and adults everywhere, who love to sit around the fire each year to see if Santa will indeed visit the town of Junctionville, NY.

When a disgruntled mouse named Albert writes a letter to Santa saying that everyone doesn’t believe in him anymore, the Big Guy gets a little offended and decides to skip over Junctionville that year on his toy dropping escapades. Furthermore, he even goes so far as to return all the towns letters…unopened.

Oh no! When Albert’s father learns of this, he enlists the help of the Trundle family to make things right. Their plan? To build a singing clock tower that will catch the attention of Santa so he won’t forget about them. Wouldn’t you know it though, Albert messes things up again. By trying to help, he enters the clock tower without permission and breaks the whole thing. With a final push though, Albert repairs his mistakes one minute after midnight, causing the clock tower to belt out a tune that grabs Santa’s attention, and makes him turn around to visit Junctionville after all.

The animated film takes creative license from the poem that largely dealt with Santa’s appearance, his mode of transportation, the names of all the reindeer, and the tradition of delivering toys, by going deeper into the heart of the holiday season. There are different morals one could take from the movie, which is left open for interpretation. Believe in something with all your heart and it will happen, don’t tick off your parents, or perhaps just having a tiny amount of faith will be enough to carry you through during those difficult times. I don’t want to get too heavy here, I mean, it is just an animated film, but c’mon, it was the 70′s.

The television special does have quite a history in terms of air time, too. It ran from 1974 to 1987 on CBS, then took a break for three years before starting back up again in 1990, where it ran again until 1993. Since then, it has found a new home on ABC Family, which you may all remember as simply The Family Channel.

While it may not be as popular as some of the other Christmas specials that appear on the small screen year-after-year, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas will always have a special place in the holiday history books. I still remember being just a little kid and wondering how Albert could do such a thing. Didn’t he know that Santa was going to retaliate? Silly mouse. I don’t know for sure, but it may even have had an effect on shaping my own thoughts when it comes to believing in that which is not seen. Mainly, my dreams. I can’t see them yet, but with a little faith and a lot of hard work, I know they’ll come true.