Original release date: December 10, 1932

Rating: TV-G because Santa is safe for all the good little boys and girls. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: six holly jolly minutes

Background: One of many Silly Symphony short films, this was the first Christmas-themed short for Disney. It appears on cue every December, however with cuts for what are said to be culturally inappropriate things.

Review:

Mickey Mouse presents!

This is about as ordinary of a Christmas cartoon as you’d expect out of something made in 1932. Elves dance and make toys. Santa sings and rhymes. Toys march into his bag. He takes off. It is what it is.

As far as the cultural depictions, I see ’em. Just in the lineup of marching toys, there are band members who have the minstrel show-style face as well as very stereotypical-looking Asian dolls. I know it was a “moment in time” thing for the 1930s, but it is fairly glaring almost 100 years later.

Extras:

None. We didn’t make the good list.

Should you watch it?

I’ve been debating back and forth, but I’m going to go with skip it. There are better Disney Christmas things we will reach eventually. In a time where Sirius is throwing ten Christmas music stations at me in November, Hallmark has been showing Christmas movies for seemingly ever, and Disney themselves throws us over a month of Christmas (and Christmas-adjacent, hi “Toy Story” series) movies and shows at us on Freeform, you have to be choosy with just what you consume. You can do better than this one.