The Spotted Elephant is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1964. The Spotted Elephant resides with other unwanted toys on the Island of Misfit Toys, a land ruled by King Moonracer. (Moonracer is possibly a manipulative cult leader with megalomaniac tendencies who hoards rare, emotionally damaged toys.)
King Moonracer is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1964. He is a winged lion who rules the Island of Misfit Toys. His appearance is similar to a griffin, the legendary creature who is part lion and part eagle.
P.S. Merry Christmas! I enjoyed this forum thread, which addresses King Moonracer’s possible villain status: “Was King Moonracer a fraud?” Indeed. Why was King Moonracer holding the misfit toys hostage for so long? Since he regularly flies around the world collecting unwanted toys, why wasn’t he already collaborating with Santa to find new homes for those toys? Moonracer only thought to contact Santa after Rudolph, Hermey, and Yukon showed up? Really? King Moonracer is very possibly a manipulative cult leader with megalomaniac tendencies who hoards rare, emotionally damaged toys. It seems like the unexpected arrival of visitors to his remote island shamed him into doing the right thing with his sad toy collection.
Father Time is an elderly bearded man who carries an hourglass or other timekeeping device (not unlike the Grim Reaper or Chronos). On New Year’s Eve, this personification of time passes his duties to an allegorical Baby New Year. The annual ritual is depicted in the stop-motion children’s special Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1976.
Note: After the passing of a few more grains of sand we shall have a Happy New Year!
The wife of Santa Claus, the North American Christmas gift-bringer. Santa Claus emerged in the 1820s from a number of European folklore traditions, but Mrs. Claus had no such precedent. She is a literary creation of James Rees (1849) and was popularized in a poem by Katharine Lee Bates (1889). Also see The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974).
A plump, jolly figure in North American culture that emerged in the 1820s. He reflects an amalgamation of the Dutch Sinterklaas, the English Father Christmas and Christmas gift-bringers in other traditions. The contemporary Santa Claus was modeled after historic 4th-century saint and gift-giver Saint Nicholas (AKA Saint Nick), a Greek from Asia Minor.
Note: Merry Christmas from Kris Kringle!
A sprite-like character with roots in Viking lore. Jack is a variant of Old Man Winter and is held responsible for frosty weather, autumn colors and fern-like patterns on cold windows. Though unconnected to Christianity, he is sometimes hijacked for modern secular Christmas entertainment, such as Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, a 1976 Rankin/Bass production.
Welcome to the winter solstice (the original reason for this holiday season). Today is the shortest day of year.
Yukon Cornelius is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1964. He is an eccentric arctic prospector who leads the audience to believe that he’s searching for either gold or silver, but is actually seeking peppermint.
The Abominable Snowman of the North (AKA Bumble) is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1964. He is a gigantic white-furred yeti/monster with long fangs and a hairless blue face, lips, hands and feet.
Hermey is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1964. Hermey the Misfit Elf prefers studying dentistry to making toys, making him a social outcast among the other elves.
This character is based on “Frosty the Snowman” – a popular song first recorded by Gene Autry in 1950. The most famous version of Frosty is the animated children’s Christmas special Frosty the Snowman, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1969. Frosty comes to life and says “Happy Birthday!” when a magical top hat is placed on his head.
Heat Miser is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special The Year Without a Santa Claus, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1974. Heat Miser is a blustery hothead who controls Earth’s hot weather and possesses the supernatural power to melt objects at will. His arch-nemesis is his stepbrother Snow Miser, and their mother is Mother Nature.
Who is Heat Miser’s father? See yesterday’s Snow Miser commentary on this important paternity case.
Snow Miser is a character from the stop-motion children’s Christmas special The Year Without a Santa Claus, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1974. The icicle-covered Snow Miser controls Earth’s cold weather and possesses the supernatural power to freeze objects at will. His arch-nemesis is his stepbrother Heat Miser, and their mother is Mother Nature.
Since the Miser Brothers are identified as stepbrothers, did Mother Nature adopt one or both of them? Or, if she is the biological mother of both (making them half-brothers), then how promiscuous was she? I figure Snow Miser’s father has to be either Father Winter or Jack Frost. And I can’t think of a likelier paternal option for Heat Miser than the Devil; Mother Nature might be more hardcore than we thought if she’s into sex that kinky. In 2008, Warner Bros. exacted some Rankin/Bass revisionism with A Miser Brothers’ Christmas by portraying the naughty Miser Brothers as fraternal twins who have a malevolent brother North Wind.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – No. 303
A fictional reindeer with a glowing red nose. Known as Santa’s ninth reindeer, he is depicted as the lead of Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May and published by Montgomery Ward. He stars in the stop-motion Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1964.
Hope you have a nice Christmas Eve! I will be spending mine in a dirty Amazon jungle town in Peru.