Worst to Best: 17 Christmas Cartoons from Animation’s Golden Age

[Tomorrow’s installment of The Reveal will pay tribute to the late Rob Reiner.]

Hey, come in out of the cold! You’re just in time. The newsreel is almost over—there’s not good news anyway—and you have just enough time to pick up some popcorn on your way into the theater. But hurry up: the cartoon’s about to begin. We selected one appropriate to the season. Actually, we selected 17 animated shorts from the golden age of animation, which we’re roughly defining as the stretch between the premiere of “Steamboat Willie” and the mid-1950s, a period in which when the prospect of a new cartoon starring, say, Mickey Mouse or Popeye, was sometimes as much a part of the draw as whatever features might be playing.

Christmas served as a regular source of inspiration throughout this era, though some tapped into the spirit of the season more effectively than others. Below you’ll find everything from critters getting into messes beneath the Christmas tree—a much-employed premise—to two takes on the same story that rank among the greatest pieces of animation ever made. We’ve provided links to films on streaming services and embedded YouTube clips for those that aren’t. Consider this The Reveal’s Christmas gift to our readers (except for, um, the racist parts).

17. “Hector’s Hectic Life” (1948)
On Christmas Eve, a woman with a heavy Scandinavian accent tells her dog Princie that if he continues to make messes she’ll put him out in the cold. (Harsh!) This scares Princie straight, but trouble soon arrives in the form of three puppies whose rambunctious antics threaten to get him in trouble. The mystery of why this diverting but by-the-book short, created as part of Famous Studios’ Noveltoons series and sharing a premise with better cartoons made before and after, is called “Hector’s Hectic Life” is the most interesting thing about it.

16. “Santa’s Workshop” (1932)
Ever wonder what goes on in Santa’s workshop? Well, wonder no more, thanks to this entry in Disney’s usually more inventive Silly Symphonies shorts that strings together a series of gags involving Santa and the sweatshop-like conditions in which he makes his elves work. (To be fair, they seem happy enough.) It’s perfectly pleasant holiday fare (unless you’re watching the uncensored version with a blackface gag) from Disney’s own assembly line. It’s just ultimately just a little too snoozy to rank among the series’ best.

15. “The Pups’ Christmas” (1936)
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were already animation veterans thanks to their work with Disney and Warner Bros. (where Harman kicked off the Looney Tunes series) when they launched the Happy Harmonies shorts at MGM. Cute, beautifully animated, and just a little too toothless to leave a lasting impression, Harman’s “The Pups’ Christmas” typifies most of their MGM work. (See the end of this list for a stunning exception.) The second of four appearances by the Two Little Pups—a pair of curious, easily startled little dogs—the short works through a series of gags in which the puppies investigate the presents beneath a Christmas tree. It’s sweet as a candy cane dunked in hot chocolate, but it’s not hard to see why the Pups didn’t become household names. (Oh, and if you were worried that this anthropomorphic set-up would not allow for a brief but unmissable blackface gag, worry no more. Classic animation: It’s the original problematic fave.)

14. “The Night Before Christmas” (1941)
The third-ever Tom and Jerry short serves as a reminder that the characters used to be funny and that their creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, were first-class animators before they became synonymous with formulaic Saturday morning corner-cutting. The set-up is the same as just about every other Tom and Jerry cartoon: Tom, a cat, would very much like to catch and eat Jerry, a mouse who lives in his owners’ house. But the gags have yet to grow stale, the characters haven’t gotten ossified, and the end is kind of touching. It’s a Christmas miracle.

13. “Mickey’s Orphans” (1931)