Christmas Comes But Once a Year is an original 1936 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios, presented here in its complete form, thanks to the Monk’s channel and part of the studio’s celebrated Color Classics series. This lovely cartoon combines early color animation with a surprisingly emotional Christmas story, featuring inventive visuals, gentle humor, and a sincere sense of compassion.
While Fleischer Studios is often remembered for its surreal imagery, elastic physics, and occasionally unsettling undertones, this short adopts a warmer and more sentimental approach. Rather than relying on visual spectacle alone, it centers its impact on empathy and creativity, offering a timeless holiday experience that still resonates decades later. Trust me!
About the cartoon
Released on December 4, 1936, by Paramount Pictures, the cartoon stars Professor Grampy, a character originally associated with the Betty Boop series, appearing here in his only solo cartoon without our lovely Betty herself.
The short later gained renewed visibility when an edited version was featured in the Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special in 1988. More recently, the cartoon was restored from the original Paramount Pictures camera negatives by Jane Fleischer Reid’s company, Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored, and premiered on MeTV’s Toon in With Me on December 21, 2022.
Summary
The cartoon opens in an orphanage on Christmas morning, when the children wake up excitedly and rush to discover the gifts left in their stockings, only to find that the toys are old, worn, and broken, falling apart in their hands. The joy quickly turns into heartbreak as the orphans realize there will be no other presents.
Outside, Professor Grampy passes by in his motor-driven sleigh and hears the children crying. Distressed by what he sees, Grampy puts on his “thinking cap” and sets out to fix the situation and, sneaking into the orphanage kitchen, he begins transforming everyday household objects into brand-new toys using sheer ingenuity and imagination.
Disguised as Santa Claus using improvised materials, Grampy surprises the children, instantly lifting their spirits, and the orphanage is transformed into a playful winter wonderland, complete with homemade toys, sledding, and skiing. The cartoon concludes with Grampy creating a Christmas tree out of green umbrellas, gathering the children together for a joyful ending marked by song and celebration.
Production notes and legacy
The short was directed by Dave Fleischer, with actor Everett Clark providing the voice of Professor Grampy. Notably, all the orphan characters were animated using variations of a single template, an efficient production technique common at the time.
Like many of the Color Classics, Christmas Comes But Once a Year is now in the public domain and, over the years, it has frequently been distributed alongside other animated shorts, including works from Famous Studios and cartoons such as Jack Frost (1934), produced by Ub Iwerks.
The film’s title song was also repurposed the following year for the New Year–themed Popeye the Sailor cartoon Let’s Celebrake, slightly rewritten and performed by Popeye and Bluto.
A departure within Fleischer Studios’ earlier work
When compared to Fleischer Studios’ earlier cartoons—often marked by surreal gags, darker humor, and an undercurrent of the uncanny—Christmas Comes But Once a Year stands out as a clear departure in tone and intent. While it retains the studio’s trademark inventiveness and lovely animation style, the focus here shifts away from visual experimentation for its own sake and toward emotional storytelling.
We are not trying to make any definitive remarks here, but the tone here clearly shifts away from what the studio established before. Regardless, the cartoon channels the studio’s creativity into warmth, generosity, and human connection, showing that the same imaginative force behind Fleischer’s more unsettling works could also be used to produce something deeply tender.
In that sense, the short occupies a unique place in the studio’s history: a reminder that early animation was not only a playground for surrealism and technical experimentation, but also a medium capable of sincere emotional expression.
Watch and revisit
Earlier Fleischer cartoons, especially those produced in black and white, often carried an undercurrent of the uncanny. Their worlds felt elastic but unstable, filled with animated objects, distorted spaces, and a strange proximity between humor and unease — a style that echoed elements of gothic storytelling, where the past lingers and objects seem haunted by memory.
Christmas Comes But Once a Year, however, strays away from that atmosphere. While it preserves the studio’s inventive animation language, it redirects it toward warmth and restoration rather than disquiet. In doing so, the short becomes one of the clearest examples of Fleischer Studios reimagining its own visual vocabulary.
In any case, Christmas Comes But Once a Year remains a beautifully crafted piece of animation history—one that celebrates creativity, kindness, and the enduring spirit of the best season of the year!
More info and animated series
Details
- Length: 08:17
- Channels: Fleischer Studios, Monks
- Categories: Animated series, Videos