<Tr> <Th> Preceded by </Th> <Td> The Little Drummer Boy </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Followed by </Th> <Td> The Year Without a Santa Claus </Td> </Tr> <P> Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 Christmas stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin / Bass Productions . The film stars Fred Astaire as the narrator S.D. Kluger, Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle / Santa Claus, Keenan Wynn as the Winter Warlock, and Paul Frees in various roles . The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus - related Christmas traditions came to be . It is based on the hit Christmas song Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, which was introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934, and the story of Saint Nicholas . </P> <P> The special was created using Japanese stop motion animation called "Animagic", in which all the characters are made out of wood and plastic and animated via stop - motion photography . The special was originally telecast December 14, 1970 by ABC and continues to air every year on sibling channel ABC Family (now Freeform) though both channels have at times edited the special to make room for commercials (ABC has cut two key songs, as well as two other songs in half; ABC Family / Freeform has cut several scenes that might be traumatizing to younger viewers, like Kris climbing, and leaping to escape to prevent children from doing dangerous stunts, Winter Warlock knowing Kris will return, and telling him he will never escape including the scene where the Burgermeister torches the seized toys in front of the children of Sombertown). </P>

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