Reluctant Claus:
Santa is portrayed as cranky and actually kind of bummed about his big night. He despairs at the state of the world’s belief in magic and goodness today, and threatens, rather haughtily, to cancel Christmas. He always comes to his senses just in time. The Rankin-Bass production company loved this Santa, using him in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” where he’s a thin, irritable codger; and “The Year Without a Santa Claus,” in which, disguised as a regular man, he sings in a tender love song, “I believe in Santa Claus/ Like I belief in love.”
