My favorite thing about the Rankin bass holiday specials is that every single time they feel the need to add Secret Christmas Lore they just made up just now and it's always some completely deranged high fantasy bullshit
Do I pick the Great Ak, the immortal wizard of the forest who is basically Santa's adoptive father? Do I pick the Commander of the Wind Demons, who is completely unimportant but looks cool as fuck? Or Tingler, the sound imp, who is Santa's tutor and an annoying little freak who randomly makes sound effects and animal noises? Or the Awgwas, led by King Awgwas, these evil little shits who look like they belong in a He-Man or Thundercats toy section?
a regular-ass lion and Santa's adoptive mother. I named a stuffed tiger after her as a child. Can't actually give credit to Rankin Bass for this one, though; if anything they toned the insanity way down from the original book (written by the Wizard of Oz guy, published in 1902).
I had no idea they made a movie of the book oh my goodness! I need to track this down and watch it, it was such a fascinatingly weird story, genuinely much more high fantasy than you'd expect from a book about, you know, Santa
