When I was growing up, that sound could mean only one thing.

Regularly scheduled programming on TV tonight was out the window.

Tonight would bring a special presentation of a Christmas cartoon.

Primetime Christmas cartoons are one of our newer

traditions, and they really are a bona fide tradition. They often involve the entire family,

arranging to be in the same place at the same time. They bring a sense of nostalgia and connection

to the past. And like any tradition, there's an element of ritual. When I was growing up,

whenever there was an animated Christmas special on TV, my mom would make this homemade party

mix out of popcorn, peanuts, pretzels, and life cereal. Hey, don't knock it until you try it.

And my siblings and I, in our matching Winnie the Pooh pajamas, cups of root beer in hand,

would settle in and munch away as we tuned into whatever it was we were going to watch that night.

When you think of the classic animated Christmas specials, I'll bet a small handful come to mind immediately.

Ones like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

They've aired in prime time every year for about 50 years now. And what do they all have in common?

They were all produced in the 1960s, 1962 to 1969, to be exact, a sort of golden age of Christmas animation. You'd think with animation

being what it is today, we'd be knocking out modern classics left and right, but so far

nothing is quite caught on like that small number of gems from the 1960s. Why? Well, it's a

combination of an animation industry that was undergoing some important changes around that time,

clever content and marketing strategy, and the power of ritual and tradition.

I'm Brian Earle. This is Christmas Past.

It all starts in 1962.

Even though television was a mature medium by then,

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