TheLittleSongbird Not one of my favourite Christmas cartoons by all means, but still well worth watching at once.The story is very slight and drags ever so slightly in places, and the portrayals of some of the children are very stereotypical. Stereotypes that understandably may not (big emphasis on that) be for the easily offended and the way they're portrayed is very "of the time" and can be seen as outdated now.However, the animation is rich and colourful, with very meticulous and beautifully drawn backgrounds and well-rendered character designs that don't look too stiff. Winston Sharples provides yet another outstanding music score, even in mediocre or worse cartoons Sharples' music was never among the flaws (if anything always one of the strengths or the best asset). Love the lusciousness of the orchestration here and how characterful and whimsical the music was without going overboard in either, even better was how well it fitted in the cartoon and how it merged with the action. The main song is very infectious too.'Santa's Surprise' while not hilarious still offers plenty of amusement, with the funniest material coming from the Dutch boy, while also telling the story with the right amounts of charm and warmth, everything feeling very sweet and heart-warming by the end. While stereotypical the children are appealing and amusing, not falling into the traps of cloying sentiment or annoyance. Look out for Little Audrey in her first cartoon. The voice acting is dependably good.All in all, stereotypical and slight but very sweet, well-made and charming. 7/10 Bethany Cox

atinder This yet another Christmas short, This is only nine min9 short CartoonI though this was really well made,The cartoon as some very sweet moments, there also some good musical moments which are really limited, the songs were decent and fitted the inreally well. This short as very good and funny, fun for the whole family.The writing was really good too,The Animation was good, for the times, some may find it a little out dated.I think kids, even these days, will really enjoyed this short, it very wellI going give this 8 out of 10

Michael_Elliott Santa's Surprise (1947) *** (out of 4)It's Christmas Night and Santa Claus is traveling around the world dropping off gifts for the little kids. When he gets back to the North Pole he goes right to bed not realizing that several kids have followed him home and have a surprise for him. What this short basically teaches us is that Santa Claus is so busy that he's unable to clean his own house, which leads to a lot of messes and dust. The kid's decide to be nice and clean the house while he catches up on his sleep. Overall this here is a pretty entertaining short that certainly has its heart in the right place but at the same time I'm sure most parents will have a lot of explaining to do to their kids. I say that because there are quite a few stereotypes on display here that are obviously going to offend many people today so parents will be explaining that this type of thing was at one time normal. The black kid and the Asian kids all have stereotypes about them and this includes the black kid shining Santa's shoes. Even with this stuff I still thought the film was entertaining. All of the characters are charming enough and even the Santa here is quite memorable. Another major bonus is that the song the kid's sing is actually pretty catchy in its own right.

richard.fuller1 Actually it is seven children (Lil Audrey, a black child, an Asian, a Hawaiian girl, an Hispanic girl, a Dutch boy and a Russian boy) who sneak into Santa's sleigh and follow him to the North Pole to surprise him by cleaning his home and doing his dishes while he sleeps.Yes, the black child is very Sambo-ish and the Asian child is sinisterly slit-eyed (notice how he sees Santa; by looking over his own shoulder into a mirror), but in the end the comedy relief is all on the Dutch boy; noisy shoes, breaking dishes, caught in the washing machine.In some ways, this is a charming predecessor to Star Trek, with its international lineup (as well as possessing a previous enemy to America, the Asian child, and a product of the upcoming cold war, the Russian).There is a surprise here in this unlikely 1947 cartoon, for Santa as well as for the rest of us as to when people started opening their eyes.And it began with the kids, apparently.