Starting in 1963 and continuing through the 1970s, re-airings of the special would include preview footage of the studio's new or upcoming feature films.
[2] A home video version of the special, retitled Jiminy Cricket's Christmas, appeared on VHS, Betamax, and laserdisc in 1986.
The original version included Walt Disney's introduction where he has been "cricket-sized", because, as Mickey and Jiminy would say, Christmas is bigger than all of them.
The original American version features the following shorts: There were also clips from the following feature films, labeled in the special as "Memorable Moments": The special ends with Jiminy Cricket sharing his memorable moment, his song "When You Wish Upon a Star" (from Pinocchio), which he states "symbolizes faith, hope and all the things that Christmas stands for".
Starting in 1963 and continuing through the 1970s, all of the scenes with Walt and Tinker Bell's intros, as well as Santa's Workshop, were replaced with a surprise gift, which were teasers for upcoming Animated features including The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970),[7] Robin Hood (1973) and Pete's Dragon (1977).
The following shorts are usually shown, in integral or edited format: These feature films are represented through important scenes: In Sweden, the show is called Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas).
The montage is narrated by Bengt Feldreich who translates character dialogue through voiceover dubs, and also replacing the original English voice of Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), including the performance of When You Wish Upon a Star.
[6] The special, which is typically referred to as simply Kalle Anka (Donald Duck), along with its characters and cartoons, is ingrained in Swedish pop culture as a Christmas tradition.
[6] In 2012, Disney decided to edit the Santa's Workshop segment, removing "cultural stereotypes",[14] that had been restored to the episode in 1983, provoking another public debate.
[15] From the 2021 broadcast onward, Disney introduced disclaimers to provide additional context for outdated cultural depictions.