Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 American stop-motion Christmas television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions in New York.

The film is narrated by Fred Astaire and stars the voices of Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, Robie Lester, Joan Gardner and Paul Frees, as well as an assistant song performance by the Westminster Children's Choir.

It is based on the hit Christmas song, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", which was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie for Leo Feist, Inc. and introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934;, and the story of Saint Nicholas.

However, many of the toys pile up unused outside of the workshop, as no Kringle elf has been able to pass the nearby Mountain of the Whispering Winds, fearing the Winter Warlock who lives there.

Jessica visits Winter in prison, where he reveals that he has lost all his magic except for some enchanted corn that enables some of Kris's reindeer friends to fly.

When the Meisterburgers died off and fell out of power, the toy ban is revoked, and Kris is deemed a saintly figure, becoming Santa Claus.

[3][4] A CD version was released by Rhino on October 1, 2002, the soundtrack for Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is available, along with that of Frosty the Snowman, the Rankin/Bass special produced the previous year.

When Viacom syndicated the special to local television stations in the 1980s and 1990s, only the songs (except "Put One Foot In Front Of The Other") were shortened for time, while "What Better Way To Tell You" was removed entirely.

Freeform has cut several scenes they believe may be traumatizing to younger viewers, such as Kris climbing and leaping to escape (which was cut to prevent children from trying to imitate the same stunt), Winter Warlock knowing Kris will return and telling him he will never escape, and the scene in which the Burgermeister torches the seized toys in front of the children of Sombertown.

In 2019, Freeform's print of the special included the 2012 Universal Pictures logo preceding the film, due to their 2016 purchase of DreamWorks Animation (the current owner of the pre-1974 Rankin/Bass library); further, in this version, the scenes that were originally cut were restored.

"[5] Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the special five stars out of five, saying as a "classic Christmas movie is a winner for families.