Rani Sheen and her family have watched “The Snowman” almost every Boxing Day since it debuted on Channel 4 in England on Dec. 26, 1982. The film features an introduction by David Bowie, filmed a few years later to add star power and encourage its distribution in the U.S.
Rani Sheen and her family have watched “The Snowman” almost every Boxing Day since it debuted on Channel 4 in England on Dec. 26, 1982. The film features an introduction by David Bowie, filmed a few years later to add star power and encourage its distribution in the U.S.
Once the feasts have been eaten and the presents unwrapped, with scraps of tinsel and wrapping paper littering the floor, my family and I sit down and watch “The Snowman.†It’s a 26-minute animated film about a snowman who comes to life and takes the child who built him on a flying adventure. And it’s my favourite holiday tradition.
As far as I can remember, I’ve done this almost every Boxing Day since “The Snowman†made its Channel 4 TV debut on Dec. 26, 1982, in England, where I was born. First, it was a picture book by the British writer and illustrator Raymond Briggs, published in 1978. When I came along a year later, it was one of my first books. But the screen version is what stuck. We had the VHS, then a DVD, and now we stream it on YouTube.
The wordless story is sweet, fun and slightly sad. At the beginning, the snowman explores the boy’s house, testing the taps and the fridge and coming perilously close to a burning log fire. He tiptoes around sleeping parents, their false teeth in glasses by the bed, trying on her flowery dresses and his trousers with suspenders, and applying blush and perfume in the most delightful makeover scene ever.
Later, when the pair ventures out to take a motorcycle on a joyride through the countryside and then fly over Brighton Pier on the way to the North Pole, it’s like a child’s fantasy come to life. The animation is so beautiful I could cry. Images of a horse galloping across snowy fields and a whale spouting water in some northern European sea are etched into my mind.
Touching down in a silent forest, the pair pad through the snow to find an international gathering of snowmen and women making merry, culminating in a reindeer meet-and-greet and a moment with a ruddy-cheeked Santa himself.
Each scene was drawn on paper with pencils, traced or photocopied onto celluloid and then hand rendered on the reverse. As executive producer Iain Harvey told the British Film Institute, this painstaking process sent them way over budget but resulted in a magically low-fi effect.
It’s all made stirringly vivid by the soundtrack, composed by Howard Blake and played by the Sinfonia of London orchestra. The one track with lyrics, “Walking in the Air,†was performed by 13-year-old Peter Auty, a choir singer at St. Paul’s Cathedral. When that song plays, it’s near impossible not to warble along, though I try to fight the impulse so I can hear it as it’s actually meant to be sung. A few years after the film came out, the song was recorded with a different, younger chorister singing, and became a rather unexpected hit single.
Rani Sheen with her son, Levi, and her mum Roma sitting down to watch “The Snowman” on Boxing Day 2019.
supplied
Lending a sheen of coolness to what might be just a kids’ movie is an introduction by David Bowie, which was filmed a few years after the fact in an effort to lend the film some star power and encourage U.S. distribution. “That winter brought the heaviest snow I’d ever seen,†Bowie says in what looks like a country attic but was actually a studio in central London, playing the part of the boy grown up. He wears a scarf knitted for the occasion, to match the one in the film, which he passed on to his son afterwards.Ìý
I love that the ending of the film is bittersweet — this isn’t a typical Hallmark festivity but a full spectrum of emotion. In the final scene (spoiler alert), the snowman melts on a sunny morning after Christmas, and the boy’s dismay at the loss of his friend echoes the sadness that can permeate the holidays when loved ones aren’t there, or just the anti-climax of when there are no more presents to open, and all the guests have gone home.
When my own boy was born, he had no choice but to start watching it with me, and my mum, my brother and our families. And six years later, it’s something I appreciate more than ever — a rare holiday tradition that doesn’t require any prep or shopping or energy or money. As my mum said, “It’s very peaceful; a lot of holiday movies are very jingly.â€
Those 26 minutes, spent transfixed on the sofa, are a quiet oasis of calm in a busy few days. It’s magic.
Holiday magic is hard to come by when you’re stressed about money. So, if you can, please donate to the pc28¹ÙÍøStar Santa Claus Fund and spread some extra joy to kids and families who could use it this season.
The pc28¹ÙÍøStar Santa Claus Fund
With your gift, the Santa Claus Fund can help provide holiday gift boxes that inspire hope and joy to 50,000 financially vulnerable kids.
GOAL:Ìý$1.5 million
How to donate
Online:ÌýTo donate by Visa, Mastercard or Amex use our secure form atÌý
By cheque:ÌýMail to The pc28¹ÙÍøStar Santa Claus Fund, 8 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON M5V 0S8
