Please don't spend money on this.

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

"The Night Before Christmas" is probably a title that is known to many and actually even back in 1905, so over 110 years ago, this already existed in film. The director is Edwin S. Porter and he brought Clement Moore's poem to the screen here. of course, it is a bit tough looking at how this is a silent film and they could not recite the poem audibly, but this is not a major problem here. I did not really care for the scenes of the kids playing on the bed for example, but it was all about the moments during which we see Santa and also his reindeer occasionally. I think this can be a really good watch during the holidays. Certainly worth checking out again when the snow falls. I give it a thumbs up, 11 minutes worth seeing.

A rather charming little film, which starts with Santa feeding hay to his reindeer, before moving back into his workshop to finish toymaking. The scene switches to a middle class house (parents, five children all about 4!, grandpa and maid). They tell the Christmas story, then hang up stockings before the children are packed off to bed (in two beds and one cot). The children get up, are chased back to bed, then have a proper pillow fight with feathers flying everywhere: I wonder how difficult this scene was to film. Santa checks his delivery schedule and inventory, loads up the sleigh and heads off - a superb animated sequence. Arriving at a chimney, he climbs down, fills stocking and otherwise creates a festive air before continuing his deliveries. The children and adults come down and are delighted. As a children's story, the film still works today.

Okay, all of you that CAN'T or WON'T look at an early silent film without immediately dismissing or laughing at it can stop reading this review. The likelihood you would even try watching this film or stick with it is absurdly low, so this review is more for lovers of historically important cinema. For 1905, this is an incredible picture in so many ways. The sets for the time were extremely expensive and complex. The special effects, though surely out of date, also took a lot of imagination and planning. So for a 1905 production, this film screams 'quality' from start to finish.The movie is the poem THE NIGHT BEFORE Christmas and as the lines are written out on inter-title cards, the action takes place on the screen. Because of this, the film is short and relatively simple, but compared to the other films of the era, the movie is still very engaging today and worth seeing from an historical and curiosity standpoint. About the only negative, and you can't blame the film's producers, is that the version I watched online had a soundtrack from a much later sound cartoon in the public domain. It just didn't match the film and I had to turn the volume down since it was so annoying.

This film was made by Edwin S. Porter for Edison in a style consistent with "The Great Train Robbery", though not containing quite as many setups. It is loosely based on Clement Clark Moore's original poem, and only includes brief snatches from the text in the form of titles. The opening scenes are short and deal with Santa's activities at the North Pole, as he feeds hay to his reindeer, works with his elves and updates his "list". Then it cuts to a rather long scene in a household with several children getting ready for Christmas and being sent up the staircase to bed. The most remarkable sequence in the film follows, as it consists of an elaborate turntable diorama portraying Santa, reindeer and sleigh traveling from the North Pole's icy wastes to the bright lights of the city. Some of the reindeer seem not to gallop quite consistently, but it is still an amazing achievement for a 1906 film. Then, in a scene well-known via an oft reproduced still, Santa is seen on rooftop, dropping his sack into the chiminy and going down it himself. The next scene is set in the same household as before, with Santa installing presents, stockings, decorations; he even puts up the tree! (This is followed by a title which is either misplaced or once led to scene which is now missing). The title is followed by another long scene where the children run down the stairs, open presents, jump around and generally involve themselves in the merriment and joy of Christmas. The film closes with a close-up shot of Santa with the caption "Merry Christmas To All." While "The Night Before Christmas" is not cut of quite the same ground-breaking cloth of the "The Great Train Robbery", it is still immensely charming as an early Christmas film, and the diorama constructed for Santa's journey is quite an impressive special effect for this era.