Trama

At an orphanage, the children are sad because they received broken toys as gifts. Professor Grampy sees the children while passing by in his sled and has an idea on how to give them a merry Christmas.

The children at the orphanage are thrilled to wake up and find plenty of new toys on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, all of them break or fall apart within a few seconds. Prof. Grampy, the inventor, passes by in his motorized sled and hears the wailing of the disappointed orphans, which brings him to the door to investigate. When he learns what is wrong, he puts on his thinking cap and quickly comes up with a plan to make everything all right. He sneaks into the kitchen through the window, takes out every pot, pan, plate, spoon, etc., and builds better toys than the kids could have dreamed of.—J. Spurlin

Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1936) is an eight-minute animated feature from Fleischer Studios, a premier producer of animated cartoons for theaters in the 1930s. Their iconic characters included Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Bimbo, Popeye the Sailor, and Superman. Set in an orphanage, Christmas Comes but Once a Year opens on Christmas morning with the orphans waking up to grab their toys from their stockings. One by one the toys break sending the orphans back to bed crying. Enter Professor Grampy, an animated cartoon character from the Betty Boop series, making his only solo appearance in a cartoon. Wanting to save Christmas for the orphans, Grampy makes them new toys out of household appliances, furniture, and kitchen items-anything he can find. He dresses up as Santa and distributes the toys to the orphans who join in a celebration happily singing Christmas Comes but Once a Year.—KS at ClassicCouple.com