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Color Classics: Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)

Name: Christmas Comes But Once a Year
Genre: Animation
Released: 1936
Duration: 9 min

19369 minAnimationStrong rights evidenceTV episode

Color Classics: Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936) is a 9-minute animated cartoon that airs free on Starlite TV's Saturday Morning (CH 7) channel. Our rights research indicates it is in the U.S. public domain (evidence below).

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About Color Classics: Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)

Christmas Comes But Once a Year is a 1936 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It is part of the Color Classics series.

The cartoon begins in an orphanage, where the orphans are all asleep in the dormitory, waiting for Christmas morning. Just then the clock chimes, and a puppy in the place of the cuckoo jumps out, slides down a ramp, and licks one of the orphans. The first orphan wakes up to shout to the others, "Merry Christmas, everybody!" They all jump out of bed and make their way to the hall, where they grab the toys from their stockings and get ready to play with them. However, they discover the terrible truth that the toys are old, worn, and already broken when they completely fall apart.

Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article Christmas Comes But Once a Year (text available under CC BY-SA 4.0).

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You can play this title on demand above any time. It also airs on Starlite TV's live channels on a schedule; times are shown in your local time zone.

Airs on

Saturday Morning - CH 7, Cartoon TV

Rights & source

Basis: Documented as U.S. public domain (e.g. copyright not renewed / no notice)
Evidence: Listed in Wikipedia "List of animated films in the public domain in the United States" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animated_films_in_the_public_domain_in_the_United_States), which cites Film Superlist / copyright renewal records (not renewed). Character names/designs may remain trademarks; no character art used in site branding.
Music: Film soundtrack falls with the film; separately published songs not individually cleared.
Source: Internet Archive

How we check every title: Content & Rights.

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Color Classics: Small Fry 1939 · 8 min
Color Classics: The Barnyard Brat 1939 · 6 min
Color Classics: The Fresh Vegetable Mystery 1939 · 7 min

29 Color Classics episodes on air in this channel.