Once in a while, I check the DVD bins at various dollar stores, because you never know what you might find. They’re not always a dollar, sometimes $2 or even $4 but I’m usually only willing to risk a couple of bucks on something so unloved it ended up there.
In November, I happened across a whole bin of Christmas-themed DVDs at Dollarama. Most were easy to leave behind but I pulled out two that looked promising: Side Show Christmas and a 10 Movie Holiday Collectors Set. Each one was just $2 — though most of the 10 “movies” on the collection are short cartoons (total runtime is just over 5 hours).
The Side Show Christmas was a no-brainer for me coming from Teletoon and Nelvana entertainment. The animation style is typical of Nelvana, with quirky, exaggerated characters that have a slightly Tim Burton feel. The plot is also suitably quirky and Tim Burton-ish: the owners of a failing sideshow kidnap Santa Clause to perform with them. However, unlike Santa in Nightmare Before Christmas, this one actually seems to enjoy his new home. The trick then, is how to remind Santa that kids are counting on him! [buy Sideshow Christmas] Watch the trailer below:
Among the 10 movies on the other DVD are [buy the 10-Movie Holiday Collector Set] is How the Toys Saved Christmas (1997) — which was also available on its own DVD in the bin. 
At 78 minutes, it’s one of the longer movies included. It’s an odd yet familiar story: Granny Rose (Mary Tyler More) is one of Santa’s helpers, a witch who helps to deliver toys on Christmas eve but when she falls sick, she asks Mr. Grim (Tony Randall) to take her place. Unfortunately, Grim is a fat cat one-percenter who believes that if the toys don’t get delivered then people “will pay me almost anything to get what they want!” The toys overhear this dastardly plan and set out to save Christmas. The animation style reminded me of the Nickelodeon cartoon Doug and while the plot got a little lost along the way, overall it’s one of the best things on the DVD!
Roxeanne’s Best Christmas Ever (1998) stars a bunch of cartoon dogs searching for and finding the true meaning of Christmas. The Littlest Light on the Christmas Tree (2005) had such clunky animation that I couldn’t watch more than 5 minutes. In Search of Santa (2004) offers better animation but the tale of two penguin sisters searching for Santa was not enough to hold my interest; it might be good for small children, though.
Six of the “movies” are short vintage cartoons but they include a Max Fleischer cartoon, “Christmas Comes but Once a Year” and an Ub Iwerks/Carl Stalling short, “Jack Frost,” plus the first appearance of Little Audrey in “Santa’s Surprise,” which is also packed with unfortunate racial caricatures. All of these cartoons also appear on another bargain bin DVD set I bought a few years back, Holiday Family Favorites — four discs of discount entertainment now marketed as Holiday Family Classics (same content, new packaging) and a quick search on YouTube or Internet Archive will find you streaming versions of these and other vintage cartoons.
Bottom line? I am keeping Side Show Christmas but the 10 Movie Holiday Collector Set will be going in the Blackwood Book Box to find a new home.