The Man in the Santa Claus Suit

I Have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

The title "character" is threefold: John Byner, Gary Burghoff and Bert Convy all don Santa suits for various reasons. Byner is a fugitive tramp, Burghoff a lonely schoolteacher, and Convy a divorced father estranged from his young son. Unifying their three stories is top-billed Fred Astaire, who pops up in eight different roles and sings the title song.

This is a better thank you think it will be film. Some parts of the film work better than others but in all it is a very enjoyable film. The cast is serves the film well and at the end you will have a huge smile from the inside out!

Well worth seeking out!

I absolutely love this movie. It always takes me back to when I was a child and me and my sisters would watch it. Gary Burghoff is terrific in this, and its nice to see him play different rolls.

Wonderful Christmas movie for the whole family. Three story arcs tied together by one mysterious man at a costume shop who pops up at odd times throughout the movie to give advice.Not as excellent as A Christmas Story, but close.

I was looking forward to viewing this movie because I was very curious about and I love and admire both Gary Burghoff and Fred Astaire, though I had low expectations (as I usually do for made for TV movies). I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet, simple, if not slightly unrealistic holiday story. Two of the plot lines were enjoyable and in there for comedic relief and to provide the holiday feeling - slightly unbelievable, but very fun to watch. The third plot I found to be quite touching actually. Put together they make a charming film. All in all, it's not a classic such as It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street. However, I would highly recommend it for a family Christmas movie that is good for and definitely worth a couple of seasonal viewings per year. I know I will definitely be watching this hard-to-find but delightful treat at least once every year.

I love Christmas movies and every Christmas I try to tape all of the Christmas movies that are shown on TV and I taped The Man In The Santa Claus Suit several years ago but for some reason never got around to watching it and I watched it for the first time this December, 2004 and yes it's a little corny but I liked it and thought it was a cute movie and so far I have watched it 3 times! As a child of the 70's I enjoyed the cast of actors who I remember seeing in movies and TV shows in the 70's and I thought Bert Convy, John Byner and the guy who played Radar in the TV show Mash were all good and I think Fred Astaire was great in this 1978 made for TV movie and I thought this movie was pretty good though I have noticed some bloopers that they didn't seem to catch like the fashion model that the math teacher wanted to propose to was named Polly Primer but an actor in the cast called her Polly Farmer but anyway I think this is a charming movie and I recommend it! BTW: Can anyone really picture a beautiful fashion model being named Polly? Polly Sounds like the type of name a fashion model agency would tell a girl with that name that she needs to change her name professionally to something more beautiful and glamorous! Polly sounds more like the name of a fashion models grandmother or great grandmother!