Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

Features multiple non-speaking cameos from characters from other Rankin-Bass specials, including Jingle, Jangle, and Mrs. Claus from The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), the Three Wise Men from The Little Drummer Boy (1968), and Rudolph from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and other productions.

The Roman guard pays Olaf the donkey dealer with a 20th-century American nickel. The nickel is upside-down and the viewer can see the outline of Thomas Jefferson's home "Monticello." However, the resolution of 1977-era television was poor compared to that of later decades. The signal was analog, there were no "flat screens," LCD panels or High Definition Television (HDTV) sets. The viewer watched TV on a cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. All this said, in 1977, the viewer would not have been able to discern that the coin was a U.S. nickel.

Featured in The Rifftrax Yule Log (2018)