Insects' Christmas (1913)

(video by Change Before Going Productions)

Рождество обитателей леса (Insects' Christmas): a Santa Claus ornament climbs down from a Christmas tree (as it happens sometimes) and goes to the forest (which is highly unusual) to prepare the feast for the creatures there (that's the way the story goes). He makes a decorated tree (white magic, you know) with all kind of tasty gifts and invites all the insects (along with a frog) to celebrate and enjoy. Early in the morning he leaves the tree for the forest's children and comes back to the first Christmas tree, as nothing has happened.

An animated short created in 1913 by Wladislaw Starewicz. This guy was one of the greatest animation pioneers. His biography is very interesting (I found it on imdb, told by Michael Brooke): he became an animator by accident - fascinated by insects, he bought a camera and attempted to film them, but they kept dying under the hot lights; stop-motion animation provided a solution, and Starewicz discovered that he had a gift for it, so he made lots and lots of short movies, featuring his stop-motion puppets, but also live action films (some blending live action and animation). Le Roman du Renard (1930) took ten years to plan and eighteen months to shoot.

(Early Movies)

(Russian and Soviet Cinema)