Rankin-Bass built their Christmas brand with Santa Claus stories, but they'd also do some Jesus-inspired specials with The Little Drummer Boy. So here in Nestor, the two collide in a half hour special penned by Romeo Mueller.
We open in the North Pole, where Santa heads off on his Christmas Eve journey, and we're greeted by Spieltoe (voiced by singer Roger Miller, who also serves as narrator), Santa's donkey who assists around the North Pole. Heading into the stable, he shows a nativity scene and points out that the donkey's ears are too short, claiming that he's descended from a long-eared donkey named Nestor who was there.
Flashback, we meet a young donkey named Nestor who lives in a stable with his mother under a breeder named Olaf. Nestor's ridiculously long ears (when he relaxes them, they drag onto the ground) make him an object of derision with the other animals.
When a centurion arrives to take some young donkeys for the Roman empire, he discovers Nestor's long ears and refuses to take him or pay for the donkeys he's taking. Olaf is so upset, he sends Nestor out into a cold winter night. His mother goes out to rescue him, shielding him with her body against the storm, but the cold takes her own life.
Heading out on his own, Nestor meets a cherub named Tilly, who guides him to a town some distance from Bethlehem. (Nestor is shown crossing a sea, but considering he lived in the realms of the Roman empire, he must've lived pretty far west, especially considering that he was in a place that had snow.) He joins a stable, where he's eventually sold to Mary and Joseph. He takes them to Bethlehem, following Tilly and his mother's voice through a storm, and when they can't find other shelter, he finds the stable for them.
Nestor's story ends with him returning to Olaf's stable, where he's eagerly welcomed back. Back at the North Pole, the returned Santa and his reindeer as well as Mrs. Claus (very clearly the same from The Year Without A Santa Claus) and the elves (who were seen replacing the donkey in the nativity scene with a more accurate model during the opening titles) join Spieltoe in remembering his ancestor.
Overall, this felt like a bottom of the barrel scrape for Rankin-Bass. When they based their previous specials around Christmas songs, it was songs that were established for some time, or have remained in the public consciousness very well. This was based on a two year old song that has generally been forgotten, and even with its clear Christmas connection to the Nativity, for some reason, it's also given a Santa Claus framing story.
Well, it's weird they got to the bottom of the barrel this fast, it wasn't like they'd done A Christmas Carol. ... Oh wait, what's the next one?
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