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Christmas time is always filled with animated films playing on TV and in the movie theaters. Whether they're cartoons, stop-motion animation or Pixar CGI, holiday-themed pictures fill the airwaves to the delight of giggling children and mesmerized adults. The very first animation movie with a Christmas theme to amaze its viewers was produced in December 1913's "The Insects' Christmas," by Russia's Wladyslaw Starewicz (or in Russian--Ladislas Starevich). Starewicz gutted bugs and, by using a laborious method of stop-motion effects, where he moved the little critters ever-so-slightly to take a single still frame among thousands of shots, he created a pioneering film by introducing a Christmas film using non actors.

Starewicz's remarkable work also literally defies gravity. He shows the coat of Father Christmas flapping in the breeze as he wakes up the insects from their long winter's nap to celebrate the holiday. The animator also makes a doll, standing in for a child sleeping besides the Christmas tree, look realistic in her movements. For an added measure, Starewicz includes a lanky frog partying merrily with alongside the insects whom he would normally be catching with his tongue for a tasty meal.