"The Light Before Christmas" is a big IMAX film with a touching gesture. - CinemaDave

On a still larger screen, (six stories to be exact) the Museum of Discovery IMAX Theatre presents **The Light Before Christmas.** This new 40 minute short subject is shot in old school stop motion animation, like the Christmas classics **Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer** and **Santa Claus is Coming to Town.** In fact, when **The Light Before Christmas** concludes, there is a bonus feature which explains how this stop motion animation movie is produced. The behind-the-scenes-documentary is clever and funny, avoiding an academic egghead lecture that one would expect in a Museum of Science.

**The Light Before Christmas** opens with a brother and sister traveling in a forest on Christmas Eve during a blizzard. The mother had sent the children to go find the Candleman and give him a gift at his home.

Being a good host, the Candleman provides hot chocolate (with a Christmas Spirit additive) and reads Clement Clarke Moore’s classic **The Night Before Christmas**(**A Visit from St. Nicholas**) to the children. By this point of the film one expects Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Yukon Cornelius to stop by. Instead the producers do something subtle, clever and inspirational.

At one point, the boy asks, “Why does Santa Claus always give gifts?”
The Candleman replied; “Santa learned from the giver of all gifts.”

The next action is not spoken, but the Candleman points to his Nativity scene. Moments afterward, the boy performs a gesture that ends **The Light Before Christmas** with a touching gesture.

The Christmas Movie Season is here and if one is looking for family entertainment during an afternoon and **The Light Before Christmas** will provide fine family memory.