Christmas movies are an important part of the holiday season. It could be a family outing to the theater, something to keep to keep the kids occupied while preparing for Christmas dinner, or just background noise for a few arguments, whatever their goal they are. are an integral part.

that of Frank Capra It’s a wonderful life (1946) is the oldest Christmas movie that most people are likely to line up on this holiday season. The holiday classic is pretty universally regarded as a masterpiece and was even named one of the 100 best American films ever made by the American Film Institute (despite being a bombshell). at the box office when it arrives in theaters).

However, there were Christmas movies nearly half a century before George Bailey began to doubt himself, as long as your definition of movie is quite old-school: 1898 Santa, directed by George Albert Smith, is the first known Christmas film, although it admittedly lasts less than 90 seconds. (It was not until the 1935s Scrooge, with Sir Seymour Hicks, that there was a Christmas feature film.)

Santa is pretty impressive, though, especially since it didn’t debut until a few years after the first films had been made. The first known film of any sort dates back to 1888, 10 years earlier, and consists of just 2.1 seconds of a horse, so a lot of development has taken place in that decade between the two. It also features one of the earliest uses in cinema of what is known as ‘parallel action’, meaning that it simultaneously shows Santa Claus arriving on a rooftop as well as the action that takes place in the room. house, basically the bullet time from the end of the 19th century.

It is not a film likely to dazzle modern audiences, but Santa walked like this Elf could fly.