Silent movies - Rozhdestvo obitateley lesa

Huh? Yeah, maybe you don't speak Russian, either.
From the page where I found this recommendation "This is one of my favorite vintage holiday films, a strange little gem from the great Russian [his parents were Polish] stop-motion animator Ladislas Starevich." (There are different spellings depending on the country.)
The English title of this "strange little gem" from 1913 is "The Insects' Christmas" and there you have your plot.

The Father Christmas ornament
comes alive and climbs off the tree.

Little break, that was exhausting.

Father Christmas has invited some
insects - beetles, a grasshopper (although
the English intertitle calls her Miss
Dragonfly), and a frog (I guess the
beetles are too big for him to eat), and
now he trims a tree for them.

The ornaments are also gifts and
everyone gets one of them.

Fun for everyone - sliding down
the snowy hill!

One of the beetles and the frog tussle
for the cracker. When it comes apart,
they tumble backwards and the
frog falls into the hole where
he's staying for the winter.

The cloud rising from the cracker
spells "Froehliche Weinachten"
(no idea why it's in German, also
- because I'm a nitpicker - there's
an h missing in "Weihnachten") ...
"Merry Christmas"!

Father Christmas returns to his tree.

It's really a delightful little film. Isn't it nice of Father Christmas to get off his tree to give his friends a nice Christmas, too? I don't even want to think about how he got to the forest!


Thank you to Lea for recommending it in "7 Silent Christmas Movies (From the Horse-And-Buggy Era)" on Silent-ology, December 21, 2016!