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12 Tiny Christmas Tales

2001 film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ16242475 ↗
Source-derived summary

12 Tiny Christmas Tales (stylized onscreen as 12 tiny Christmas tales) is an American Christmas animated short film that was broadcast on Cartoon Network on December 7, 2001. This project was animated and directed by Bill Plympton and Inspired by Christmas cards that Plympton began drawing for his parents in 1964.

Plot

It's the night of Christmas Eve. A grandmother and her three grandchildren are relaxing all cozy beside a fireplace in the living room. As it gets late, the grandmother tells her grandchildren that it's time for bed. However, the children do not want to go to bed without a story. After mistaking a cookbook for a holiday book, the grandmother selects the correct book and tells heartwarming, albeit bizarre, tales of Christmas.

Segments

The stories are based on eight-panel sequences.

Victor the Tree

When Victor was young, his mother told him if he was a good tree and grew straight, he would be chosen as the village square tree. So, little tree Victor grew big and straight, which would guarantee to make him become the village square tree.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “12 Tiny Christmas Tales” as 2001 film. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2001, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2001-12-07. The account is most persuasive where Tiny, Christmas and Tales can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 2001 film. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16242475. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001 and 1964.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “12 Tiny Christmas Tales”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 12 Tiny Christmas Tales primary sources, 12 Tiny Christmas Tales archive and Tiny research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “12 Tiny Christmas Tales”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “12 Tiny Christmas Tales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.