How the Mice Saved Christmas

Disney's "Studio Mice" that were prevalent in many different types of media during the 1950s, made an interesting Christmas-related appearance in the December 1957 issue of Walt Disney's Magazine. The story "How the Mice Saved Christmas" featured a narrator by the name of Grover Cleveland Mouse whose ancestry related directly to the studio's 1953 cartoon featurette Ben and Me.

Perhaps I should identify myself. I am Grover Cleveland Mouse. My lineage dates all the way back to Amos Mouse. My great-great-greatgrandfather George was Amos' brother, and lived in that small Philadelphia church.

My brothers and I live at the North Pole. Father migrated here many years ago. He read what Horace Greeley wrote about "Go West, Young Man," but he got his directions mixed. Before you could wink twice, he was heading north.

Passing through a small town called Detroit, he gave some advice to a young man named Ford who was working on a horseless carriage. He continued through Michigan, but he was nearsighted—when he crossed the Straits of Mackinac, he thought he was swimming the Mississippi. On reaching Hudson Bay he realized his mistake. It was too late to turn back, so he continued to the North Pole, where he became special advisor to Santa Claus.

The story details the efforts of Grover and his brothers--James Madison, John Adams, Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt--to help a sick Santa Claus complete his rounds on Christmas Eve 1907.

Studio veteran X Atencio had a hand in the illustration (pictured above) that accompanied the story.