Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny is a 1972 American musical fantasy film written, composed, shot, edited and directed by Richard Winer to frame Barry Mahon's Childhood Productions films for a Christmas release. The plot concerns Santa Claus' attempts to free his sleigh from the sands of a Florida beach, assisted by local children.Different prints feature one of two films-within-the-film (that take up a majority of the film itself). They are Mahon's previously filmed 1970 adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina or Benjamin Tabart's Jack and the Beanstalk.