Nilus the Sandman: The Boy Who Dreamed Christmas (also known simply as The Boy Who Dreamed Christmas) is a Canadian part-animated and part-live-action Christmas television special which was originally broadcast on December 1, 1991 on CTV. In the United States, it was first broadcast on The Disney Channel on December 10, 1991. It was followed by two more Nilus the Sandman TV specials which premiered in 1994 and 1995, and then a Nilus the Sandman TV series airing from 1996 to 1998.Most of the film is animated (the dream scenes), but the beginning and ending scenes (the awake scenes) are in live action.