The Snowman

The Snowman is a 1982 British animated television film based on Raymond Briggs' 1978 picture book of the same name. It was directed by Dianne Jackson for Channel 4. It was first shown on 26 December 1982. It was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 55th Academy Award and won a BAFTA TV Award. 
The story is told through pictures, action and music, scored by Howard Blake, and is wordless, with the exception of the song "Walking in the Air". The orchestral score was performed in the film by the Sinfonia of London and the song was performed by Peter Auty, a St Paul's Cathedral choirboy.
The special ranked at number 71 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. It was voted number 4 in UKTV Gold's Greatest TV Christmas Moments. It came third in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Christmas Moments in 2004. Its broadcast on Christmas Eve on Channel 4, has become an annual festive event in the UK. A sequel, The Snowman and the Snowdog, was released in 2012.
Plot
After a night of a snowfall, a boy wakes up and plays in the snow, building a large snowman. At the stroke of midnight, he sneaks downstairs to find the snowman magically comes to life. James shows the snowman around his house, playing with appliances, toys and other bric-a-brac, all while keeping quiet enough not to wake James' parents. The two find a motorcycle in the house's garden and go for a ride on it through the woods. Its engine heat starts to melt the snowman and he cools off in the garage freezer.
Seeing a picture of the arctic in the freezer, the snowman is agitated and takes the boy in hand, running through the garden until they take flight. They fly over the South Downs towards the coast, seeing the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Palace Pier, and north along the coast of Norway. They fly through an arctic landscape and into the aurora borealis. They land in a snowy forest where they join a party of snowmen. They meet Father Christmas along with his reindeer; he gives the boy a card and a scarf with a snowman pattern. The snowman returns home with James before the sun rises and the two bid farewell for the night.
The following morning, James wakes up to find that the snowman has melted, leaving only his hat, scarf, coal eyes, tangerine nose, and coal buttons in a pile of melted snow. James kneels down by the snowman's remains while holding his scarf, mourning the loss of his friend.