Heat Miser

Heat Miser is a character from the Rankin/Bass 1974 children's television special The Year Without a Santa Claus. Heat Miser is a blustery, quick-tempered brother to Snow Miser. He is depicted as the personification of all the warm weather in the south who battles his brother for control of the world's weather. As he sings in the "Heat Miser" song ("whatever I touch, starts to melt in my clutch"), he can melt objects with but a touch and prefers the temperature to be as hot as possible ("I never want to know a day that's under 60 degrees-I'd rather have it 80, 90, 100 degrees!"). He can also project heat/flame from his hands or mouth. His grumpy and hot-tempered personality comes from the fact he feels Santa's unfair to him, giving Snow Miser free publicity while he gets none, and from the thought that their mother (Mother Nature) likes Snow Miser better.

He lives in a volcano with his band of imp-like minions who are all identical, miniature versions of himself. Heat Miser was voiced by character actor George S. Irving in the original special. In the 2006 NBC live-action remake, he is played by actor Harvey Fierstein. In this depiction, he wears a Hawaiian-style shirt, and his underlings are replaced by women in bikinis, rather than his impish duplicates. They also operate his over-sized slingshot to launch fireballs in his feud with Snow Miser.

A 2008 Warner Brothers/Cuppa Coffee Animation sequel to the stop-motion film that premiered on ABC Family, A Miser Brothers' Christmas had Heat Miser and Snow Miser set aside their differences to save Christmas when Santa once again is unable to make his run while fighting off their brother whom neither brother likes, North Wind. Heat Miser is seen wearing a suit with a flame pattern is and George S. Irving reprises his role.