In those animated films, they used various techniques based on Harryhausen's wire-skeleton models. The Xmas films used very bright, hot tungsten lights. The models were usually painted in some or all surfaces, so they looked like shiny, painted wood. The "fakeness" or cartoon look derived from the bright studio lighting (and weak, multiple shadows) and the paint on the models. So you would use alot of bright lights in Carrara, with ray-traced reflections, and shininess in the textures to duplicate the paint on the models. My guess is that GI would not look fake enough, so you'd use ordinary illumination.