Favorite Classic TV Christmas Special?

[peter johnson]

There are a lot of "also-rans" you're leaving off --
"Jeremy Creek:  The Town That Forgot Christmas", was one that sort of died an ignoble death, though why I have no idea, as it's certainly no worse than "Frosty", which comes back year after annoying year.
"Jeremy Creek" had the voices of Phil Proctor and Dick Van Dyke, both of whom I was working with at the time --
peter johnson/denny crane

[Mr. DS]

Best quote ever from a classic xmas special comes from Rudolph;

"Even among misfits you're misfits" - Yukon

[raj]

Re: Rudolph,
Was anyone else a bit disturbed that Santa didn't stop the mocking of Rudolph at the beginning?  Santa's supposed to be this cheerful elf spreading joy all over, yet he didn't stop the teasing of old neon nose.

I always thought that was kind of odd.

[Viktorcrayon]

What about the one from "Pee wees playhouse" ?

[ulthar]

I picked Charlie Brown Christmas, but there's really no way to assign a "favorite."  Year Without, Rudolf and Grinch are toppers, also.  We watched Grinch just the other night.

From the Too Much Infomation Dept, I actually have a pair of Grinch Pajamas and wear them throughout the year...my daughter learned who the Grinch was before she knew Woody, Sully, Nemo, et al.  Also, for what it's worth, we used to have a cat that made the purrfect (ugh, sorry) Grinch Face.  She was cool.

Watched the 2006 Live Action "Year Without a Santa Claus" (starring John Goodman) on TV the other night.  It was not too terribly bad.  It led me to read up on the original, and came across a review that asserted that the ONLY reason the original show was so beloved was the Miser brothers...the rest of the story is mostly forgettable.

[Andrew]

Of note for this topic, I ran across a post the other day (I think it was on the IMDB) that "The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus" will finally get a DVD release in 2007.  I am hoping for it and "Jack Frost" too.  (The Rankin and Bass title.)

[Scott]

The PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE was a good one with special guest Grace Jones singing the Little Drummer Boy song was classic. Welcome to the board Viktorcrayon.

[Viktorcrayon]

Cool! I'm a big fan of Paul Reubens actually. I have most of the Pee Wee dvd's.
Big top Pee Wee, Pee Wee's big adventure, the 2 dvd collections of Pee Wee's playhouse, but i haven't bought the x-mas special yet. I just heard it was really good. I need to get it.

Pee Wee's playhouse:the movie, is probably the title i'm anticipating the most right now, alongside Beowulf.

[RCMerchant]

I do believe yoy can buy the STAR WARS X-MAS SPECIAL threw SHOCKING VIDEO! (See post else where)

[peter johnson]

I have a Grinch tie, which always gets a huge response when I wear it to work --
What we need is more exposition of the really really loser Christmas "specials", like "A Tennesse Ernie Ford Christmas" -- things that ran once & then died an ignoble death --
Kinda like the Star Wars Christmas!!
How many of these have there been?:  " A Reba McIntyre Chirstmas", etc. . ..
peter johnson/ a denny crane christmas

[Yaddo 42]

I voted for Charlie Brown. I was a Grinch man growing up, and still have lots of love for it (had a Grinch T-shirt for get-togethers and have a Grinch dollaround here), but Charlie Brown kinda suits my mood for the holidays in recent years. Plus my sister bought me the soundtrack album, always loved the music, and I have a copy of "Linus and Lucy" to listen too for a quick mood booster.

Rudolph was like an epic adventure to me as a little kid, can even remember finding the Abominable Snowman scary when very small, but it doesn't hold up as nostalgia for me, just makes me want to listen to Burl Ives songs instead.

My more recent favorites are the Robby the Reindeer specials that CBS dumps into the schedule some years. I have the DVD, cute low-key British stop motion stories about Rudolph's son Robbie and what happens to the reindeer during the rest of the year. On TV it has a newer American voice cast (with names like Ben Stiller, Britney Spears, Brad Garrett), but the disc has both the Brit and American voices, I like the British one better, suits the humor better.

The loser Christmas specials should get their own topic there's so much raw material to work with.

[raj]

BTW, which A Christmas Carol is everyone's favorite?

Mine is the George C. Scott version.  Simply because George C. Scott was such a damn good actor.

[Scott]

A CHRISTMAS CAROL and SCROOGE are both very good ones

[KYGOTC]

aw man, Ho many christmas carol rip offs are there out there? Im a fan of the muppets one.[color/]