Best/Worst Animated Holiday Specials

Cafe Society
1

The favorite/worst Christmas Carol thread got me thinking about these shows that as a child, I couldn’t wait to see.

Favorites:

  1. I love The Simpson’s Christmas Special. It cracks me up to this day. I was a late-comer to the Simpsons, and this episode was the first one I ever saw. I’ve been a fan ever since.

  2. Santa Clause is Coming to Town (I think). Heat Miser and Snow Miser. Two of my favorite characters, not to mention the soundtracks.

  3. The Grinch

Hate them:

  1. The Little Drummer Boy

  2. Frosty the Snowman - I believe they made a second Frosty, but I can’t remember the title.

Apologies in advanced if this has been covered. I did a quick search and didn’t find anything (although I rarely seem to turn up anything on a search).

2

This was just covered yesterday, I believe. I nominated the TV special Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, the very first animated Christmas special for TV.

3

Well, the one with Heat Miser and Cold Miser is Year Without a Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town, I believe, is the one that traces the origin and backstory of St. Nick. Both Rankin/Bass productions, tho.

I always had a soft spot for the Charlie Brown one. Is it called It’s Christmas, Charlie Brown? I like the anti-commercialism message and the reading from Luke’s gospel. And the music! I’m listening to it right now!

4

Skammer

Thanks for setting me straight on the title. It was indeed the Year Without a Santa Clause.

Cal,
Was the thread in this forum? Perhaps I searched in the wrong place.

5

My favorite: “It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas”

6

I was born one day after “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired (and that is the proper title.)

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” runs a close second.

But I love the dancing in “Charlie Brown”.

7

I like most of the “old” ones, e.g. the ones made in the 60’s early 70’s. Although I dislike any of the Rudolf sequels (A Shiny Rudolf’s New Years or some such.) I dislike all of the Flintstone ones. Here are my favorites:

Grinch
Charlie Brown
Rudolf
Most of the rest.

8

Best: arguable.

Worst: yes, you knew it was coming . . . the Star Wars Christmas Special.

If you hadn’t heard of this before, please accept my humblest apologies for bringing it to your attention. And yes I realize the OP specified animated specials, but I think sheer awfulness trumps technicalities like that.

9

Anybody remember one that featured a family of mice living in human family’s house? One of the younger mice writes a sarcastic letter to Santa, who in turn decides to overlook the entire town. The man who owns the house the mice live in decides to build a clock in the town square, which at midnight will sing a chime praising Santa, who will then be won back to them and bring toys? Only the mouse who wrote the letter accidentally sabotages the clock and then has to scramble to fix it, and . . . oh well.

It used to come on every year around Christmas time in the mid-80s. I haven’t seen it at least 15 years. It was one of my favorites.

10

montag01 - That’s “'Twas the Night Before Christmas”. I can’t believe I remember that. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it.

Confession time - I actually like “The Little Drummer Boy”. Not a favorite, but I like it. Go ahead. Mock me.

11

montag01 That would be T’was the Night Before Christmas

12

arrgh…ya beat me Trion…

I should add that it is, in fact one of my least favorite Christmas specials, mostly because as a young smartass-type, I identified strongly with the troublemaking rodent…

13

That was “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. I remember the too-smart-for-his-own-good mouse Albert. Loved that one, too.

It came on CBS as recently as the late '90s. I watch so much cable TV now that it’s easy to miss the commercials for these specials. I’m sure that “Twas the Night Before Christmas” will be on TV again this year – probably on CBS, but certainly elsewhere too. Wasn’t Cartoon Network or Nick TV Land doing some Christmas cartoon marathons? There was a big spread in a recent Entertainment Weekly about it.

14

For anyone interested in revisiting their childhood Christmas specials, ABC Family is rerunning a whole slew of them, including The year Without a Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, all this month.

15

Those are always good years. It’s not really all that great a movie or a sequel.

16

But there WAS animation in the SWCS. Boba Fett’s first appearance, as a matter of fact. It’s the only non-sucky thing about the special (Fett, not the animation – that sucked, too).

17

Rudolph has gotta be the best. “I’m cuuuuute!!” “Eat, Papa - EAT!!” Burl Ives rising around on a Norelco razor, the Island of Misfit Toys, Hermey the wannabe dentist, Yukon Cornelius, the Abominable Snowman (“Bumbles bounce!”)…it had it all.

Frosty was the absolute WORST. Ugh. I shudder just thinking about how bad it was. “Hap-py…Birth-day!!” Gaaah!!!

18

The Snowman! I think it’s kind of obscure, here’s a link.

19

Maybe I’m in the initial stages of dimentia, but does anyone remember the Frosty sequel? Perhaps it was a New Year’s special. I can’t remember… I just remember being annoyed because Frosty was so bad, I couldn’t believe there was another one.

Gah. All of those hours of my childhood spent in front of the TV… and for what? I can’t remember a thing.

20

Wasn’t the sequel the one where Frosty has a wife and he and Rudolph have to work together to save Christmas, or am I combining two different specials?

My favorite, although it is not really an animated special, is, hands down Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas.
“Look at the birds, up in the trees.”
“We’re not birds, we’re a jug band!”
It’s just a classic.