# "Christmas" Specials ... that aren't Chrismassy
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 25, 2024, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145 "2024-12-25T07:02:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/41 "2025-12-11T20:44:29Z")
You could add in Bob Rivers & Twisted Radio’s [
Twisted Christmas Boxed Set
](https://open.spotify.com/album/1CqsDLEDJtZxKrKzAFNbz0)
The Twelve Pains of Christmas
O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-Heads
Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire
Jingle Hells Bells
Walkin’ Round in Womens Underwear
Teddy the Red Nosed Senator
---
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/42 "2025-12-11T21:03:57Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#):
>
> The Twelve Pains of Christmas
# “Now why the hell are they blinking‽”
😃
---
### Author:  [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2025, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/43 "2025-12-13T06:01:19Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#):
>
> why did NBC censor Christopher Columbus
Connections to Epstein/Andrew?
At one time he was a brilliant explorer (despite certainly starving his near-mutinous crew if he hadn’t crashed into San Salvador. And if he missed that and the Americas (which he never knew about) weren’t there, they would have been doomed. But great explorer was what I was taught.
But then you hear about the brutality and enslavement, depopulation and other forms of exploitation, he and Epstein would make better company. If NBC censored his name, Italian Americans are going to be angry. Are these Freeform, etc… things where you can view it anytime?
There’s been lots of calls to change the name of Columbus Circle in NYC. Fuhgeddaboudit.
---
### Author:  [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/44 "2025-12-13T16:05:11Z")
I learned this year that Jingle Bells/Sleigh Ride was actually a Thanksgiving song. It was written by a minister as a secular song for his kids’ choir to sing at a Thanksgiving celebration. It was about sleigh races that were quite popular at the time.
Hubster and I heard about it on an “impossible trivia” contest on some radio station. We never heard the answere as we got to our destination before it was revealed so I googled it later.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/45 "2025-12-13T20:42:18Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#):
>
> I learned this year that Jingle Bells/Sleigh Ride was actually a Thanksgiving song. It was written by a minister as a secular song for his kids’ choir to sing at a Thanksgiving celebration. It was about sleigh races that were quite popular at the time.
Not quite. James Lord Pierpont was not a Minister. It is uncertain where and when he actually wrote the sone. But the last part- it is about sleighing which was popular- is correct. It does not appear to have been meant for any holiday.
But yes, it was not meant as a Christmas song, and i guess Late November is about the time sleighing seasons started.
---
### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/46 "2025-12-14T00:43:10Z")
Yeah, I was commenting more about some strange censorship rather than the merits of Columbus. The little girl mumbles it so badly that it’s hard to even make out that she’s saying “Christopher Columbus”. Someone at the network worked hard to find the reference to him. I wonder if 2025 was the first time they did it; I bet it’s not.
NBC is showing Frosty often, and it’s on Peacock as well, I’m sure. Freeform has the original, uncensored version. Freeform is part of Disney (it used to be called ABC Family), and sure enough Disney also streams it (as does Hulu). I had to investigate this mystery! Disney etc. show the uncensored original version. Only NBC censored it. A mystery indeed.
---
### Author:  [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/47 "2025-12-14T00:53:10Z")
Sorry for the threadjack re:CC.
Really odd that they wouldn’t dub in, I dunno, Amelia Earhart or Lindbergh. Or edit the scene out so it’s not total silence.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/48 "2025-12-14T01:49:26Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Some supposedly Christmas songs that don’t mention anything to do with Christmas are “Winter Wonderland”, “Jingle Bells”, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, and “Frosty the Snowman”.
Also, oddly enough, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”. The song is about angels coming to Earth to sing… but it never actually mentions why they’re singing.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/49 "2025-12-14T03:23:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Also, oddly enough, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”. The song is about angels coming to Earth to sing… but it never actually mentions why they’re singing.
Sorta-
_Look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing…For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing._
---
### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2025, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145/50 "2025-12-14T03:45:33Z")
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
I don’t even know exactly why the grammar is so wrong.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-specials-that-arent-chrismassy/1012145.md?page=2)