I stumbled upon “It Happened One Christmas”, a remake (or perhaps ripoff) of “It’s A Wonderful Life”, with Marlo Thomas cast in the George Bailey role. I remember this as a very little kid, but haven’t seen it aired in around 30 years. Any Christmas specials or movies you’ve seen in the past that seen to have disappeared?
“A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story”
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” with Loretta Swit.
~VOW
The Star Wars Holiday Special.
You never said it had to be good. 
Mac Davis did a Christmas special one year, at least part of which centered around a time in the future when the official holiday was known as Commerce Day and celebrating Christmas was forbidden. I remember a scene where people were hiding in one room in somebody’s house, singing Christmas carols and police or somebody broke in, but that’s about all.
Somewhere in the late seventies, early eighties, maybe?
Sadly, that doesn’t really qualify as ‘forgotten’; repressed, maybe, but not forgotten.
The Nutcracker on CBS (I think), narrated by Eddie “Oliver Wendell Douglas” Albert, ca. 1967.
In a more just world, **Ziggy’s Gift ** would be every bit as beloved as A Charlie Brown Christmas. (Look for it on YouTube; the uploads in two/three parts are a better quality than the one in one part.) I know the comic Ziggy comes in for a lot of ribbing but this special just embodies everything that the holiday is supposed to be about–love, charity, kindness, giving selflessly to try to make others’ lives better. It may be a help that Ziggy doesn’t speak in the show at all–he comes off as more Chaplinesque.
And I love the fact that although his city is full of poverty, corruption and other social problems, Ziggy does not allow it to taint his outlook and ends the show having made a difference to several people.
Others–well, there are many. A rather well-animated Nativity story called The Night The Animals Talked, for one thing. And The Night Before Christmas–not the Rankin/Bass one but a fictionalized animated retelling of how Clement Clarke Moore came to write the poem.
There’s also Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus–not the CGI one they aired a couple years ago (which wasn’t bad in itself) but a 1974 animated retelling from the Bill Melendez studio, which made the Peanuts specials. The children’s character design looks VERY Peanut-ish, although a bit cruder, and the adult design is rather wonky. Furthermore, it has quite a bit of multiculturalism for what’s supposed to be a late 19th-century setting–one of Virginia’s friends is African-American and another is Chinese (the son of a restaurant-owner). Still, it has its share of charm–not least in the kids’ line deliveries, which, like the Peanuts specials, seem natural and unforced.
John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together. I have the cd and I remembering watching it in the 70’s.
That’s what I came here to say. Best special ever.
Do they ever show “Olive, the Other Reindeer” anymore? I thought that was cute.
“A Garfield Christmas” had the classic bit where two grown men burst into their parents’ bedroom on Christmas Eve – no, hold on, that’s not quite right; they waited until one minute past midnight, which they excitedly insist is technically Christmas morning, and so let’s start opening the presents!
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (the one with Burl Ives narrating) was shown once when I was a kid and never (afaik) shown on TV again, but it is now available on DVD
A Carol for Another Christmas, written by Rod Serling. Think of it as A Twilight Zone Christmas. It had an impressive cast, was directed by Joseph Mankiiewicz, and scored by Henry Mancini. As far as I know, broadcast only once in 1964, and never available on video. You could see it if you went to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York (now the Paleyy Center), and nowhere else.
According to Wikipedia, it’s going to be broadcast this year (!):
Unfortunately, I don’t get TCM.
I have that CD. I thought it was just a Christmas album they made - I didn’t know it was from a TV special!
This is intended as a joke, right?
The Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that’s not well-known is the Max Fleischer-directed 1948 color cartoon based on the original book by May:
Is this a whoosh?
The one I like best is the first made-for-TV Christmas Cartoon*, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. I’ve got it on VHS and DVD, so I can watch it every year. It still shows up occasionally on TV, but it’s not vetry commonly shown.
Good UPA animation, and songs by Broadway songwriters Jule Styne (Gypsy, Funny Gitl, Sugar ,and others) and Bob Merrill (Sugar, Hello Dolly and 1950s novelty tunes). Surprisingly faithful (right down to including the dismissive “Walk—er!” near the end). With the voices of Jim Backus, a surprisingly amiable Jack Cassidy, an underused Morey Amsterdam, and the great Paul Frees.
It convinced TV to give us more Mr. Magoo in clasics as the series Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, showing how badly they could misread the public – it was more cartoon Christmas specials that were wanted, not more prime-time Magoo classics. we didn’t get it until Rudolph and Charlie Brown a couple of years later
*unless you count the Disney “From All of Us to All of You” offerings, which I don’t
I picked up a DVD of a bunch of forgotten Christmas specials, including a one-hour version of Miracle on 34th Street with Thomas Mitchell as Kris Kringle. Probably the best remake, since it keeps the original story, though it rushes through it terribly.
There’s also “So-Called Angels,” the absolutely amazing Christmas Episode of My So-Called Life. I watch it every year.
There’s also The Great Rupert, an early George Pal filmabout a squirrel who saves Christmas. The special effects were some of the best for the time period and started Pal’s career in Hollywood.
I’m not sure I’d call that one forgotten…not when so many Muppet fans adore it, and there’s a live stage version at the Goodspeed Opera House that I think plays every year. (From what I’m given to understand, it’s mostly good, with some good new songs from Paul Williams, but adds a human character who’s hearing the story and takes part in it, which is a bit odd.) But in the sense that they don’t play it regularly, then yes.
And a huge yes to the John Denver and the Muppets special. C’mon, guys, you released the Rocky Mountain Holiday special on DVD–why not this one?
It’s a shame–ABC Family used to run a wide variety of old TV specials on their 25 Days of Christmas–everything from the more familiar Rankin/Bass shows to Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman and way more obscure stuff that hadn’t been seen in years. But now all they play is rather lame live-action movies and the more well-known R/B stuff.