# Forgotten Christmas specials/movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157 "2012-12-06T04:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/1 "2012-12-06T04:34:33Z")
I stumbled upon [“It Happened One Christmas”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzldKb_CkXc), 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? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/2 "2012-12-06T04:38:22Z")
“A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story” ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/3 "2012-12-06T04:40:04Z")
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” with Loretta Swit. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/4 "2012-12-06T04:48:53Z")
[The Star Wars Holiday Special.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Wars_Holiday_Special) > [@](#): > > The Star Wars Holiday Special has never been rebroadcast or officially released on home video. It has therefore become something of a cultural legend, due to the “underground” quality of its existence. It has been viewed and distributed in off-air recordings made from its original telecast by fans, which were later adapted to content-sharing websites via the Internet. You never said it had to be good. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/5 "2012-12-06T04:54:05Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/6 "2012-12-06T05:00:07Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > [The Star Wars Holiday Special.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Wars_Holiday_Special) > > You never said it had to be good. 😃 Sadly, that doesn’t really qualify as ‘forgotten’; _repressed_, maybe, but not forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/7 "2012-12-06T05:20:11Z")
_The Nutcracker_ on CBS (I think), narrated by Eddie “Oliver Wendell Douglas” Albert, ca. 1967. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/8 "2012-12-06T06:06:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Rahne\_McCloud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rahne\_McCloud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rahne_McCloud)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/9 "2012-12-06T07:10:47Z")
John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together. I have the cd and I remembering watching it in the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/10 "2012-12-06T12:48:41Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story” 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. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/11 "2012-12-06T13:44:08Z")
“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! ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/12 "2012-12-06T14:03:35Z")
_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 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/13 "2012-12-06T14:05:24Z")
**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 (!): > [@](#): > > Turner Classic Movies has recently announced that it will telecast Carol for Another Christmas for the first time in forty-eight years, on December 16 and 22, 2012. [3] > **[Carol for Another Christmas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_for_Another_Christmas)** > > Carol for Another Christmas is a 1964 American TV movie, written by Rod Serling as a modernization of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol and a plea for global cooperation. It was the first in a planned series of television specials developed to promote the United Nations and educate viewers about its mission. Originally televised on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network on December 28, 1964, it was not shown again for 48 years, until Turner Classic Movies (TCM) bro The f... Unfortunately, I don’t get TCM. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/14 "2012-12-06T14:07:27Z")
> [@Rahne\_McCloud](#): > > John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together. I have the cd and I remembering watching it in the 70’s. I have that CD. I thought it was just a Christmas album they made - I didn’t know it was from a TV special! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/15 "2012-12-06T14:07:39Z")
> [@Corcaigh](#): > > _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 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: [http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;\_ylt=A2KLqIR.psBQZWIAI2L7w8QF;\_ylu=X3oDMTBvcTJzcm5xBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjEzMQ--?p=rudolph+the+red+nosed+reindeer+fleischer&vid=82bba36672f464bf477a62241a1cd6dd&l=8%3A45&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DV.4768926343299150%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgvaO7SvUU9w&tit=Rudolph+The+Red-Nosed+Reindeer+(1948)&c=0&sigr=11a6shfd4&&tt=b](http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIR.psBQZWIAI2L7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBvcTJzcm5xBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjEzMQ--?p=rudolph+the+red+nosed+reindeer+fleischer&vid=82bba36672f464bf477a62241a1cd6dd&l=8%3A45&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DV.4768926343299150%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgvaO7SvUU9w&tit=Rudolph+The+Red-Nosed+Reindeer+%281948%29&c=0&sigr=11a6shfd4&&tt=b) ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/16 "2012-12-06T14:09:48Z")
> [@Corcaigh](#): > > _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 Is this a whoosh? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/17 "2012-12-06T14:27:20Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/18 "2012-12-06T14:30:43Z")
[Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075988/). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/19 "2012-12-06T14:42:30Z")
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](http://www.hulu.com/watch/88004#i0,p12,s1,d0),” the absolutely amazing Christmas Episode of **My So-Called Life.** I watch it every year. There’s also [The Great Rupert](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042524/), an early George Pal film[about a squirrel who saves Christmas](http://archive.org/details/GreatRupert). The special effects were some of the best for the time period and started Pal’s career in Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157/20 "2012-12-06T15:33:04Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > [Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075988/). 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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-specials-movies/643157.md?page=2)