# Virtually forgotten Christmas Cartoons **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** cartoons-animation\ **Created:** [December 11, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853 "2020-12-11T19:37:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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 13, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/21 "2020-12-13T01:37:21Z")
I liked the idea and the writing, with the Mandegreens, especially considering that the title itself is a mondegreen from “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. You had Round John Virgin (from “Silent Night” ) and Richard Stands (from the Pledge of Allegiance). But I found the story somewhat lacking, and I really didn’t care for the drawing style or the computer animation. Still, it’s definitely a relatively forgotten Christmas cartoon. I haven’t seen it in years. The Wikipedia page observes that there are bonus scenes that only showed up in the VHS release. They weren’t in the original broadcast or on the DVD release > **[Olive, the Other Reindeer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive,_the_Other_Reindeer)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Olive, the Other Reindeer is a 1999 American 3D computer-animated Christmas comedy musical film written by Steve Young, based on the 1997 children's book by J. Otto Seibold, and directed by Academy Award-nominated animator Steve Moore. The feature was produced by Matt Groening's The Curiosity Company and animated by DNA Productions. Drew Barrymore voices the title character, and she is credited as an executive producer on the special. > The speci... ---
**Author:** ![SailorHG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SailorHG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SailorHG)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/22 "2020-12-14T19:59:15Z")
How about Nutcracker Fantasy? I still remember that opening scene; gave lots of us nightmares! > **[Nutcracker Fantasy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutcracker_Fantasy)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Nutcracker Fantasy (くるみ割り人形, Kurumiwari Ningyō, lit. The Nutcracker) is a Japanese-American stop motion animated film produced by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker and E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It is directed by Takeo Nakamura and written by Shintaro Tsuji, Eugene A. Fournier and Thomas Joachim. It was officially released in Japan on March 3, 1979 and later in the United ... ---
**Author:** ![turtlescanfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@turtlescanfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turtlescanfly)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/23 "2020-12-15T01:11:23Z")
Nestor the Long Eared Donkey tells the story of Christmas from the point of view of the little donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem. Haven’t seen that one in years. I remember my sister was forbidden to watch it because she cried uncontrollably at the one very sad scene. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/24 "2020-12-19T20:55:44Z")
This just popped up in my Facebook feed: > **[9 forgotten cartoon Christmas specials of the 1970s](https://www.metv.com/lists/9-forgotten-cartoon-christmas-specials-of-the-1970s)** > > 'Family Circus' could not quite capture that 'Peanuts' magic. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/25 "2020-12-19T22:41:42Z")
Those who grew up watching CBC in the early 1980s might remember _The Christmas Raccoons_: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XD2BqFme57E/hqdefault.jpg "Christmas Raccoons") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD2BqFme57E) This 1980 animated special eventually led to the much better-known TV series _[The Raccoons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raccoons)_, which ran from 1985 to 1992. But I don’t think the original Christmas-themed special was rerun very often. ---
**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 20, 2020, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/26 "2020-12-20T00:39:39Z")
Even though it came out only six years ago, _How Murray Saved Christmas_ is pretty much forgotten. I thought it was quite clever (and all in verse). Even the presence of Jason Alexander didn’t ruin it (he’s only a minor character, which helps). > **[How Murray Saved Christmas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Murray_Saved_Christmas)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > How Murray Saved Christmas is a 2014 animated musical television special, directed by Peter Avanzino and written by Mike Reiss. The voice actors include Jerry Stiller, Sean Hayes, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jason Alexander, John Ratzenberger and Dennis Haysbert. > The special premiered on December 5, 2014, on NBC. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. The special was the first time Universal Animation Studios ... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/27 "2020-12-20T05:21:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Even though it came out only six years ago, _How Murray Saved Christmas_ is pretty much forgotten. I thought it was quite clever (and all in verse). I think that your memory has failed you this time: it was only Murray that spoke only in rhyme. > **[How Murray Saved Christmas - video Dailymotion](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x569iwo)** > > Watch How Murray Saved Christmas - Elliot Gordon on Dailymotion I watched much of that when it first aired and couldn’t believe what I was seeing–it was _Family Guy_ humor, but aired in Prime Time and aimed at kids as an actual Christmas special. Parents must have been horrified. ---
**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 20, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/28 "2020-12-20T13:26:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > Even though it came out only six years ago, _How Murray Saved Christmas_ is pretty much forgotten. I thought it was quite clever (and all in verse). > > I think that your memory has failed you this time: it was only Murray that spoke only in rhyme. No. It was everyone. The narration was in rhyme, as was nearly all the dialog. I watched it again last week. One bit of sabotage that killed it’s chances to catch on: NBC ran it the next year in a half hour slot, cutting about 20 minutes to fit it in. It did not improve things. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/29 "2020-12-20T13:50:33Z")
That’s what I was coming in to say. I am not religious at all, but this one gets me every time. It’s a blatant rip-off of Rudolph, but …those ears. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/30 "2020-12-20T15:49:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Here’s another, although it’s not as old, it’s still probably as forgotten. In 1971 they ran a cartoon made for TV, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ **A Christmas Carol**. This is what I was going to post. I loved this version as a kid. It had an epic, sweeping feel to it and at times was delightfully scary. When the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals the 2 ghouls Ignorance and Want, that dark left turn always gave me the shivers. They used to show it year after year, then suddenly stopped, for some reason. Then there’s ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ a Rankin-Bass stop-motion classic in the same style as ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ that used to get played every year, but I haven’t seen it on TV in years, unlike the other 2 mentioned. I seem to remember hearing it didn’t age well due to perceived racism or something. Or maybe it’s just that it’s too overtly religious, unlike ‘Rudolph’ and ‘Santa’. ---
**Author:** ![Lavender\_Pebble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lavender_pebble/32/6290_2.png) [@Lavender\_Pebble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lavender_Pebble)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/31 "2020-12-21T14:23:30Z")
I watched Nutcracker Fantasy at the behest of this thread, and it’s actually pretty great. Some of the stop motion scenes are incredible. The pace lags sometimes, but it’s worth a watch. The English dub is on Amazon Prime for free, but I tracked down the original Japanese version (Japan re-mastered it in 2014) and it’s got better music and 10 minutes that they cut out of English version. Definitely worth a watch! Thanks for the rec! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/32 "2020-12-22T19:45:50Z")
[It is a very He-Man and She-Ra Christmas](https://archive.org/details/he-man-and-she-ra-a-christmas-special-1985_20201220). ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/33 "2020-12-23T01:33:06Z")
Feckin’ Bagman. I saw _Nutcracker Fantasy_ at some point as a child, but that’s the only part that I can really remember. There’s one scene where a naughty child is staying up late reading a book (seriously, since when is that bad??), and the clock on the wall sort of twitches right before Bagman shows up. For the longest time I associated wall clocks with creepy old guys tiring sacks of mice-children. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/34 "2024-10-19T20:24:32Z")
Youtube suggested this one to me a few days ago. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wK1xgqu2T64/maxresdefault.jpg "Fat Albert Halloween Special 1977 w/ Retro Commercials") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK1xgqu2T64) Jump to about 10:25 to see a commercial with R2-D2 and C-3PO visiting Burger Chef. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/35 "2024-10-19T21:10:54Z")
I have a soft spot for the weird and fairly amateurish stop-motion production \*Hardrock, Coco and Joe", which my sister and I used to watch when we were kids in Chicago in the 1960s. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VKGonDIq8gw/hqdefault.jpg "Hardrock, Coco and Joe") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKGonDIq8gw) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/36 "2024-10-19T21:49:43Z")
I love the old old old cartoons. I had a videotape once of real oldies, from the 30’s or 40’s. Loved them. Walt Disney had a Sing-Along Christmas tape which was snippets of Christmas carols and songs from various old Disney movies. Utterly charming. This was probably 30 years ago. I think there are a lot of them, this one was ‘A Very Merry Christmas Singalong’ with Mickey Mouse. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2024, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/37 "2024-10-20T01:11:50Z")
Pre-pandemic a group of us always got together on Christmas Eve for dinner and gift exchanges. One of the traditions of this was a viewing of _Haedrock, Coco and Joe_, _Frosty the Snowman_, and _Susie Snowflake_. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2024, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/38 "2024-10-20T01:56:24Z")
Maybe it deserves to be forgotten, but _Santa in Animal Land_ may be one of the most bizarre (and worse) Christmas themed cartoons (technical, a puppet show, but still). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-ZGjVIlPICI/maxresdefault.jpg "Santa In Animal Land (1948) Restored Color Version") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZGjVIlPICI) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/39 "2024-10-20T02:12:22Z")
On some of those older films or cartoons, the question may be in who has the rights? The question of who owns the rights is often tangled and doubtful. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853/40 "2025-12-08T01:34:07Z")
I’m bumping this thread because of something strange I saw on the 2025 NBC airing of _Frosty the Snowman_. At about three minutes in, the kids have built the snowman and discuss what to call him. “Harold? Bruce?” And then a little girl mouths something that looks like it’s censored; there’s no voice or words. Turning on captions shows nothing being said by her. It’s also running on Freeform (and maybe other platforms). In it, the little girl says “Christopher Columbus!” in a voice like a toothless girl might have. Captions confirm that she indeed says Christopher Columbus. So, why did NBC censor Christopher Columbus? Strange indeed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virtually-forgotten-christmas-cartoons/927853.md?page=3)