Favorite Holiday specials?

[Bruce Banner]

"A Cosmic Christmas" remains a memorable one for me.
Also the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer stop-motion animated special.
And "The Christmas Raccoons" cartoon.

[hedrap]

^It's the "peanut butter samich by the fire"...melodrama at its purest.

[Confessional]

All things Rankin & Bass… binged AMC's marathon this past weekend; so many fun riffs on the holidays!

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Happy Days did it best. That episode still works on all levels.

Chris

[hedrap]

I didn't get to see it for years and years, but I'm fond of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol as well.

Chris

Here's another vote for Magoo. It works because he's a perfect character for that story. It doesn't feel shoehorned.

Year Without Santa Claus always ranks on top. I'm sure I'm forgetting some one-off show.

You know what became the most hackneyed Christmas ep? The "Character X has to spend Christmas alone, until friends invite him in". How many shows did that one? Happy Days is probably the most famous, but I could swear WKRP and MASH did it, along with Alice, Barney Miller, Benson, Newhart etc...

Here's a list of insanity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Christmas_television_specials

...and another. I think everyone needs to pick a section of this list and watch it. Do it...for the Museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Christmas_television_episodes

[palitoy]

Oh, and I’m a sucker for the Christmas episode of almost any classic sitcom. I might not even like the series that much, but if they had a Christmas episode...

They're always bad knockoffs of a "Christmas Carol". My favourite is on Sanford and Son, the ghost of Christmas future is Lamont in a space suit.

[Allie Fox]

I didn't get to see it for years and years, but I'm fond of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol as well.

Chris

This. It may be my all time fave even above Charlie Brown, Frosty, Rudolph and the other R-B greats.

For some reason Christmas in Pacland is a perennial must watch. Boomerang would show it around midnight on Christmas Eve and I would actually interrupt the A Christmas Story marathon to watch it. The last couple of years I've streamed it before the marathon since Boomerang no longer plays it.

[Brown Bear]

There are just so many.......if I had to pick a favorite, I'd flip flop between Frosty the Snowman and Santa Comes to Town.

[Wee67]

Oh, and I’m a sucker for the Christmas episode of almost any classic sitcom. I might not even like the series that much, but if they had a Christmas episode...

I guess that really doesn’t qualify as a “special,” though 😄

[TrekStar]

I always enjoyed The Year Without a Santa Claus.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Alastair Sim returns as Scrooge in that as well, another reason to love it.

That's a great one. All the Rankin/Bass specials are great, but my personal favorite is Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, my favorite "origin" for Santa.

Charlie Brown and Garfield are must-watches. Garfield gets the wife verklept every year.

I didn't get to see it for years and years, but I'm fond of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol as well.

Chris

[rykerw1701]

Academy Award Winner, 1972, Best Animated Film.

Criminally overlooked. Impossible to find on Home Video. Yet lavishly animated. Every frame is a masterpiece of linework.

Richard Williams / Chuck Jones version of A Christmas Carol.

Oh yeah. I've loved this one as long as I can remember. I've always had a particular affinity for Dickens work because of it.

[Wee67]

'Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown' and 'The Year Without A Santa Claus' for me, too. Also, 'Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas.'

[knight errant00]

Back in the 70's there was a Christmas cartoon that had animals that could talk the night Jesus was born.
They never show it on TV anymore
Maybe I dreamed it

Ah, here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ni...Animals_Talked

Evidently only aired four times. Here it is on YouTube:

[knight errant00]

Back in the 70's there was a Christmas cartoon that had animals that could talk the night Jesus was born.
They never show it on TV anymore
Maybe I dreamed it

Not this, but the first thing you made me think of:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vc2u4