I love the obscure and rare and Christmas specials are no different.
#12 of 31 Things I Love About Christmas: Obscure Christmas Specials.
This entry won’t talk about the merits of Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown, The Grinch or any of the other heavy hitters. This will however, mention the specials you may have not seen or thought about since you were a kid, or ones you may never seen at all. These specials, both the classics and obscure, are just one more way to keep the passion and love for Christmas alive
These specials weren’t obscure to me because my parents compiled a tape of them when I was about 3 or 4 years old. The market wasn’t flooded with Christmas specials as it is now (yes, there is too much of a good thing and some of the modern specials are downright stupid looking) and these were fairly popular specials at the time. Through the magic of DVDs and that almost anything ever made can be found on an official release or bootlegged online, all of these treasures are out there waiting. There are many classics, everyone knows those, there are many that get forgotten about.
Each year, many Christmas cartoons are made, many of them suck.
Here come a list of those which do not suck.
Winnie The Pooh & Christmas Too (it's on YouTube)
Twas The Night Before Christmas
A Flintstone’s Christmas Carol
Cricket On The Hearth
Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus
Nestor The Long-Earred Christmas Donkey
Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol
The Year Without A Santa Claus
That's not even all of them, either. Those are just my favorites of the lesser known Christmas Treats. That’s not counting all of the classic TV Christmas themed episodes. Nick at Nite and TV Land, long before their programming took a drastic trip down the toilet, would air all Christmas sitcom classics all Christmas eve and day. I was such a classic TV geek I asked for and got the Nick At Night Board game, Christmas '96. CBS did a pretty good job gathering up a dozen or so spread out over 2 DVDs and there are countless others. Then there is the great Saturday Night Live Christmas collection DVD, which I remember watching on TV every year. The Simpsons have 2 Christmas DVD sets as well. Chances are if there is a classic TV series you love, there was at least one Christmas themed episode during the series run. There are tons and tons of Christmas DVDs and specials out thereThe one of course, which might not be suitable for family viewing is “The Draft Dodger” (airdate 12/25/76) of CBS’ “All In The Family” which was without a doubt, one of the greatest television shows of all time, which no network would ever dare taking a chance on in 2011. If you have no idea what I’m talking about and are at all interested in American TV history, watch. Carroll O’Connor delivers the performance of a lifetime.
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