The Christmas season is now upon us, the best time of the
year. A time for family and friends and of course for many of us, this is also
the time where we watch numerous Christmas specials and Christmas-themed movies.
They’ve become such an iconic part of the season and we have had plenty of great
specials and movies, both timeless classics and recent hits. So this month on
Rhode Island Movie Corner, I’ll be listing both my Top 10 personal favorite
Christmas specials and my Top 10 personal favorite Christmas movies. This will
be a two-part post and today I’m delving into my Top 10 favorite Christmas
specials of all time. There have been many, many Christmas specials over the
years so if one of your favorites is on this list, the reason for it will
mostly likely be because I haven’t seen it yet. And for the record, this is not
a ‘Best of’ list; these are just my Top 10 favorite Christmas specials, the
majority of whom I’ve seen on an annual basis ever since I was a kid. Finally,
I want to note that in regards to the Christmas post I did last year on most of
the Rankin-Bass specials, I assure you that this list will not be entirely
dominated by those specials; in fact, only three of them made the Top 10. So
without further ado, grab a seat in your favorite chair with your hot chocolate
and/or eggnog as I give you my Top 10 all-time favorite Christmas specials. But
first, some honorable mentions…
HONORABLE MENTIONS
As I just noted a few seconds ago, I didn’t want this list
to be dominated by Rankin-Bass specials. So with that in mind, I’ll be starting
off the Honorable Mentions sections with the three Rankin-Bass ‘runner-ups’
that missed the final cut. First up is one of the most iconic entries in the
company’s filmography, ‘Frosty the Snowman’. I’ll personally admit that of the three
most famous Rankin-Bass specials (SPOILERS: You’ll see both of them somewhere
on this list) this is probably my least favorite of the three (not that there’s
anything wrong with the special itself) but regardless of that it is still a
Rankin-Bass classic. Then there’s ‘Jack Frost’, one of the funniest (if not the
funniest) specials in the Rankin-Bass filmography highlighted by the hilarious
villain Kubla Kraus, the wicked Cossack King. And finally there’s ‘The Year
Without a Santa Claus’, which is actually remembered more for two of its side
characters, the Miser brothers Heat Miser and Snow Miser, than the actual
special itself. Still, it’s another solid entry in the Rankin-Bass lineup
thanks to the company’s usual top-notch stop motion animation, the great
writing and strong themes of Christmas spirit and the spirit of giving, and of
course the Miser brothers, who are undeniably the biggest standouts of the
entire special.
As for the non-Rankin-Bass Honorable Mentions, I’ll start
things off with the recent ‘Prep and Landing’ specials produced by Disney. This
series focuses a special group of Santa’s Elves, more specifically the duo of
Wayne and Lanny, whose job is to prep homes all over the world for Santa when
he visits them every year on Christmas. There have two specials so far, the
original ‘Prep and Landing’ from 2009 and ‘Naughty vs. Nice’ from 2011, along
with a seven-minute short ‘Operation: Secret Santa’ that was released in 2010
with another special currently in the works. Both benefit from their solid premise
and great animation and voice-acting and I am very eager to see what they do
next with this franchise. Finally, there’s ‘Merry Christmas Drake and Josh!’
the series finale to one of my favorite shows when I was a kid, ‘Drake and
Josh’, in which Drake Bell and Josh Peck starred as two boys who end up
becoming brothers when their parents get married. In this special (technically
a TV movie), the two of them get in trouble with the law resulting in them having
to work to give a group of foster kids ‘the best Christmas ever’ in order to
avoid going to jail. Fans of this sitcom will no doubt enjoy this special as it
has everything that made the show great; humor, the great camaraderie between
the two leads, and much more.
Starting things off at Number 10 are a pair of
direct-to-video Christmas specials from Disney. Despite their ‘direct-to-video’
status, I do watch them every year because I really enjoy them both and I
always love seeing the classic Disney characters.
10. MICKEY’S ONCE AND TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS
These two films both feature a series of Christmas stories
starring the classic Disney characters; Mickey Mouse and his friends. ‘Mickey’s
Once Upon a Christmas’ was released in 1999 and is a traditionally-animated
special while 2004’s ‘Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas’ was computer-animated,
basically serving as the first foray for Mickey and his friends into computer
animation (along with the Mickey’s PhilharMagic attraction at the Magic Kingdom
in Walt Disney World). As far as the animation goes, both are solid (as far as
direct-to-video projects are concerned) and feature just the right amount of
Christmas spirit and heartwarming moments that one would normally expect in a
Christmas special. Actually before I begin I just want to talk about something
interesting that happened to me when I was younger. One of the first DVD’s I
ever remember owning (that my parents bought for me) was ‘Mickey’s Once Upon a
Christmas’. But here’s the thing… while the DVD had the correct packaging and
the front of the DVD itself was for ‘Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas’, that DVD
was for a completely different movie; ‘Thomas and the Magic Railroad’. This is
the only time this has ever happened to me and to this day I’m still baffled
over why this happened. Sound off in the comments section below if something
like this has ever happened to you as well.
Anyway, there are three stories in ‘Once Upon a Christmas’.
In ‘Stuck on Christmas’, Huey, Dewey, and Louie make a wish that it would be
Christmas every day. Their wish comes true but it just ends up being that the
same events of that Christmas day end up repeating themselves over and over and
over again a la ‘Groundhog Day’. In ‘A Very Goofy Christmas’, Goofy tries to
prove to his son Max that Santa does exist when Max’s faith in Santa starts to
falter when their neighbor Pete tells him that he isn’t real. Finally, there’s
‘Mickey and Minnie’s Gift of the Magi’, which follows the same general plot of
the short story ‘Gift of the Magi’ by O. Henry. Mickey and Minnie are looking
to get each other Christmas gifts that go along with their prized possessions,
Mickey’s harmonica and Minnie’s watch, respectively. But due to their financial
troubles, both end up selling their prized possessions just to get each other
their gifts but they realize that their love for each other is all that they
ever need. The animation is really nice and while it admittedly can be a bit
overly sentimental at times, that doesn’t bother me too much (I guess you can say
I’m a fairly sentimental guy). My favorite segment of the three is probably the
‘Gift of the Magi’ story for its heart and emotionally poignant moments.
‘Twice Upon a Christmas’ ups the ante by having five
stories, which are as follows. In ‘Belles on Ice’, Minnie and Daisy get into a
fairly heated rivalry when the two perform in a local ice skating competition. ‘Christmas:
Impossible’ centers on the trio of Huey, Dewey, and Louie who realize that due
to their constant troublemaking, they are sure to end up on Santa’s naughty
list this year. So with little time for them to clean up their act the
old-fashioned way, they sneak up to the North Pole to try and put themselves on
the Nice List. In ‘Christmas Maximus’, Max, now grown up after the ‘A Very
Goofy Christmas’ story from ‘Once Upon a Christmas’, finds himself continually embarrassed
by Goofy when he brings his girlfriend home for Christmas. ‘Donald’s Gift’, as
the title suggests, focuses on Donald, of course, as he becomes more and more
agitated by the holidays (specifically due to the constant playing of the song ‘We
Wish You a Merry Christmas’), wishing only for peace and quiet and a good hot
chocolate. ‘Mickey’s Dog-Gone Christmas’ closes out the group of stories with
Mickey and Pluto, the latter of whom runs away to the North Pole after getting
into trouble with Mickey while he was in the middle of decorating the house.
As far as the animation is concerned, I can’t really say it’s
‘as good’ as the animation in ‘Once Upon a Christmas’, which I mainly attribute
to the fact that this is one of Disney’s first attempts at computer animation
after taking a hiatus in regards to doing hand-drawn animation. I don’t think
the animation is bad, for the record, it’s just that it’s more or less what you
would expect from a direct-to-video release. As for the individual stories, ‘Belles
on Ice’ was probably my least favorite as a kid (in fact, sometimes when I
watched this, I skipped over it) and looking back on it, it still is. There’s
not really anything wrong about it as it has some colorful animation/visuals
but I realize that there’s not much about it related to Christmas unlike the
other four segments. On the flipside, ‘Christmas: Impossible’ was my favorite
growing up and it still very much is with its solid pacing and fun premise. One
that is slowly becoming one of my favorites of the five is ‘Christmas Maximus’,
which gets across a lot of heart and emotion which is impressive given that it
might be the shortest of the five segments and is mostly non-dialogue as a song
plays over the story. ‘Donald’s Gift’ and ‘Mickey’s Dog-Gone Christmas’ are
also pretty solid too, with the former having many unique ways of playing the
song ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ (watch the movie and you’ll know what I
mean by that). Ultimately, I kind of prefer ‘Twice Upon a Christmas’ (mostly
due to the fact I’ve watched it more times than ‘Once Upon a Christmas’ given
the whole mislabeled DVD scenario I mentioned earlier) but I do feel that the
first one is slightly better. Still, I do watch these two movies every year and
I’m always a fan of watching stuff with the classic Disney characters.
Two Christmas specials from two of my favorite shows while I
was growing up are on this list and the first comes in at Number 9 from one of
my all-time favorites… SpongeBob SquarePants.
9. SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: CHRISTMAS WHO?
On paper, the idea of a SpongeBob SquarePants Christmas
special seems a little preposterous given that this is a series about a group
of sea creatures. But even with that in mind, SpongeBob delivered a really nice
little special in ‘Christmas Who’ which really looked into the idea of what a
Bikini Bottom Christmas would be like. In this special, SpongeBob first learns
of Christmas and Santa Claus through his friend Sandy Cheeks, the only land
creature living underwater. So then he tells everyone else about it and they
all get excited for Christmas, all except Squidward who of course is his usual
grouchy self as he feels that it’s all just ‘a scam’. But everyone else in
Bikini Bottom ignores this and goes on with their celebration… that is until
Christmas Day when Santa doesn’t appear. With their enthusiasm now gone,
Squidward initially revels in being right for once but after seeing how
depressed SpongeBob gets about the whole situation, Squidward finally sees the
error of his ways and works to set things right. This special features a nice
little arc for the usually bitter Squidward, who I think it’s safe to say has
some similarities to another famous Christmas figure (who we’ll get to in a
little while) and despite the strange notion of sea creatures celebrating
Christmas, it is still pretty fun to see everyone in Bikini Bottom get into the
holiday spirit. And that is why ‘Christmas Who’ is another solid Christmas
special, coming from one of my favorite animated shows of all time.
(P.S. I haven’t watched the other SpongeBob Christmas special,
‘It’s a SpongeBob Christmas’, at the time I’m writing this and, to be honest,
given the current run of the show, I don’t really plan on checking it out,
despite the fact that it was made in a style similar to Rankin-Bass with the
stop-motion animation).
I’m going with a little more ‘mature’ Christmas special at
Number 8. The best of this series’ Christmas specials for one primary reason
that I don’t even want to spoil.
8. SOUTH PARK: WOODLAND CRITTER CHRISTMAS
There have been quite a lot of ‘South Park’ Christmas-themed
episodes, a lot of which centered on the character Mr. Hankey, the Christmas
Poo. But the episode that easily takes the cake for being the best of South
Park’s Christmas specials is Season 8’s ‘Woodland Critter Christmas’, which is
currently the most recent Christmas episode of the show… and it first aired a
decade ago. Why is this one so great? Well, I can’t even tell you the main
reason for this because I fear that doing so would spoil the episode. The plot
involves Stan (referred to by the narrator (because it’s a Christmas special,
of course and the reveal of who the narrator is truly is comedic gold) as the
‘boy in the red-poof-ball hat’) who comes across a group of talking woodland
creatures who are celebrating the holidays. One of them is having a baby who
the animals refer to as their ‘Savior’ but they reveal to Stan that they
constantly come into conflict with a mountain lion who always eats the
expecting mother so Stan tries to help them out. And really that’s as far as I
can go with the plot without giving anything else away. The big twist revolving
around the Woodland Critters is so hilarious showcasing how this special may
seem like your average light-hearted Christmas special but in reality it isn’t
and like with many of the other great South Park episodes, you really have to
hand it to creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their writing. Sure, it gets
incredibly dark and sick at times, something you really don’t see with most
Christmas specials, but like many of the other ‘South Park’ episodes, it’s also
incredibly funny, which is why it’s at the Number 8 spot on this list.
Going back to the shows of my childhood, we have Number 7, a
special that offers a very unique take on the concept of a ‘time loop’ story
like ‘Groundhog Day’, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, or the ‘Stuck on Christmas’ story
from the aforementioned ‘Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas’.
7. FAIRLY ODDPARENTS: CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY
Like the ‘Stuck on Christmas’ story from ‘Once Upon a
Christmas’, the first Christmas special from ‘The Fairly Oddparents’ also had a
plot centered around what it would be like if Christmas happened every day. For
those who haven’t seen the show before, it’s about a ten-year old boy named
Timmy Turner who is granted a pair of Fairy Godparents in Cosmo and Wanda, who
are able to grant his every wish allowing him to deal with his everyday
problems. In ‘Christmas Every Day’, Timmy is incredibly eager about Christmas
given that it is one of the only times of the year where he can spend time with
his parents, who are rather neglectful towards him most of the time leaving him
with his ‘evil’ (literally) babysitter Vicky. So Timmy ends up wishing that it
could be Christmas every day. But the key thing about this special is how it
handles the whole ‘Christmas Every Day’ concept. In ‘Stuck on Christmas’, it
was done in a way similar to ‘Groundhog Day’ in which the day kept repeating
over and over again. But here the day doesn’t actually repeat; instead, it’s
just that every single day is Christmas which as we see soon starts to take its
toll on everybody. Schools, banks, and supermarkets remain closed, Christmas
Carolers have to make up new lyrics for the song ’12 Days of Christmas’ once
they go past 12 days, and everyone tries to prevent Santa from delivering
presents to them. Even the military tries to take him out, which is easily one
of the funniest moments in the entire special.
That’s the biggest strength of this special, as it offers a
really unique spin on the whole ‘Christmas Every Day’ storyline, showing that
although the idea of every day being Christmas might sound nice, it will start
to get on your nerves. Not only that, but this special shows that even Santa
can be pressured by this due to the fact that he constantly has to make new
toys for kids to the point where he has to try and combine various objects when
he starts to run out of ideas. The first day of Christmas, Timmy has an ‘ocean’
of presents to open but a few days later, that ocean becomes just a tiny ‘puddle’
of toys. Also, it’s worth noting that all of the fairy godparents in the world
give most of their magic to Santa during this time of the year so Timmy just
can’t wish things back to the way they were. And then to top it all off, the
other holiday mascots, like the Easter Bunny and the April Fool, try to get rid
of Santa by basically ‘banishing’ him to the imaginary date of ‘February 33rd’.
Yeah this show can be pretty weird when you really think about it but as far as
Christmas specials go this is another one of my personal favorites as it has
the fun and imagination that made ‘Fairly Oddparents’ such a great show along
with plenty of Christmas spirit.
Like I said before, I made sure that this list wasn’t going
to be entirely dominated by Rankin-Bass specials. But at Number 6 we have the
first of the three of their Specials that did make this list and while it may
not be Number 1, I feel that this special is pretty much a masterpiece.
6. THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY
Growing up, I usually just watched the big 3 Rankin-Bass
specials; ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’,
and ‘Frosty the Snowman’. It wasn’t until I got a little older when I really
started to watch the other Rankin-Bass specials and ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ is
easily one of the best of the non-Big 3 specials of Rankin Bass, if not the
best of that group. Pretty much everything about this special is terrific. The
animation is solid (as usual) and the narration by Greer Garson is excellent as
is the performance of the title song by the Vienna Boys Choir, which is easily
the best rendition of this classic holiday melody. Also, as is typical with
many Rankin-Bass productions, the characters are of course incredibly
memorable, from the Three Wise Men (all voiced by the same actor, Paul Frees,
who also voiced Kubla Kraus in ‘Jack Frost’) to the ‘villain’ Ben Haramad to
the Little Drummer Boy himself, Aaron. One of the best things about this entire
special is that Aaron has a nice little arc in this as he learns to trust all
humans once again after bandits killed his parents some time ago. All in all,
it’s a really touching story with a heartwarming finale where Aaron performs on
his drum for baby Jesus, which is a truly mesmerizing moment. All in all, this results
in one top-notch effort from Rankin-Bass. It was followed by a sequel 8 years
later in ‘The Little Drummer Boy Book II’ and while I can’t say it’s as good as
the original, it’s still a pretty solid special highlighted by a scene-stealing
performance by Zero Mostel as the leader of a band of Roman soldiers.
Another Holiday Classic takes up the Number 5 spot. We’ve
all seen it and it’s fairly impossible not to like it.
5. A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
In some ways it’s fascinating to see this special become one
of the most iconic Christmas specials of all time given that on paper it seemed
like it was going to be a disaster. It was produced on a fairly minimum budget
of $76,000 (later going $20,000 over-budget) and made in a very short span of
time in just six months. But as Doug Walker (AKA The Nostalgia Critic)
rightfully put it, this may be the reason why it is so good; because it isn’t
trying to be something it’s not. It’s a very straight-forward story but one
with a lot of heart critiquing the whole commercialistic side of Christmas,
like how most of Charlie Brown’s friends get angry at him because when he told
to go get a big aluminum Christmas Tree (which by the way I must ask… was that
ever really a thing?), he go gets a small fir tree. But of course it was the
thought that counts and as Linus puts it at the end, ‘all it needed was a
little love’. To paraphrase something Doug said, this is a ‘No BS’ special and
because of this, it leaves quite a lasting impression on everyone and is quite
timeless. What more can be said about this true Christmas classic?
And yet another Holiday classic comes in at Number 4, this
one from the minds of animator Chuck Jones and author Dr. Seuss.
4. HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS
Animator Chuck Jones has quite an impressive filmography.
He’s worked on multiple Looney Tunes shorts and was also responsible for the
creation of iconic characters such as Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew, and Wile
E. Coyote and the Road Runner. He also directed the first major TV special
based on the works of author Theodor Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss with ‘How the Grinch
Stole Christmas’. It’s the tale of a surly curmudgeon known as the Grinch who
lives on a mountain and hates Christmas, especially due to the fact that he has
had to deal with the Whos living down in the town of Whoville, who, in contrast
with him, absolutely love the holidays. Fed up with it all, he decides to
‘steal their Christmas’ by disguising himself as Santa Claus and sneaks down
into the town stealing all of their presents, decorations, etc… There are
plenty of good things about the special; the animation, the music, the writing
of Dr. Seuss, and the dual performance of Boris Karloff in the roles of the
Grinch and the narrator. Of course, I’m sure that many of us grew up with the
works of Dr. Seuss so this might be one of the first specials most of you have
ever seen and needless to say it’s another timeless Holiday Classic.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about my thoughts on the other
major adaptation of this story… well… I’ll get into that next time… needless to
say a lot of you are going to disagree with me when it comes to what I think
about that one.
We’re heading back to Rankin-Bass for Number 3 and it’s a
big one; after all, how can someone not love the one Christmas special that
effectively made Rankin-Bass a household name.
3. RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
You really can’t go wrong with this one now, can you? We’ve
all seen it, we all remember the characters, the songs, the animation, the sad
moments, the happy moments, etc. It was Rankin-Bass’ first major stop-motion
animated Christmas special and even though it’s now been half a century since
its original release, it is still an undeniable Christmas classic. It has a
great message of non-conformity showing how it’s okay to be different than
others, shown through Rudolph’s journey as he is initially teased by the other
reindeer because of his glowing red nose (to quote his father Donner, ‘his beak
blinks like a blinking beacon!!’) but soon finds his true purpose in life to
guide Santa’s sleigh when it seems like the worst blizzard of all time might
end up ruining Christmas. Of course, there’s the other great characters in the
special, like Hermey the Elf, who just wants to be a dentist, and of course
everyone’s favorite prospector, Yukon Cornelius, who’s on the search for gold
(GOLD!!!!!!! YA-HOO!!!!... (licks pickaxe) Nothing!). Hopefully this special
lives on for another 50 years and even longer after that because it truly is
one of the all-time best Christmas specials of all time. But wait, you’re
probably asking, then why is it only number 3 on this list? Well, that’s
because while I do love Rudolph, there’s another Rankin-Bass special that I
love even more.
There have been many adaptations of the classic story that
my Number 2 pick is also adapted from, but quite frankly this is my personal
favorite of them all.
2. MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
‘A Christmas Carol’ has easily been one of the most adapted
stories of all time when it comes to film. There have been many films and TV
movies based on Charles Dickens’ classic story, some going the traditional
route while others do some things different, like having the film be a musical
or, in the case of something like ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’, have famous
characters play the characters of the story. ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ is
perfectly cast in regards to who is playing who; Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge
(obviously), Mickey as Bob Cratchit, Jiminy Cricket, the Giant from ‘Mickey and
the Beanstalk’, and Pete as the Three Ghosts, etc. Another great aspect of this
special in particular is how it effectively condenses the whole story of ‘A
Christmas Carol’ into a twenty-six minute short film. Sure, there are some
elements of the story that aren’t in this version but it moves along at a solid
pace and still has the emotional beats and heartwarming moments that show why
this story is so iconic. Why else would it be adapted into either a film or a
TV-movie so many times? I have a feeling this is possibly the first major
adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’ that a lot of people saw when they were
younger, hence why it’s so timeless and that’s why it’s my personal favorite
take on ‘A Christmas Carol’.
And finally we have Number 1, which is not only my all-time
favorite Christmas special, but my personal favorite from the Rankin-Bass
lineup (yes, even more so than Rudolph). To top the list, we have…
1. SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN
It can be argued over which is the absolute best Rankin-Bass
Christmas special of all time and ultimately while I still very much love ‘Rudolph
the Red Nosed Reindeer’, my absolute favorite Rankin-Bass special, as it has
been ever since I was a kid, is 1970’s ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’,
narrated by Fred Astaire in the role of mailman S.D. Kluger. It’s the tale of
Santa Claus back when he was known as Kris Kringle and how he became known as
Santa Claus as we learn many things like how he got his famous red suit or
where he got his flying reindeer from. This special is incredibly well-paced, features
the usual great stop-motion animation that Rankin-Bass was known for, and a
great cast of characters. There’s Kris Kringle/Santa Claus of course, perfectly
voiced by Mickey Rooney who has the right amount of kindness and warmth for the
role. There’s also Keenan Wynn as the initially evil Winter Warlock, who turns
out to be a pretty swell guy when his frozen heart melts (no ‘Frozen’ pun intended)
and the funny bad guy in Burgermeister Meisterburger, voiced by Rankin-Bass
regular Paul Frees. And then there’s the iconic songs including ‘Put One Foot
in Front of the Other’ and ‘First Toymaker to the King’. The bottom line is
that I love pretty much every aspect of this special and I think the writing is
superb giving us a really fun look at the origins of Santa Claus, which is
actually a more traditional take in this special compared to the other ‘origins
of Santa’ special from Rankin-Bass, ‘The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus’,
which was more like something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’, which is fitting
seeing how it was written by ‘Wizard of Oz’ author L. Frank Baum. Still, there’s
no denying the timeless nature of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, hence why it
is my all-time favorite Christmas special.
So those are my Top 10 all-time favorite Christmas specials.
Check back in soon for part 2 of this post, in which I list my Top 10 favorite
Christmas movies.
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