Top Ten Christmas Specials

Well, I haven’t yet gotten to the part where I mention all of the cancelled shows from the previous TV season, but I hope to have that ready before the year ends. I do have something more timely that I am bringing you now this post. There isn’t too much to mention in terms of rules here. All you need to know if that if you don’t see something mentioned, it could be because I would rather mention it in the top TV Christmas episodes that I might do in the future. This is a list of all of the best specials in my mind that have aired in the past. I’m familiar with all of these, even if you aren’t. I hope that you enjoy the list and all of the choices that I put on it.

#10 The Story of Santa Claus: I’ve only seen this once and might only have this on the list due to a lack of other good choices to make this a list of ten choices. But this is a story that seeks to give the origins of Santa Claus in an interesting way as well as explaining how he got immortality. It’s not as good in my mind as another choice on this list, but I like it enough, if only because I realized something else I was going to put on this list was an episode and not a special.

#9 Claymation Christmas Special: While this is worthy of the list to me, it is nothing more than just some Christmas songs done to claymation works. I liked the songs in it and wish that it was aired still on TV. I might not have even known about it were it not on a tape of recorded things that I would watch.

#8 The Tangerine Bear: Here’s another more obscure one that I’m putting on the list. There aren’t that many that are notable in my mind. But I do like this special about an oddball stuffed animal who learns about how to be accepted in life. We don’t get as much from the toy’s perspectives in a lot of shows, but I do like how this person learns that he was always where he belonged, even if he didn’t know it at first and it took him until the end of the special.

#7 The Wish that Changed Christmas: In a very short amount of time, everyone gets what they want to in this special. It is such a nice special about finding purpose in life and has everything about family and friends, with everyone’s wishes fulfilled.

#6 The Christmas Toy: This special is largely set on Christmas Eve and then the next day. It features the jealousy of one toy over the introduction of a new toy. And they learn good lessons in the end about what to expect in life.

#5 Frosty the Snowman: It is kind of hard not to like this special and root for the snowman as he gets to live at the North Pole at the end. There are some realism issues with this, but that’s bound to happen when cartoons like this exist. There’s a reason that this has aired for quite a long time. I just wish that this didn’t keep airing with the awful Frosty Returns.

#4 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: There’s a reason that this has more or less aired every year after it first aired over 50 years ago. There have been attempts to recapture the magic of this by doing movies or sequels based off of this, but the original will always shine in a good place on TV with very little in it that makes it outdated.

#3 The Garfield Christmas Special: Here’s another possibly random one, but it annoys me that a lot of people will not know about the greatness of this special. There are a lot of good references in here over what really makes Christmas so good and enjoyable. I wish that everyone could remember these words about the true meaning of Christmas: “It’s not the giving, it’s not the getting; it’s the loving.”

#2 Santa Claus is Coming to Town: It was a long time before I saw this special and still think that I have only seen an edited down version. Still, I like how this creates a good story about who Santa Claus is for all of the kids to enjoy. It is very iconic in my mind and deserves to be shown every year like it is.

#1 A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Peanuts gang brings us their first and most iconic of all of the specials that they have done. While loving can be agreed upon as the meaning of Christmas for all religions, this one gets the number one spot for actually mentioning the story of Jesus in it. So many people might not have any idea what the Christ story is were in not for this special. But it is good in other ways, such as keeping the whole Peanuts aspect to the story and using actual children for the voice work. It may seem awkward in some places, but I don’t think that fans would have it any other way.

There’s not much to add in the closing, except saying why some specials aren’t on here. I didn’t put the PBS special Arthur’s Perfect Christmas on here as I felt that it was more of TV show episode than it was a true special. I didn’t put either of the Smurfs Christmas specials on here as I felt that they didn’t have enough Christmasness in them. I didn’t put How the Grinch Stole Christmas on here because I honestly prefer the Jim Carrey movie to it and figure it is along the lines of why watch the regular edition of The Lord of the Rings when you can watch the extended edition? I think that’s all for this post now.