My Top 10 Favorite Christmas Specials by LuciferTheShort on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

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For my first Christmas picture this year, I decided to do a tribute to ten of my favorite Christmas specials. I could have done a tribute to all of them, but listing every single Christmas special I've ever seen AND enjoyed would take forever. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I've seen so many specials in my time.

These specials consist of both Christmas specials I've seen in my youth and ones I've seen in recent years. Also, a special has to meet the following to meet my criteria: A good Christmas special must be entertaining, have some music, some heartwarming moments, and most importantly, that special magical joy that you can only experience when you watch a Christmas special.

10. How the Grinch Stole Christmas- A timeless classic that originated as a book by the late Dr. Seuss, nee Theodore Geisel. It was adapted into an animated special starring Boris Karloff as the Grinch and also a live-action film with Jim Carrey playing the Grinch. I've seen both adaptations and I liked the original adaptation for being such an amusing short and the movie for giving a good reason for the Grinch to hate Christmas(instead of being bothered by the noise of the celebrations for so many years, the Grinch hates it because he had a few terrible moments in his childhood, especially being bullied by Augustus May-Who.) I also liked how the Grinch tried to ruin Christmas at first, but when he saw the citizens of Whoville singing with joy despite him stealing all their presents, his small heart grew two sizes larger and he chose to give everyone their presents back. The live-action movie made the scene even more touching by having the Grinch admit that he was wrong and that he would accept whatever punishment the Whos had in mind, causing the Whos to decide to forgive him for all he's done.

9. Rupert Bear- I am an American, but for a long time I've been fascinated with foreign culture, mainly because my father was a fanatic of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the Second World War, and my mother introduced me to Rupert when I was young. I loved watching the 90's animated series as a child, and it had a decent Christmas episode. The episode had a few major parts of the story: Gregory Guinea Pig's fear of sledding, Podgy Pig's excitement-induced greed, and some forest imps who hated how the people of Nutwood were taking their trees to be decorated.

Gregory manages to prove that he's brave when he helps Rupert recover the stolen trees and decorations, and Rupert ends it for good by explaining the tree tradition to the imps' ogre leader, who happens to like it. A visit to the North Pole earlier in the episode has Santa and his elves express their concern to Rupert that Podgy Pig was too greedy for his own good, one elf even saying that he would deserve a lump of coal. Rupert assures them that Podgy is actually a very nice person and that he just gives Santa Claus a long list because he loves Christmas. As a test of character, Santa has all of the presents delivered to Nutwood having tags reading "For Podgy". Podgy is at first happy that he's received so many presents, but changes his mind and gives all of his presents away when he sees the disappointment of the other children of Nutwood.

8. A Christmas Carol- We all know the story of this classic novel by Charles Dickens. A stingy miser named Ebenezer Scrooge expresses how much he hates Christmas, and he happens to have a man named Bob Cratchit working for him. Cratchit was from a poor family and had to freeze his ass off and work every single day, including Christmas. If it weren't for his paraplegic but cheerful and optimistic son Tiny Tim, you would wonder why he even bothers to keep working for that skinflint Scrooge. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is paid a visit by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley, who warns him that he will be visited by three ghosts that will show him the error of his ways, or else he will suffer in death(some adaptations omit Jacob Marley). And so, Scrooge is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge how innocent he was when he was a child. Apparently, Scrooge also had many lonely Christmases because his father was often away at work. We also learned that he had a fiancee who left him because of his obsession with money. The Ghost of Christmas Present showed Scrooge how the Cratchits were living, even stating that Tiny Tim was in danger of dying. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future showed him what would happen if he continued to be stingy and hate Christmas. The dark future showed Scrooge being dead and falling victim to graverobbers. Some versions of the story would also go far enough to imply that Scrooge would go to hell if he didn't change his ways. In the end, Scrooge wakes up and decides to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, donate some money, and let Bob have the whole day off on Christmas Day.

This one was my all-time favorite Christmas story, and I've seen many adaptations. Ones I remember especially were ones by Animaniacs, The Flinstones,the Disney adaptation that appropriately enough had Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Mr. Bill, and the Muppets.

7. The Smurfs- From what I have read, there were several Christmas specials of the Smurfs, but this year I will catch up. The specific Christmas special that made it to this list was indeed a classic. It had Gargamel, the archnemesis of the Smurfs, meeting a mysterious hooded warlock who gives him a map to Smurf Village and a spell that can destroy it. A couple of kids also get lost and meet the Smurfs, mistaking Papa Smurf for Santa Claus and the others for his elves. Gargamel succeeds in destroying Smurf Village, but he gets double-crossed by the hooded warlock, who turns out to be the two lost kids' wicked uncle. The Smurfs, the kids, and even Gargamel sing the Smurfs' traditional Christmas song, "Goodness Makes the Badness Go Away" to destroy the warlock and the children are returned home.

One of the Smurfs then plays his turmpet solo, which he wanted to do all throughout the special, and it somehow magically restores the presents and the village.

6. Bump in the Night- An hour-long episode of this timeless 90's claymation show. The main plot was that Mr. Bumpy decides to go to the North Pole with Squishington so that they can steal Santa's sack and get all the presents, while Molly Coddle is left at being the director of the Christmas Pageant. On their journey, Bumpy and Squishy make a wrong turn and go to Africa, where they meet an earthworm named Wakim, who wanted a pair of mechanical arms, but couldn't write to Santa because of his lack of arms in the first place. He offers to dig the two to the North Pole, but he mistakenly digs to Stonehenge instead and is presumed to be crushed to death by one of the stones.

At Stonehenge, they meet a hummingbird named Doris D. Bird, who wishes for a jetpack so that she doesn't have to eat junk food just to get the energy she needs to repeatedly flap her wings. Bumpy uses her to get to the North Pole by having Squishy disguised as a burger. Meanwhile, back at the house, Molly finds that the people performing in the pageant refuse to take her seriously, so she resorts to acting like a super-strict drill sergeant.

Mr. Bumpy and Squishington make it to the North Pole and manage to get Santa's bag after dealing with the elves and the snow soldiers. Bumpy also steals Santa's sleigh, but he inadvertently delivers everyone's presents as he flies back home. Everyone gets their presents and Molly is forgiven for how strict she acted, but not at first. The Closet Monster, who was warded off earlier when Bumpy gave him a tie, shows his gratitude by giving Mr. Bumpy a collector's edition sock with a hole in the toe. He promptly eats it, saying that some things are not meant to last.

5. The Addams Family- The original 1960's television show had an episode where Pugsley and Wednesday Addams were looking forward to Santa Claus coming. Pugsley wanted a bow with a quiver of arrows and Wednesday wanted a new Marie Antoinette doll for her guillotine. Gomez, Morticia, Grandmama, Uncle Fester, Cousin Itt, and Lurch all decide to pretend to be Santa and give them the specific presents they wanted. Eventually, the kids find out about the plan, but the real Santa manages to deliver the presents while the adults explained.

It was a pretty funny episode. Seriously, what isn't funny about Lurch and Cousin Itt trying to pass off as Santa Claus? I also laughed a bit at this exchange- Pugsley: Either that's Grandmama or Santa's a woman. Wednesday: Either that, or Grandmama's a man.

4. TMNT- I've always loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ever since watching Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation when I was a kid. Unfortunately, there were only two Christmas specials ever made of the TMNT. Well, one special if you hated We Wish You a Turtle Christmas so much you choose to act like it never existed. I actually liked WWYATC despite how crappy it was, but then again we all have different opinions.

The TMNT entry is dedicated to the best of the two Christmas specials: Michelangelo's one-shot story from the original Mirage Comics, which also got adapted into an episode of the 2003 animated series. Michelangelo finds a couple of crooks who plot to steal a shipment of Little Orphan Alien dolls, which were meant to be given to an orphanage. Mikey knew that he couldn't have a bunch of disappointed orphans on his conscience, so he kicked the scoundrels' butts and adopted a pet cat named Klunk.

3. The Mask- The animated series The Mask, which was loosely based on the film starring Jim Carrey, which was in turn very loosely based on the Dark Horse Comics series, had one Christmas episode called Santa Mask, where it turns out that Mayor Tilton has rules that anyone caught dead in a Santa suit on Christmas Eve should get arrested. This is because all the criminals in Edge City happen to be dressing up as Santa while they commit crimes. We see this done by Pretorius's mute strongman Walter, the mutant dolts Putty Thing and Fish Guy, Kablamus the Exploding Man, and two crooks that only appeared in this episode named Don Julovit and Dynamite Joe. In the process, the police also arrest Stanley Ipkiss, who happened to be forced to dress as Santa as part of a publicity stunt for the bank he works at, and the real Santa.

There's also a conversation between Lieutenant Kellaway and his incompetent assistant Doyle where it turns out that Kellaway doesn't believe in Santa Claus just because he didn't get what he wanted for Christmas when he was a kid: a toy called Captain Choo-Choo. Ipkiss manages to get out of jail and tries to use his persona as the Mask to fix Christmas.

After dealing with Kellaway and Doyle as well as Pretorius, Ipkiss wakes up the next morning to learn that the real Santa managed to finish his deliveries on time. Kellaway also finds Captain Choo-Choo, which looks like an ordinary toy train, but he still doesn't believe in Santa.

2. Rankin-Bass- Rankin-Bass was the name of a film company best known for its Christmas movies. I can't possibly pick one, so I'll give all of my favorite Christmas movies by Rankin-Bass: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

1. The Santa Clause- A timeless film series starring Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a man who ends up accidentally killing Santa Claus, but in the process he ends up transforming slowly into his replacement. He isn't accepting to do the job at first, but gradually warms up to the job when his son insists on it. The first sequel had a Mrs. Claus introduced, formerly Principal Newman from Scott's son's school(I had some trouble understanding it at first because I knew about Scott's ex-wife, but I was not familiar with divorce when I first saw these movies). The third and final film brought in Scott Calvin's infant son and Jack Frost trying to take over Christmas. Jack was an interesting villain. The scene in the bad timeline where he became Santa was unforgettable, especially when he told over the intercom the obvious lie that your parents only love you when your Christmas presents are expensive. Just because a present is cheap doesn't mean it's a bad one!

I plan to make more Christmas pictures up until Christmas Day, and suggestions are welcome!