I am saying, “Enough with books, TV is for me!”
When I was in 3rd grade we got a VCR. We got it for Christmas. It was a family present and we opened it early so we got to start recording Christmas specials right away. It was December of 1987. It is hard to believe that before then we had no options for re-watching our favorite television other than waiting for our favorite shows to be played again. The arrival of the VCR kind of coincided with my prime childhood years. Age 8 was a great age because I was old enough to learn how to use the VCR to record the shows I wanted to watch, and watch shows I did.
My sisters and I really took to recording our favorite shows and watching them over and over again. I remember a few times when my mom made tapes with shows we refused to stop watching over and over again go missing because our obsession with them was starting to get annoying (Full House) or the show or movie was just plain odd. (Can anybody say The Return to Oz?).
We didn’t have cable when I was a kid. We only got five channels, but this in no way inhibited the amount of TV I watched. I am not embarrassed to say it, I watched a lot of TV! (Don’t worry, I also went outside.) But I think watching TV influence who I am as a person. I enjoy pop culture as an adult. I like serialized storytelling.
In any case, sometimes I think about my favorite Christmas Specials from my childhood and I get a little wistful. So here is my list of my favorite Christmas Specials from my childhood. If you are a Xenial like me (a person who is part of the micro-generation born between 1977-1985) you might remember some of these specials too!
This blog post is going to be broken up into two parts because today is the first time I am embedding Youtube videos in my blog posts. I am out of my depth yall, so I am going to need some extra time to tell you about my favorite Christmas specials.
Favorite Christmas Specials from My Childhood: Part 1
A Garfield Christmas: I loved this. We taped it, of course, and watched it every year. I think I also remember that there was a U.S. Acres Christmas special that went along with it. I borrowed it from my library and re-watched it again a few years ago. It was more wistful then I remember but it held up. Watch a clip below.
2.) A Very Brady Christmas: The Brady kids are all grown up and home with their families for Christmas and NOW THEY HAVE GROWNUP PROBLEMS! See how many calamities they can get into in 93 minutes!
3. Mickey’s Christmas Carol: Scrooge McDuck plays the Ebenezer Scrooge part in this re-telling of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. This is actually my favorite Christmas Carol adaptation. It is hard to find these days. it isn’t on Netflix or Hulu as far as I can tell. You can buy it on Amazon by clicking here.
4) The Snowman: This movie is the film adaptation of the Raymond Briggs picture book. We didn’t actually tape this one off of TV, one of my aunts gave us the VHS tape for Christmas in the early 90’s. It a wordless movie and picture book is wordless too but the musical score is incredible.
What Christmas TV and movies did you love when you were a kid? Respond in the comment section.
My favorite scene from “A Very Brady Christmas” was when Mr. Brady went into the collapsing building and it – gasp! – collapsed on him! The Brady family held hands and sang silent night, which woke Mr. Brady up even though he had a head injury.
Here are my 2 favorite scenes from Mickey’s Christmas Carol:
1.) Mickey and Minnie mourn the death of Tiny Tim by looking at his empty chair and his little crutch.
2.) When the Angel of Death (I mean, the Ghost of Christmas Future) pushes Scrooge McDuck into his newly-dug grave.
I like the part in the Brady Bunch Christmas where Jan and her husband almost get separated. I also like it when Marsha says, “Don’t be sorry, just be Wally.” When her husband apologizes for not being there for family Christmas.
Mickey’s Christmas Carol is really dark. I was always scared by the Ghost of Christmas future and super sad about the Tiny Tim part and how they only had that one turkey leg and they let there soon to be dead baby son eat it. But I liked the Duck dance where Ebeneezer danced with girl duck and I guess I like that Disney made A Christmas Carol almost painless.
My whole family loved Garfield’s Christmas special. To this day, my dad and I quote it. I own it and still watch it.
Your post made me so happy!
Yay!!! Grandma really opens up to Garfield. I like the sequence at the beginning with all of the lasagna.
Here are some more thoughts:
1.) I remember watching “Garfield Christmas” over and over. I am pretty sure that this was one of the tapes that mysteriously disappeared.
2.) I remember that “Return to Oz” was really, really messed up. Didn’t one of the Wicked Witches turn most of the people in Oz into headless statues or something? We watched it a lot with neighbor girl Abby. I am pretty sure that Mom hated that movie.