When writing yesterday’s post, I don’t know if I showed adequate love for what these specials and shows meant to me. My sisters and I would begin watching them on VHS the day after Thanksgiving and probably continue until we went back to school after New Year’s Day. I liked the ritual of wrapping presents in front of the TV while watching these shows on tape. One year, I bought a small artificial tree at the Berlin Pharmacy with my allowance money and every year after that I loved making red and green paper chains for my tree during Thanksgiving break while watching our taped shows. I did this well into my teens; I probably brought the tree to my college dorm and thought about doing it there too.
This year, if time allows before Christmas, I hope to write a send up to the commercials that were on during these shows because I loved the Christmas commercials of this era too! (I want to give a shout-out to the Pennsylvania Lottery holiday commercial and the Eat’n Park Christmas tree commercial).
Without further ado, here are some other other Christmas VHS Classics:
Favorite Christmas Specials: Part 2
Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas: I know that this special aired on CBS and featured vignettes from all sorts of claymation characters but I am sorry to say that I remember almost nothing about any of the other things that happened in this special except that it featured the California Raisins.
In late 80’s, the California Raisins were everywhere. I am pretty sure they even had a Super Bowl Commercial. They were that famous. I think I got a California Raisin’s shirt for Christmas around that time. They only appeared one small part of the special but I feel like the commercial for the Claymation Christmas show made it look like Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas was the California Raisin Christmas Special.
This special became mythical for me for one particular reason–our tape went mysteriously missing during a period when we were particularly obsessed with it. We never found it again. I should have filed a police report but I am pretty sure my mom had something to do with it. We did play it non stop for a while. Eventually, moved on to other obsessions but I never quite stopped wondering where the tape went.
Here is a clip of the California Raisins singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer from the Claymation Special.
Frosty the Snowman: I am afraid to admit this but I have never really been into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but something about Frosty, another creation of the Rankin/ Bass creative team, just speaks to me. Maybe it is Jimmy Durante voicing the narrator. I always thought he sounded just like McGruff the Crime Dog. In fact I remember asking my Dad once, “Is the guy who does the narrator voice on Frosty the Snowman McGruff the Crime Dog?” I think he just looked at me. I also like the Gene Autry Frosty the Snowman song.
Yet, I don’t really understand why Frosty has to be relegated just to Christmas in the Rankin/ Bass television special. Christmas isn’t even mentioned in the original song. They could have made something that we could enjoy in January or February when we really need something to watch on TV. Oh well, I guess those where the creative choices that they made at the time. Watch Frosty below
The Baby-Sitters Club Special Christmas: By the time my sisters and I received this video as a gift for Christmas, I was already aging out of Babysitter’s Club fandom, but that didn’t stop me from fulling embracing it with open arms. This special is different than some of the others on the list because it was not taped off TV and I am not sure it ever appeared on TV. However, it was an integral part of my holiday special watching throughout my teenage years. My sisters and I are still nostalgic for it.
Here is a quick synopsis: The babysitters are planning a special party at the hospital for sick children. Wise beyond her years, thirteen-year-old Kristy Thomas de-clutters her 40 something mother’s closet for some reason and tells her, “If you don’t wear something for at least a year, you supposed to give it away.”
Then all of the babysitters go secret Santa shopping for each other at the fanciest department store I have ever seen (think Bloomingdales at the King of Prussia mall). They proceed to try everything on in the store and nobody seems to care. Resident diabetic and babysitter Stacy McCall eats sweets.
We also learn that Stacy is in the exact same hospital as the Babysitter’s Club Christmas party because eating sweets made her diabetes act up. The specials ends with Kristy finding the Christmas spirit and giving away her super-expensive new softball glove (that she had to extra chores to earn) at the hospital Christmas party to one of the sick kids. It is awesome and so early 90’s.
Charlie Brown Christmas: What is there to say, Charlie Brown Christmas is classic. Who knew that jazz music and the Peanuts gang would go so well together and stand the test of time? My favorite part is Linus who is always so wise. I also like Sally, who complains that Santa never gives her what she really wants which is real estate.
Scrooged: This movie doesn’t fit the typical mold for this post. It is a feature film staring Bill Murray that appeared in the theatres in 1988. We taped it off of TV sometime in the early 90’s. My memory of watching this movie is of the “made for TV version” so I know it is somewhat sanitized compared to the feature film version. It is a retelling of A Christmas Carol with Bill Murray playing the Ebenezer Scrooge part. I always liked Carol Kane as the clumsy fairy who plays the Ghost of Christmas present and Karen Allen who plays his long lost love. I tried to watch the DVD version of this movie a few years ago and found it to be super dark. In my opinion at the time, it didn’t age well but still Bill Murray plays the title role with a typical Bill Murray charm. Watch the movie trailer below.
Well, that is all for now. What other movies do you like at the holiday time?
I loved the Pennsylvania Lottery Christmas commercial!
I loved the Eat N Park commercial.
I remember when we watched the Claymation Christmas nonstop and then the VHS tape disappeared! I think that we might have possibly watched Claymation Christmas multiple times each day. Poor mom! I think that mom labeled some of our VHS tapes as “blank” tapes and then tricked us into taping over our own favorite tapes.
It’s pretty dark that the bad man in the Frosty the Snowman movie locked Frosty in a greenhouse and made him melt!
I don’t remember the Babysitters Club Christmas at all! I don’t think that I ever saw it! I must have been too old to watch this with you guys. However, the whole sub-plot about Stacey eating sugary sweets and then getting sick happened in at least one of the actual books.
Here is one of the things that I remember about “Scrooged” with Bill Murray: When the Ghost of Christmas Past visits him, he has memories of the time that he took a bath with his girlfriend. Then, she gave him his Christmas gift. The Christmas gift was a copy of the Karma Sutra. He went through the book and pointed out all of the positions that they had already tried. Or maybe they actually looked through the Karma Sutra together when they were in the bathtub. Do you remember this part? I don’t know if this part was in the “television” version.
Speaking of Bill Murray: I watched Groundhog Day a few months ago. In at least one of his “lives,” Bill Murray steals Punxytawney Phil and then attempts to take his own life and also the life of Phil by driving them both off of a cliff in a stolen pickup truck. That’s pretty dark!