Joy of Christmas

Sometimes TV is more than just TV — like when it’s intertwined with Christmas memories. [A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition]

“‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ stands out most and blows every other TV Christmas special away,” wrote Deseret Morning News reader Michelle Llewellyn. “Thanks to that cute blanket-carrying boy, the first Bible passage I could recite by heart as a child was Luke 2: 8-14. We watched this every year on TV as a family. It’s become a part of every American family’s Christmas tradition.”
Carrie Johnson recalled a Christmas “16 or 17 years ago” when she she was up late making candy with her sister and the happened upon “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“We both loved it and had never seen it before. … It has become a favorite and reminds me of a favorite memory with my sister many years ago when our children were young and we enjoyed happy holiday times together.”
Leatha A. Betts is partial to “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.”
“There are hijinks at the very beginning and the ending, but the true meaning of Christmas is portrayed with a loving cartoonist’s hand, and glorious songs that can be sung year after year. … It brings back such wonderful memories.”
Lonette Anderson recalled that her parents didn’t want her and her siblings to watch TV, but every year her father would bring a set home from work so they could watch “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.”
“The TV was small, no more than 12 inches, and of course we didn’t have cable, so there was rabbit ears to adjust and tin foil to apply so we could watch without snow. I remember the panicked feeling that we wouldn’t get reception soon enough for the show to start. We would set the small television on the kitchen table so all five kids and parents could crowd around to get a good view … ‘Rudolph’ is still the first Christmas special I look for in the paper each year. But in the days of large, flat-screen televisions, my favorite memory is still of sitting around our kitchen table one night a year to watch Rudolph’s nose glow red with my family.”

Kay Barg mentioned both “Magoo” and “Rudolph.”
“But I think what would put me in the spirit the most was the holiday variety shows, especially Andy Williams’ Christmas special. He would have his whole immediate and extended family on at the end and talk about their memories. … That’s what would put me in the Christmas mood.”
Others getting mentioned included movies such as “A Christmas Story,” “Christmas Eve,” “Yes, Virginia,” “The House Without a Christmas Tree,” “One Magic Christmas” and “One Special Night”; specials such as “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas,” “A Claymation Christmas,” “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street,” “B.C.: A Special Christmas,” “Opus and a Wish for Wings that Work” and “The 12 Days of Christmas”; and even episodes of regular series such as “the Dec. 22, 1963, episode of ‘Bonanza’ (when I was 8 years old).”
Not all the shows that elicit strong memories are specials that air year after year.
“I have not seen my favorite Christmas TV special shown on network TV for a long time,” wrote Annette Huff. “Fortunately, I found a cheap, and very poor quality video of the animated classic about 20 years ago and bought it. The case is now cracked, the front is broken off and the beginning of the tape is wrinkled, but I continue to watch it every year. It is a version of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ featuring the Norman Luboff Choir. … I’m not sure what it is about this show that has caught my heart. Perhaps it is just the memory of watching it as a child, or the thought of a simpler time.”
It was much the same for Marian McCann.
“I would like to make a case for a couple of lesser known and, unfortunately, hard-to-find Christmas specials. Our favorites are the 1966 version of Truman Capote’s ‘A Christmas Memory’ and the 1978 Hallmark Hall of Fame ‘Stubby Pringle’s Christmas.’ I taped them years ago and we watch them often…. The stories are the kind of heart-warming, but not sappy, Christmas tales that are perfect for all members of the family and have lovely and timeless messages of sacrifice and generosity. I have never understood why they aren’t played every year as the classics they are.”
And it seems like just about every special has its fans — even the critically annihilated “Star Wars Holiday Special” that aired way back in 1978, which one reader (who identified himself — or is that herself? — only as “Monkaya”) remembered as “The Wookiee Christmas.”
“Thats right. I am talking Chewbacca of ‘Star Wars’ fame. But he and Han Solo do not arrive until later, after a obnoxious storm trooper invades his family’s home and rips apart his son’s (bantha?) plushy. … The family celebrates Christmas in Wookiee fashion together via a community pageant involving something similar to the Star of Bethlehem, as I recall.
“George Lucas likely has this one locked deep in his vault.”
Ah, but the memories remain.

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