Christmas TV specials

Can't turn on the TV this month without seeing some sort of Christmas special. There are old ones, new ones, and then a few classics that for some reason no longer air. A few musings:

The Old

• A Charlie Brown Christmas is still such greatness. Particularly watching how bizarro each of the Peanuts gang dances.
  


• Can't really watch anything claymation anymore (sorry, Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys) - it's honestly a bit creepy.



• Am I a horrible person to admit that I've never seen It's A Wonderful Life? I mean, I know it's on every year. But so is the Jerry Lewis telethon, and I don't watch that, either.



• Of course A Christmas Story. And my favorite movie of all time, Christmas Vacation.

The New

• Does Elf count? Who cares. It's fantastic. As is Bad Santa. Four Christmases is NOT.



• The South Park episode featuring Stan singing about being a lonely Jew on Christmas.



• Most of the new specials don't really do it for me. Probably because I'm not six. But there's also the risk of overkill. A Scooby-Doo Christmas! A Flintstone Christmas! (yes, I flipped past the Cartoon Network the other day)



• Plus the one million Lifetime TV Christmas movies. We get it.
  

The M.I.A.

• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is a tear-jerker. At least it is for me. Big Bird gets lost and almost freezes to death trying to wait up for Santa. When I was four, that was slightly traumatizing. (And yes, it still makes me cry. Because I have it on VHS. Which is sad for many reasons.)



• There used to be a John Denver and the Muppets Christmas special. Not the CD - we own about 8 copies of that as a family - but a TV show. And dammit to hell if I have never been able to find it. Assuming the copy we had on Betamax back in the day is unusable at this point.

Here's hoping you have your own "a very special Christmas episode" which will air in reruns for years to come. We'll be right back after these messages.