Christmas TV Traditions (Updated)

They would show old worn-out copies of this movie on all the local and public TV channels. Since it was a public domain movie at the time, it was the one show that you could see more than once, but they were usually all shown on Christmas Eve. It would sometimes show up on local channels during non-holiday seasons as well.

You would have to be a real Scrooge not to be moved by this comedic, touching, and ultimately uplifting film.

This was the original Charlie Brown Holiday Special. It became an instant classic, looked forward to every year at Christmas time. It has won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award. I loved the way Charlie Brown's little tree kept losing its needles and growing them back as well as changing the number of branches from scene to scene. The Jazzy piano score was very popular as well.

I remember the original sponsor was Coca Cola. The re-broadcasts we see today have been edited to remove all the references to Coke that were in the original. When Snoopy spins Linus around with his blanket, he crashes into a Coca Cola sign that also has the main title and creator of the show. In the scene where Linus knocks a can off the wall with his blanket, it was a Coke can originally, but was changed to a nondescript can. Dolley Madison and McDonald's took over as Peanuts sponsors after Coke dropped out.

This cartoon has a lot going for it. Boris Karloff's narration, Chuck Jones' animation, Thurl Ravenscroft (the voice of Tony the Tiger) singing the classic 'You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch' as only he can, and Dr. Seuss' usual crazy characters and nonsensical words.

Karloff is great as the voice of the Grinch and gives a compelling reading of the story as well.

My favorite part was the sleighride down the mountain with the lovable little Max. This part was expanded from the book and shows a lot of Jones' influence.

This was the first Holiday stop-motion animation special. It set the formula for many Holiday features that followed. Part of that formula is to have a celebrity host/narrator in animated, but recognizable, form. Here we had Burl Ives as a snowman. I watched it every year and had all the songs, as well as the dialogue, memorized.

When it was first shown, General Electric was the sponsor and it featured some of the elves in commercials for electric razors and other GE products. I remember seeing the elves riding a triple-headed GE shaver through the snow like a sled.

My favorite character was Yukon Cornelius the prospector who was looking for silver and gold. In the original version he found a peppermint mine using his method of licking his pickax to see if he had found anything. This was removed from the reruns of the special, but was put back in when released on DVD.

There are also two endings. The original had elves delivering boxes that listed the technical credits. In response to viewer protest over the unresolved fate of the misfit toys, a new ending was shot which shows the toys being rescued. This ending has been shown in all telecasts and video releases ever since.

A lot of kids, like my brother, didn't care for this one because it was basically a pretty faithful telling of the Dickens' classic story in cartoon form with Magoo as Scrooge. It was too serious for them, not a light and funny Christmas show.

In spite of that, I looked forward to it each year. It was different from the Magoo cartoons as he was not his normal near-sighted self. The original verson had a framing device with Magoo in his normal character getting ready to portray Scrooge in a play and the special is supposed to be the play that stars Magoo. At the end, Magoo practically destroys the stage scenery while taking his bows with the other actors. For the re-brodcasts, these segments were cut to make more room for commercials, showing only the play itself.

It is a musical version with Magoo as Scrooge and Gerald McBoing-Boing as Tiny Tim. As I said, it is a pretty faithful adaptation, but many parts were removed to shorten the story. In addition to Jim Backus as Magoo, it also features the voices of Morey Amsterdam, Jack Cassidy, Royal Dano, and Paul Frees.

This was the first animated holiday program produced specifically for TV. It aired originally in December 1962, and was the only one until the stop-motion Rudolph was first shown in 1964. This special inspired the 1964 TV series, 'The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo', where Magoo portrayed many other literary or historic figures.

This was probably the least favorite of my must-see Christmas specials. I am not sure why. I guess I didn't consider it to be up to par with the rest.

It was another Rankin/Bass production. They did the original Rudolph as well. This time they went with regular animation instead of stop-motion. They used an animated Jimmy Durante as the narrator/host.

They take the basic story from the popular song and expand it to fill out a 30 minute special. They add a villain, a magician who can't do anything right. It was his top hat that brings Frosty to life. That was one point I didn't like. The hat was his and Frosty and the kids technically stole it from him when they wouldn't give it back. Although he wanted the magic hat for selfish reasons, it still belonged to him and the kids didn't have any right to keep it. I guess I am being too nit-picky over a kids' cartoon, but that point always stood out to me, even as a kid. They also added Santa Claus to come in and save the day at the end.

The voices were provided by Jackie Vernon as Frosty, June Foray as Karen (the school girl), the teacher, and one of the boys (using her 'Rocky' voice), Paul Frees as policeman, ticket man, and Santa Claus, and Billy De Wolfe as the persnickety Magician (he was probably the funniest one).

It seems a lot of others really enjoyed this special because Frosty returned in 4 sequels. Two were produced by Rankin-Bass, one by CBS, and one by Classic Media. None of them are as good as the original Frosty, but the best sequel was probably Frosty's Winter Wonderland by Rankin-Bass with Andy Griffith as the narrator and Jackie Vernon returning as Frosty.

Let me first say I am not a fan of musicals and I always thought Bing Crosby was corny. I preferred Bob Hope in his solo movies.

This is a movie my mother would never miss at Christmastime. Those being the days of 1 television households, I would wind up watching it with her. Every year. It grew on me to where I knew every line, joke, and song in the movie. When I got older, I would watch it when I saw it was on as a guilty pleasure. I will still watch it when I can catch it. This movies brings back many memories of Christmas past.