This is an article I wrote for my office newsletter. I put a lot of thought in to it and wanted to share it with everyone.
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Tis’ the season for all of us to share with our families, eat, be merry and dive into the treacherous lines at the department stores that become more like waiting to ride a roller coaster at Disney World than waiting to check out. Aside from the obvious things we all think of when you think holidays and the month of December, the forgotten gem that was always one of my favorite parts of the Holidays as a tike was the Animated Christmas specials. Of course you may call me partial because animation has always been close to my heart, but there was a time when even though it had been on last year and every year before that, everyone still talked about how much they were looking forward to seeing Rudolph, or Frosty or the Grand Puba of Christmas animated warmth, Charlie Brown. These shows are timeless and that is why the networks can still show them today to our children and their children and they will still hold their value. Sure we may have Shrek and Pixar and all the CG animation that makes good ol’ cell animation seem like cave drawings now, but the simplicity of the stories, the music, and the characters that makes us laugh and cry and forget that these are nothing more than drawings on paper or foam figures. Who can say they don’t feel the drive of Rudolph and Yukon Cornelius as they trek to the North Pole and Hermey the Elf whose dream is to become a dentist.
I would always ask my mother when the shows would come on and I would make myself a reminder to be in front of the television with a cup of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows, heated in the microwave. Ok, so it wasn’t all that long ago, but the memories are still sweet and they are vivid. For a time there was a pullout calendar in the Courier Journal that marked all the airings of all the holiday shows. Now they all come on early in the month of December and sometimes closer to Thanksgiving. The first time I missed A Charlie Brown Christmas during the holidays it didn’t register at first I was so stunned. I remember trying to find out when it came on, still early in December I thought, and I found that it had already aired. At the time it was like my best friend had moved away and I would not see him for another year. I guess they are following the trend of grocery and department stores that put out Christmas decorations before the jack-o-lanterns have even started to rot. It’s as if the network execs are saying “lets get these old things out of the way, kids only care about Spongebob and Dora anyway.” This makes them easy to miss if you aren’t carefully looking out for them which lets me know they aren’t getting the appreciation they deserve. You can turn to basic cable and see the Grinch quite a few times during December and around Thanksgiving, but now the Chuck Jones classic animated special shares air time with the live action Jim Carrey feature film. Without turning this into a campaign for classic animation, there is something about the way that Looney Tunes pioneering animator Chuck Jones could breathe life and personality into a character that makes his Grinch so sinister, so evil you want to jump through the tv and hurt him when he takes those presents from Whoville. “Mr. Grinch! How Could you!” Even when you know he has a change of heart and gives them all back at the end of the story.
To this day I still get misty eyed when Frosty turns to a puddle of water when he loses his hat. Shouting Happy Birthday when he puts on that hat is just so cute and memorable you can’t help but give him a pass for smoking that pipe around the kids. Of course Christmas is not complete until you watch the classic of all classics, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I don’t mean the newer updated version, I mean the classic, muttled color, heartwarming story of poor unlucky Charlie Brown and that horrible tree that you just gotta love. Charlie Brown Christmas is a staple at Christmas time like Egg Nog and annoying relatives. Ironically, its so entertaining to see poor Charlie being mistreated and taken advantage of but yet, he and Linus still manage to teach us the true meaning of Christmas. My favorite growing up was the lesser known Twas’ the Night Before Christmas about a clockmaker that plans to greet Santa with a song when the giant clock strikes 12. A mouse that doesn’t believe in Santa sabotages the clock and adventure ensues to save Christmas! The songs in this special are so catchy that I can still sing them all word for ward despite its airing being harder to find than a Nintendo Wii last Christmas. The coolest thing about it is there is a scene with an African American kid who loves to draw and draws a picture of Santa. And his name just happens to be Randy.
There are many other animated shows that I haven’t mentioned like Garfield’s Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and quite a few others, but they all deserve mention and should be shared with our kids and even if you watch them alone I guarantee it will make you feel like a kid again when the stresses of the grown-up world was just something you heard about.
I would always ask my mother when the shows would come on and I would make myself a reminder to be in front of the television with a cup of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows, heated in the microwave. Ok, so it wasn’t all that long ago, but the memories are still sweet and they are vivid. For a time there was a pullout calendar in the Courier Journal that marked all the airings of all the holiday shows. Now they all come on early in the month of December and sometimes closer to Thanksgiving. The first time I missed A Charlie Brown Christmas during the holidays it didn’t register at first I was so stunned. I remember trying to find out when it came on, still early in December I thought, and I found that it had already aired. At the time it was like my best friend had moved away and I would not see him for another year. I guess they are following the trend of grocery and department stores that put out Christmas decorations before the jack-o-lanterns have even started to rot. It’s as if the network execs are saying “lets get these old things out of the way, kids only care about Spongebob and Dora anyway.” This makes them easy to miss if you aren’t carefully looking out for them which lets me know they aren’t getting the appreciation they deserve. You can turn to basic cable and see the Grinch quite a few times during December and around Thanksgiving, but now the Chuck Jones classic animated special shares air time with the live action Jim Carrey feature film. Without turning this into a campaign for classic animation, there is something about the way that Looney Tunes pioneering animator Chuck Jones could breathe life and personality into a character that makes his Grinch so sinister, so evil you want to jump through the tv and hurt him when he takes those presents from Whoville. “Mr. Grinch! How Could you!” Even when you know he has a change of heart and gives them all back at the end of the story.
To this day I still get misty eyed when Frosty turns to a puddle of water when he loses his hat. Shouting Happy Birthday when he puts on that hat is just so cute and memorable you can’t help but give him a pass for smoking that pipe around the kids. Of course Christmas is not complete until you watch the classic of all classics, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I don’t mean the newer updated version, I mean the classic, muttled color, heartwarming story of poor unlucky Charlie Brown and that horrible tree that you just gotta love. Charlie Brown Christmas is a staple at Christmas time like Egg Nog and annoying relatives. Ironically, its so entertaining to see poor Charlie being mistreated and taken advantage of but yet, he and Linus still manage to teach us the true meaning of Christmas. My favorite growing up was the lesser known Twas’ the Night Before Christmas about a clockmaker that plans to greet Santa with a song when the giant clock strikes 12. A mouse that doesn’t believe in Santa sabotages the clock and adventure ensues to save Christmas! The songs in this special are so catchy that I can still sing them all word for ward despite its airing being harder to find than a Nintendo Wii last Christmas. The coolest thing about it is there is a scene with an African American kid who loves to draw and draws a picture of Santa. And his name just happens to be Randy.
There are many other animated shows that I haven’t mentioned like Garfield’s Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and quite a few others, but they all deserve mention and should be shared with our kids and even if you watch them alone I guarantee it will make you feel like a kid again when the stresses of the grown-up world was just something you heard about.
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