The Little Drummer Boy is one of the more classic Rankin/Bass stop motion Christmas specials. It was released in 1968, based off the song of the same title. For those who don't know, it is the story of Aaron a young boy full of hatred for all people. Fate leads him to the manger of the Christ child where he realizes that his hatred was wrong.

This and Mr. Krueger's Christmas are probably the shows that I watch that are the most closely related to the actual biblical story of Christmas. And sadly they are my least favorites. I actually didn't intend to watch this one tonight. I was going to save it until a little later, but I was short on time today, and this is the shortest show that I have left to watch this year. It's actually good that this one is the shortest, because if it had been any longer I might have dropped it from my annual tradition.

Speaking of dropping shows from the tradition, this is something that I do from time to time, and I want to talk about that today. There have been several shows that have been dropped for one reason or another. Some of them I didn't like that much, others I lost the VHS tapes of them, and didn't bother trying to recover them. But I want to at least list some of them today.

Babes in Toyland was dropped mostly because I didn't feel it was very Christmasy. Sure it featured a toy factory at the very end of the film, and I think maybe even Santa was in it, but for the most part it just didn't feel like much of a Christmas movie to me. There are several different versions of this film, but I believe the one I watched regularly was the 1961 Disney version.

Silent Mouse was a fictional story of how a mouse helped in the creation of the song Stille Nacht (Silent Night). I dropped this one because I thought it was boring.

The Other Wise Man was a more biblical themed animated special about a fourth wise man who journeyed to see the Christ child, but all along the way he gave the gifts that he had for the Christ child to those in need. He finally made it to Jerusalem as an old man about the same time that Christ was being crucified. I looked this up and couldn't find it. There is a 1985 live action film with the name The Fourth Wise Man, but this is not the feature that I used to watch, though it is the same story. I dropped this one because the VHS tape was lost, and I didn't care enough to try to find another copy.

That's really all the ones I can think of right now that I've dropped. Some that were dropped for years, have also been added again. I'll mention which ones as I watch them. In a future post I'll mention some of the films that I have seen, but weren't quite up to the standards that would get them into the annual tradition.

'Tis the season to Be Smurfy is a Smurfs holiday special that came out in 1987. Grandpa Smurf takes Sassette to the human village to show her how human's celebrate Christmas. They find a poor couple, that is struggling through the cold winter, and decide they should get the other Smurf's to help out the couple.

What you may find interesting is that this show is it is the only Smurfs show I remember seeing. Growing up in the 80s I knew what Smurfs were, but I never really watched them. So I don't really know much about them, or what they do, except for what I've seen in this episode. I find it strange that a bunch of Smurfs that seem to have lived in the same community their whole lives have different accents. I also find it strange that the Smurfs seem to behave exactly like their name describes. For example, Wild Smurf acts like Tarzan, Brainy is the smart one, etc. Seriously, did the Smurfs parents know how their children were going to act when they grew up? There seems to be a lot wrong with Smurf society. To be honest I don't even know if Smurfs have parents. Like I said, I never really watched the show.

In watching these Christmas shows I've noticed two things. First, a lot of them are about people who are sad during Christmas. Which is quite true for many people. Just the other day, someone was telling me a story about how they were feeling kid of sad during Christmas years ago, but then getting a Christmas tree made them feel better. That's the kind of story that happens in real life, and these shows reflect that. I guess Christmas is a sad time of year, in some regards anyway.

The other thing I've noticed about these Christmas shows is that the characters seem to be waiting until Christmas Eve day to decorate for the holiday. Seriously? They are waiting until Christmas Eve? When I started this series of posts I mentioned that Christmas is over for me on Christmas morning. I prefer the tree to be down before December 25th is over. If I were going to wait until the 24th to set up the decorations, then that would be a lot of work for two days. I know for cartoon characters it doesn't really matter, but seriously? Do the writers even think about that? In the neighborhood where I live I saw Christmas lights up as soon as the day after Thanksgiving. That's a little early for me, but it's better than literally waiting 'til the last minute.

Well enough about that. These are just shows, and you can't expect them to be lifelike. This shows is still fun to watch. Not a classic, but a good story nonetheless.

The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas premiered on NBC in 1973. This one actually had a little bit of popularity through the 70s and early 80s, but now seems to have been forgotten. The premise of the story is that all bears hibernate through the winter, so they don't know what Christmas is. One bear, however, Ted Edward Bear, has been curious about Christmas since he was a cub, and explains to his friends, and to the local "Bearwitness News" that he plans to find Christmas. His obsession with Christmas leads to his dismissal from work. This isn't a big deal, since he leaves town anyway in search of Christmas. He ends up in what looks like New York City, where he sees a lot of celebration going on, but is not quite sure that he has found Christmas yet. Late in the evening he's about to give up when he meets a man in a red suit. Ted explains to the man that he's never been this close to Christmas before, but he's not sure he's going to be able to find it. The man explains that he can't find Christmas on a map, then gives him directions to an apartment building where he will be able to find Christmas.

It's a good story, and I think it is a Christmas special that most would enjoy. This is another of those that has not seen a DVD release. I guess it just isn't popular enough. What bothers me about that is that last year I didn't have to watch my VHS tape, I saw it on the On Demand cable service. Now, if this is popular enough that it was being played on Cable in a digital format, why can't I get it on DVD? Well enough about my complaints.

I see this story as both a happy and a sad tale. Happy in that Ted Edward Bear does eventually find Christmas. But sad, in that he leaves his home, and if you read a lot into the characters, he is also leaving behind a Bear named Patty, who I believe, though I may be wrong, was in love with Ted. As they part Ted says, "maybe things could have been different", and she seems so sad that she'll never see him again. You see, he was obsessed with Christmas, and because of that he had little interest in anything else. Ted probably didn't care that he never saw Patty again, but it broke her heart. Maybe I'm reading too much into this children's story, since, after all, Ted ends up happy.

Well this one is pretty close to the last of the rarer Christmas specials that I watch. For the next two days there will be some lesser known one's, but after that most of my readers will recognize pretty much every TV special and film that I discuss.

A Merry Mirthworm Christmas was released in 1984, it is perhaps the rarest of the TV specials that I watch during the Christmas season. It is the story of Bert Worm who recently moved into the town of Wormingham. Trying to make some new friends, he helps with the preparations for the annual Christmas celebration. Due to clumsiness, he wrecks some decorations and otherwise causes havoc in the town hall. He is asked to leave by the protagonist Wormaline Wiggler. Figuring that he'll never fit in, he decides to leave Wormingham. When the mayor finds out what happened he tells Wormaline that she needs to apologize to Bert. At that time some of the worms discover that Bert has left town, and so they search for him. There is eventually a happy ending, but I don't want to give everything away.

What I think is especially strange is that this is called A Merry Mirthworm Christmas as if people know what Mirthworms are. I've never heard of Mirthworms outside of this short. Last year I did an extensive search of the topic, and found that the company that produced this feature had produced two other shorts that featured Mirthworms, but other than that I couldn't find anything about them. As far as I know this was the first show to ever feature Mirthworms. Maybe there are Mirthworm children's books, but I certainly haven't seen any. Like many of the rarer Christmas shows, this has not been released on DVD.

It's a good show, to say the least. I enjoy watching it. The soundtrack is well done, with a few original songs that are quite fitting to the theme. It really gives you that warm feeling that you want to feel during Christmas. I'd recommend it, if you ever actually get the chance to see it. Well enough about that, check back in tomorrow.

Mr. Krueger's Christmas is perhaps the weirdest film that I watch during the Christmas season, and it is the weirdest because it is the only one I watch that actually has anything to do with Christ. You know, that man that Christmas is named after? Anyway, released in 1980 and starring James Stewart, it is the the story of Willy Krueger, who is the lonely custodian of the apartment building where he lives. He spends his time fantasizing about being wealthy and conducting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As he is thus fantasizing, some carolers pass by his apartment and he invites them in says he'll make them some "chocolate", by which I assume he means hot chocolate. Well after they leave he gets to thinking about how much he loves Jesus, and daydreams about visiting the baby Jesus at the manger. Later he is invited by the carolers to sing with them and have turkey dinner. At this point he gets very excited. And as he puts his hat on, before leaving with them, the expression on his face is priceless.

There's really quite a bit more to the story than the brief description that I gave, and being that this movie is only thirty minutes long, you do learn quite a bit about Willy Krueger's life. This is one of the few Christmas features I watch that mentions the Bible story, in fact there is only one more that I can think of, the rest are about Santa or other holiday traditions. For me that's fine. For believers, Christ should have a place every day, not just during Christmas. Still, I guess it's good to have at least a few shows that remind us of the reason why Christmas was celebrated to begin with. Frankly I like the commercialism of Christmas, it is a way to invite all people, no matter what they believe, to celebrate together. They may be celebrating for different reasons, but they are doing it together, nonetheless.

I mentioned in my synopsis of the film that Mr. Krueger offers to make the carolers some "chocolate". Now, I've never heard anyone refer to hot cocoa as simply "chocolate", but I thought that was the funniest term to describe the beverage. So one time I said to one of my friends, "Do you want me to make you some chocolate?" He said, "What?" I replied, "you want some chocolate?" Then he said, "What are you talking about?" And I said, "In Mr. Krueger's Christmas Mr. Krueger offers some carolers some "chocolate" by which he means hot chocolate." My friend then described the film as "a washed out actor in the dumbest Christmas movie ever made", then said that, sure, he'd like some "chocolate". I subsequently made him a mug of hot cocoa. It has been a running joke since then that "chocolate" is hot cocoa.

Well that pretty much sums up my memories of the film, and remember this, if you are ever at my house during winter feel free to ask for some "chocolate".