Holiday Specials

I recently came into a large pile of holiday specials, most of them old. Slowly, but surely, I've gotten the ones deemed watchable converted and ready to play on the Apple TV.While watching a handful of the lesser specials the other night, I noticed that being an adult changes one's perception of them greatly. Sure, there will be the handful that always hold up, but those still have their flaws. And some are so silly that they deserve a roasting. Most of these specials I haven't seen in a long time, or ever. Most of my holiday watching has been limited to feature films and The Muppets, which tend to be more geared at an adult audience as it is. This year, we're in the trenches with animated specials, and you're in it with me, patient reader. Every special I watch is getting a few paragraphs on this blog. I'll likely have more to say about some, and less to say about others, but it beats me simply snarking on Facebook. We'll start with what I refer to as "lesser specials," those made to quickly cash in on whatever was hot that year, or ones that never really caught on with the kids, or ones that simply disappeared, to be rarely seen again on US television. As we get closer to the sacred baby festival, we'll broach some that can be considered classic, and then the holy trinity of specials: Charlie Brown, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Frosty the Snowman[ref]No, you don't see any reindeer in that list. I really don't like the stop motion Rankin-Bass specials. Had they spent five more minutes on the models, they wouldn't look so creepy as to frighten children. In the era of Harryhousen, they really could have done better. I'll be reviewing some, but I don't consider them required annual viewing.[/ref]. I'll still try to squeeze in my usual film watching, but they won't get write ups unless I find something to say. I might do a single post discussing some of the older Muppet specials if I get the time. That gets the setup post out of the way. Let's talk specials, shall we?