After my post bitching about ABC’s mostly non-Christmas programing, I decided to post some of my favorite films and TV shows. Maybe someone at ABC will see this post and get some ideas from it! Now I have so many to choose from, so I’m going with some of the more obscure ones which aren’t easy to see anymore. Therefor Rudolph, Frosty and Santa aren’t on the list, even though I do love them.

A Christmas Carol
I love pretty much all versions of this story, and will watch them whenever they are on. One stands out as my favorite, the 1970s musical version “Scrooge” staring Albert Finney. It’s available on DVD and the past few years has made it’s way back to TV via TCM, which usually airs it uncut (when it ran on network they took out the hell segment). It’s a super long movie, which bombed in the theater. It’s since been turned into a Broadway production which tours this time of year. “Scrooge” airs tonight on TCM at midnight.

As a kid there was a short, possibly 45 minute, cartoon version of “A Christmas Carol” which I haven’t seen in years. I remember it was somewhat shocking as Ebeneezer saw himself lying dead in bed, which I always thought was a little disturbing for a cartoon! I wish they’d re-air this, but like I said, it’s been years. I don’t even remember who did it, though I remember what Scrooge and the ghost of Christmas yet to come look like.

If You Believe
This was a “Lifetime, television for . . . ” oh yeah, bad joke. It was a Lifetime production made years ago staring that girl from “Profiler” and the cheerleader from “Heroes” when she was a wee tot. It’s a cute story about a grown-up who had come to hate Christmas, so her inner child comes out to teach her what it’s all about. It usually airs once on Lifetime. It happens to come on Sunday at 11am. It might repeat later, usually on Christmas Eve.

A Mom For Christmas
This is a late 80s “Disney Channel Movie,” when the channel still actually bothered to make original movies. It starred Olivia Newton John and Jean Stapleton. Olivia was a store mannequin brought to life by a little girl’s wish to have a mom for Christmas. So far it’s not in the listening for this year. They usually show it on some obscure local station right before Christmas.

Leprechaun’s Christmas Gold/First Christmas Snow
You’ll have to wake up early on the 13th to catch these on Family Channel. They always show them together. They are classic Bankin-Rass Christmas specials, which are pretty self explanatory in the titles. “The First Christmas Snow” actually stars Angela Landsbury as a puppet nun Sister Theresa.

Noel
This was an animated special that only aired for a few years before disappearing. It was about a Christmas ornament, a glass ball, named Noel. Through the whole show it annoyingly would say “I’m Noel, and I have a happiness!” All the other ornaments and the train around the tree would talk too. Noel ended up getting shoved in the attic and forgotten as time went on, lost his luster and got shoved to the back of the tree one year when they pulled the ornaments out after a period of none use. Noel fell off the tree and smashed onto the ground. Fortunately he smashed next to the nativity scene and the figure of the Baby Jebus freed his happiness from the ornament he was trapped in and he zoomed off into the stars.

A Family Circus Christmas
None of the Family Circus specials have aired in years, and they’ve never been put out on DVD. I can’t figure out why (No comment from CB needed if he’s reading this!). In this one daddy is sad because he can’t find the star for the tree that dead granddad made. Fortunately PJ finds it at the very end, they put it at the top of the closet so it wouldn’t get lost. It also features Jeffy picking up his clothes and being good because the ghost of Santa follows him around the house watching him after his mom scolds him for being naughty.

The Little Troll Prince
This used to run on Cartoon Network, before their other shows became popular enough to get their own Christmas specials and pushed everything good off. It sometimes runs on Boom, as it was a Hannah Barbara Production. This channel usually airs all the old cartoon Christmas specials (Smurfs, Snorks, Pac Man). It was about a family of trolls and the Prince hated being a troll cause he was nice and not nasty. His brothers tried to do away with him, pushing him off their mountain, and he ended up in a tree cut down and taken into a house for Christmas. The little girls in the house thought he must be a good little gnome, and through the power of Baby Jebus he lost his tail and became a gnome. At the end he went to live with the gnomes in the forest.

Star Wars Christmas Special
You won’t find this on TV, tape or DVD as long as George Lucas has anything to say, and I’m sure he does as he owns the rights to it. Your only way to see this is to find a bootleg at a comic convention. I have one and plan to watch it this year. The reason you won’t see it anywhere is because it’s so horrifyingly bad. I bought it and put it in, only to turn it off after 30 minutes. I think the whole thing is actually 90 minutes long too. It stars the voices of the Star Wars cast for a holiday cartoon, as well as Art Carney and Bea Arthur in the live action Star Wars segment. I added it here because it’s just rare, and horrid 🙂 This will be Christmas Eve viewing at my house, or maybe I’ll put it on while we decorate the tree so we don’t actually have to pay that much attention to it.