TV Tuesday: Time for Holiday Viewing

[yourlibrarian]

Do you have a favorite winter holiday episode in a TV show or miniseries? Or is there a holiday special that you have enjoyed or like to rewatch?

What makes them a favorite?

Comments

[linky]

I always love revisiting A Charlie Brown Christmas each year, it's been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. I've always enjoyed its animation and story.

[yourlibrarian]

My partner always does too, as well as Grinch

[yourlibrarian]

I think as a number of my favorite canons are sci fi or fantasy ones, there often isn't a holiday episode as there are in a lot of other shows. I do remember the Buffy and Supernatural ones. And I love the Star Wars LEGO Holiday special, it was a lot of fun.

[starfleetbrat]

The Rankin Bass holiday specials. So, The Year Without a Santa Claus (my favourite), Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy etc

Also, Blackadders Christmas Carol. Which is a hilarious retelling of A Christmas Carol with the Blackadder characters, where Blackadder is the -nicest- man in England, and the ghosts unintentionally make him realise that bad guys have all the fun, and so he becomes a scrooge. Has a few guest stars like Miriam Margolyes who plays Queen Victoria and Jim Broadbent who plays Prince Albert. Its very silly but lots of fun.

Watched them all when I was a kid in the 80s and they were the thing I looked forward to every year for decades.

[yourlibrarian]

Little Drummer Boy made me bawl as a kid because of the little lamb. I enjoyed them all as well -- there was something a little magical about stop motion, like your own toys coming to life.

I enjoyed the Blackadder series, and I'm sure I saw the Christmas Carol one though I don't remember it. But it was perfect for the show, to turn the concept upside down.

[naushika]

The X-Files - How the Ghosts Stole Christmas! :D

[yourlibrarian]

I was only an intermittent X-Files watcher so I don't recall it at all, but it does make me think of how the nature of some shows makes for a greater variety of approaches to holiday fare.

[annavere]

My Christmas viewing the past few years tends to consist of a mix of:

Barney Miller's Christmas special, in which mall Santas are getting ripped off and Nick Yemana gets a date. This year we also saw the WKRP in Cincinnati episode where Jennifer needs a Christmas tree, which was very sweet and might similarly get revisited.

Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, 'The Blue Carbuncle.'

The Downton Abbey special where Matthew and Mary finally propose. It doesn't entirely work as a standalone, but it and the others suit the spirit of the holiday in our house.

Oddly, for all my fannish focus on sci fi and fantasy, none of those shows have yet delivered a really great Christmas special. 'Amends' is a solid episode of Buffy, but it's way too dark to actually work as a Christmas entertainment (the Halloween episodes are a different story).

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I agree about the Halloween vs Christmas episode (plus there were more Halloween ones).

Your comment about Downton Abbey reminded me of how in the UK there are often standalone or continuations specifically for the holidays. Whereas in the U.S., there might be Christmas specials but the regular shows are usually on hiatus for weeks around the holiday period. The difference, I'm guessing, due to a ratings-oriented schedule vs a public TV service.

[impala_chick]

I would love to rewatch a very supernatural Christmas but I don't have Netflix at the moment. I think it captures some of why Christmas can feel too commercial/fake, but then it also shows the warmth and importance of family and allowing time for reflection at the end of the year.

I will be rewatching the Roswell holiday episode in s2 because I love the various levels of cheer amongst the characters (you have your Christmas grumps Michael and Max and your over the top planner Isabel) plus all the romance of the season, and the 90s decorations still hold up. Some of the s2 ep is way too Jesus-metaphor focused but I tend to gloss over that. The season 3 holiday episode is very cringe-y so I'll probably skip that one.

[yourlibrarian]

That's a good description of the SPN episode.

Ah, I was wondering if you meant original or reboot Roswell. It's been way too long since I watched that to remember but it is good to have a variety of personal approaches to the season.

[impala_chick]

Yeah, the reboot didn't have any holiday episodes. I think that's probably because there's much shorter seasons for newer shows.

[yourlibrarian]

That's a good point about the changes, not just in the length of seasons, but in their release patterns. With a season of 13 episodes or less, they might well be released during the non-holiday periods, or indeed dropped all at once so that there's no correlation with time of year.

[executrix]

More recent: the Ted Lasso episode where the Higginses give the best Christmas party ever and Rebecca reveals a great set of pipes

Older: Homicide: Life on the Street where a department-store Santa is murdered, and Munch has to give the notification to the victim's young son. Munch just can't stand to either give the bad news or take the kid to Social Services, so he hangs around playing with the kid until...

BTW it's print not TV but if you can find Mick Herron's short story, "All the Usual Santas," I think you will enjoy it.

[yourlibrarian]

Oh great example, I loved that Ted Lasso episode. Definitely one of the best holiday ones I've seen.