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Just wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! I hope you are able to enjoy your families and friends today and tomorrow. I know many of us will be watching our favorite movies and specials. Here is a little holiday cheer to remind us of what Christmas is...
Well, it's December 1st. Already, the folks in my fair city are decorating their houses and it's time for the annual Christmas parades and parties. So far, the clear favorite for my Scrooge poll is Alastair Simm. A favored second is Albert Finney.I hope everyone...
This is considered by most to be the definitive film version of A Christmas Carol and I would have to agree. This version stars Alastair Sim as Ebeneezer Scrooge and features a cast of some of England's best character actors such as Kathleen Harrison.The film...
This movie was ironically shown in May of 1947 as head of Fox studios Daryl F. Zanuck reasoned that more people went to the movies in the summer.In fact, the trailer did everything it could to hide the fact that it was a Christmas movie. It was directed by George...
What else can you say about this movie? Directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, this perennial favorite was shown every year on just about every station in America about 100 times every Christmas and people never grew tired of it.The...
White Christmas was supposed to be a sequel of sorts to Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. In fact, the set for General Waiverley's Inn is an exact remake of the Inn from Holiday Inn. After reading the script, Astaire turned...
I almost forgot to mention some cartoons that were not part of the classic camp but were, in fact, Christmas Specials of some favorite characters.Whether you were a fan of Scooby Doo or of Yogi and Boo Boo, each cartoon at one time or another had a Christmas special....
The Bishop's Wife stars David Niven, Lorretta Young, and Cary Grant. It centers around the story of the angel, Dudley. Dudley is sent to earth to help Niven's character deal with building a new cathedral and the stresses involved as well as his wife (Young)...
I am reprinting this via one of my blog followers as I think many of us missed this one. This happened last month. Thanks to The Blue Carbuncle for this story. Please check out his blog.Arthur Ferrante, one half of the piano duo Ferrante and Teicher whose lush...
I just wanted to encourage you to participate in Operation Christmas child this year. This is a great organization that ships Christmas gifts around the world to war torn countries.Here is a brief video of the fun we had last year building these shoebox...
Now a cult classic in it's own right, A Christmas Story was released in 1983 by MGM/UA and was based upon the short stories from the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.It starred child actors Peter Billingsley and Scott Schwartz as well...
Scrooge is a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney and Sir Alec Guinness.It was directed by Ronald Neame and musical score by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley who also brought us the score for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the...
In 1969, Rankin/Bass produced an animated feature based on the song written by Steve "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson and recorded by Gene Autry. Frosty the Snowman featured the talents of comedians Jackie Vernon and Jimmy Durante.The story tells of Frosty coming...
As it is slowly winding down to the end of the classic specials, I'm going to move into classic Christmas movies. I would love to hear what you think of each one and what they mean to you.I have also added a couple of polls just to see what people think of various...
I uploaded some video to The Little Drummer Boy post, so enj...
Every television show has a Christmas episode every year. Probably the most favorite of all is an episode of The Brady Bunch called "The Voice of Christmas". In the episode, Carol loses her voice and can't sing at Church on Christmas morning. Cindy goes with...
Now, I know some people out there may not think of this as something that should be put up here. But I grew up watching this show and the Christmas shows were just as much a part of it as Bing Crosby.The Osmonds were first playing at Disneyland in California...
Touted as the "unofficial" start of the holiday season, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is watched by millions every year on Thanksgiving Day. The parade itself began in 1924 at Bamberger's in Newark, New Jersey and then transferred to Macy's in Manhattan....
Joining my fellow bloggers in mourning the passing of a guitar legend, Les Paul. Les was single-handedly responsible for the modern electric guitar. We would've never had Jingle Bell Rock if it hadn't been for L...
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a stop-motion animation special produced by Rankin/Bass for NBC. It first aired on December 6, 1964 and was based on the song by Johnny Marks and loosley based on the short story by Robert L. May who, incedentily, was the brother-in-law...
The now famous commercial featuring singers on a hillside. This is the Christmas version that they played every year when I was a kid. I wish Coca Cola would play this one instead of the overly commercial one with the trucks.Enjoy an ice cold Coca Cola while...
Here is a holiday commercial from Kmart. I really remember this jingle very well. I am trying to find other commercials from companies such as Coke, Sprite, and McDonalds that had their own holiday jingles.Enj...
How the Grinch Stole Christmas originally aired on CBS television on December 18, 1966. It was an MGM animated feature created by Chuck Jones. The special was narrated by Boris Karloff and featured a musical soundtrack that included the voice of Thurl Ravenscroft...
Bob Hope hosted his Christmas special every year on NBC since the inception of television. His specials were sponsored by Texaco and ran up until Christmas of 1994. Here is the opening to the 1983 special. I apologize for the bad start, but I made up for it...
This is a holiday ad from the Miller Brewing Company. It seems to be a clone to the famous Budweiser Clydesdale commercials but it's still a nice spot.Enj...
This is an ad for two upcoming specials on CBS. It follows a bumper for the movie White Lightning with Burt Reynolds. I tried to edit that part out but it reduced the quali...
Any of us who are fans of Rudolph, Charlie Brown, or Frosty the Snowman will remember little things about watching those specials. For instance we remember that during the 70's and 80's Dolly Madison snack cakes sponsored the Charlie Brown specials. One little...
As I said in the earlier post, I have a few bumpers (lead-ins) that give a peak into our culture during Christmases past. This is an NBC bumper that, judging from the content, was probably from 1979.I hope you enjoy the...
In the future I will be posting some bumpers that appeared on various networks during the holiday season. They help give a peek into Christmas past and give you an idea how things have changed over the years.I also plan to try and post the opening to the Macy's...
Bing's Christmas shows first began on the radio with his hosting of the Kraft Music Hall and the Philco Radio Time amongst all of the radio shows he hosted over the years.From 1962 through to his death in October of 1977, Bing hosted his annual Christmas show...
In 1974, Rankin/Bass produced an animated special for Television based on the Clement Moore poem. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas tells the story of Joshua Trundle, a local clock maker who tries to entice Santa Claus to come back to the small town of Junctionville...
One of the "Big Four" in the Rankin/Bass stable, Santa Claus is Coming to Town tells the story of the origins of Santa Claus and includes the voice talents of Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, and Fred Astaire. At the start of the film, a brief newsreel...
Bringing the Peanuts characters to television was not an easy task. The strip's creators, with funding from sponsor Coca-Cola, presented the CBS network with an idea for a Christmas television special starring Schulz's characters.At first, the CBS big-whigs didn't...
In the fall of 1950, The Frank Sinatra Show joined CBS' schedule. At the time, Sinatra was at the top of his career, so the show's success was practically a given. CBS saddled the series with tough timeslots against the hits Your Show of Shows and Milton Berle's...
Before we get started down this road exploring all of our favorite Christmas Cartoons and Specials, I thought it would be important to start out by writing a little about the team that is foremost responsible for bringing us some of the greatest memories from...
The series, The Andy Williams Show won three Emmy Awards for outstanding variety program. Among his series regulars were The Osmond Brothers. He gave up the variety show in 1971 while it was still popular and retrenched to three per year. His Christmas specials,...
In 1968, Rankin/Bass produced a stop motion animated feature based on The Little Drummer Boy. The film names the drummer boy Aaron and expands the song's storyline to include events before the birth of Jesus. It stars the voices of Greer Garson as "Our Storyteller"...
This is my first post. This is a blog about the numerous Christmas Cartoons and specials that most of us have known since our childhood. Some you may remember and some you may n...
