069: SoraRabbit Does a Christmas Special: Animated Comic Strip Marathon Part 1

I have a long history of doing special Christmas posts on this site. I started out talking about my favorite Christmas Special. Then I moved on to Christmas in space, terribly executed sentiments, very festive movies, and I culminated in what may be the worst Christmas Special of all time. I knew I couldn’t keep trying to outdo myself since I believe I reached the pinnacle with Star Wars and Rapsittie, so last year I went back to the drawing board to come up with a new tradition… the SoraRabbit Christmas Special talking about Christmas specials!

Last year I started out by watching and discussing three episodes of sitcoms… one good, one bad, and one in-between. All of them had the theme of “what if Santa was real and walked among us when there is no other magic in the fictional universe?“ It was a lot of fun and I think we all learned a lot. If you missed it you can find it here: 062: SoraRabbit Does a Christmas Special: Triple Feature 2022.

This was designed to be a format that could work for years to come. Working with my wife Cocoashade, we came up with several other possible specials, movies, and episodes I could do for future Christmases. So here we are again with Round Two!

Are my eyes blurry with Christmas spirit or is this a crappy screenshot? (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

At first I was kind of at a loss. I had so many options but wasn’t sure what to do next. After some thought (and consulting with Cocoashade for her opinion) I came up with the idea of what to tackle this year. I decided to go with Christmas Specials that were based on comic strips. There were not quite as many as I expected, but I did find a few lesser-known specials to go along with the famous ones. I ended up finding six… excluding the Smurfs since they were technically a comic book, not a comic strip. (Maybe I’ll do comic books on a later Christmas?) I only needed three, but I ended up watching all six because I couldn’t help myself.

In the course of writing these posts, I ended up having to temporarily subscribe to two streaming services I didn’t intend to subscribe to. (Although Apple TV+ does have the Godzilla tie-in Monarch series that I was dying to watch, so it worked out.) I had to scour YouTube for the lesser-known specials, so the picture quality of those were not as good as the streaming ones.

Last year I did the format of one good, one bad, and one so-so. It quickly became apparent that I couldn’t do that this year. Some of these specials are so loved and tied to our childhoods I felt it would be a mistake to judge them as rigidly. And besides, I had six of them. So for these reasons I decided to do a ranking, poor to good and split the post into two parts. My intention with these two posts are to ask and answer a few simple questions with each special. How well was the objective of the special executed? Did it encapsulate the spirit and symbolism of the holiday? How did it work as a show versus how it worked as a Christmas show? To that end I needed to set aside my own feelings about the individual properties and approach each special with an open mind. Which brings me to my next point…

Santa in a rare non-ghost appearance. (Just wait for it, it’ll make sense later.) (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

Before we get started, I feel the need to include a lengthy disclaimer. I know these sorts of Christmas Specials carry a certain degree of nostalgia to some of us— especially around my age group when these were airing on network TV back before the concept of dozens of streaming services and on demand digital media. These may be cartoons we watched as children, with our loved ones, once or dozens of times. We may have had them on VHS and worn out the tape. (I know that sounds like gibberish to my younger readers.) The point is, these specials may be tied very closely to our hearts and remembered with extreme fondness. Please be assured, by talking about (and being critical of) these specials, I don’t intend to offend, judge, or ruin anyone’s childhood. Everything that follows is my opinion strictly, based on my observations, maturity level, experiences, and mood. Regardless of my own feelings, I looked at these specials objectively to root out how well they do— or don’t— capture the intended spirit of the holiday season.

Here at the SoraRabbit Hole, we pride ourselves on celebrating the things that give us joy, regardless of the form that joy takes. For instance, I take great joy in making light of things I don’t particularly like. It’s probably as much as the joy I find in celebrating the things I love. I find a different joy in discovering things I didn’t realize I would like. It’s happened often enough that I’ve learned to keep an open mind and try to find things to appreciate in everything I come across. And we all have our own outlooks, experiences, and opinions. Just because I like or don’t like something should have no impact on how you feel about it and vice versa. I love that. It’s our differences that make things interesting.

So all that is to say, we’re here to have fun and maybe learn a thing or two. So no harm meant if your very favorite special of all time is the Family Circus one and you’re mad that it got fourth place instead of first place. Make your own list and send me the link. I will happily read it. People are varied and we embrace all our differences here.

And now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started on these festive and sappy cartoons!

Title card. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

#6: Beetle Bailey: A Christmas Tale

Beetle Bailey: A Christmas Tale aired in 1963 as a part of the short-lived Beetle Bailey series. I had no idea before my research that this comic property ever had an animation, but it did exist. This one isn’t so much a Christmas Special as a Christmas Episode. (There is a slight difference, but let’s not split hairs. It’s from a comic strip, so I’ll allow it.)

For those of you who aren’t aware of Beetle Bailey, it’s actually one of the longest-running comic strips, having started in 1950. It was created by Mort Walker, who continued working on it until his death in 2018. That’s a pretty impressive run, even considering he had assistance from several people over the years. It still runs to this day, with Mort’s three sons writing and drawing the strip.

The guys get to leave war. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

As the short begins, everyone leaves Sergeant Snorkel alone with his dog Otto. It’s not explained where the men are going but they’re all carrying presents so I guess they all got leave from the base for Christmas. Sarge is all sad and lonely, even though my recollection is that all he ever did was yell at the guys and have steam shooting out of his ears. But I guess he likes that and will miss it over the holidays.

Anyway, the sadness is short-lived as his boss, General Halftrack, comes in and invites the two of them to dinner at his house with him and his wife.

The weirdest part of the episode. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

The dinner is not shown. We just cut to afterwards when the General’s wife plays taps on a bugle while they salute. This is not explained at all. The running gag (at least I’m assuming it’s a gag?) is that Missus Halftrack is even more strict and military than her husband and orders them around. The General shows off a golden whistle that he was given as a gift and Sarge practically drools over it. I’m assuming because it’s shiny and shiny things are good. So good…

Story time! (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

Missus Halftrack tells them to stop all that racket and go to bed. Sarge and Otto curl up on the couch and Sarge reads his dog Twas the Night Before Christmas. He gets most of it wrong and I’m not sure if it’s like some odd version from his book or if the man is partially illiterate and making up the parts he can’t read? I don’t know. Most of this is not explained.

Sarge’s expression is priceless here. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

He falls asleep reading and continues reading in his dream, where he hears a noise outside and sees Santa’s sleigh land. Santa is played by the General while his elf is Beetle Bailey.

So weird. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

Some wackiness ensues (or should I say is attempted) as Beetle-Elf and General Santa deliver presents, burn themselves in a fireplace, and trash the place. Cindy-Lou Who does not wake up.

Beetle Elf is decorated. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

Beetle tears a stocking while stuffing a huge present into it, knocks over the tree, and tangles himself in decorations. You know, that kind of goofy shit you see in old cartoons. No laughs were had that night. (Near as I can tell, Beetle Bailey is what would happen if Archie and Jughead has a baby and that twisted monstrosity was drafted into the army. He’s just as clumsy as Archie and as lazy as Jughead.)

Sarge gets his whistle. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

The next morning the General gives Sarge a present and it’s his prized golden whistle. Then Missus Halftrack orders them to march off to breakfast. The end.

Sarge is horny over a whistle. (Credit: King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios)

Thoughts: This was an odd one, and also the shortest of the specials I watched. It clocks in at about six minutes, and let me tell you, they were a long six minutes. In my opinion, this cartoon was horrible, but it did bring me back to my childhood a little. Partly because it was clearly inspired by the old Looney Tunes shorts of the time. Also Beetle Bailey was one of those comic strips I read every day, and I even had a couple of collections that my mom found at garage sales. (Not as many as the Peanuts collections, of course.) The cartoon had that old comic-strip vibe to it. The voices on it made me laugh way more than they were probably intended to… they were just so exaggerated and over the top. Although Beetle didn’t have many lines, his voice was squeaky and silly. Halftrack had that old person whistle going on whenever he talked. Sarge sounded growly and was hard to understand.

My biggest question is where the hell did the guys go? Cocoa’s theory was that they got leave, but it wasn’t explained. Do they all get to go home for Christmas? Where are they stationed anyway? Are they deployed or is it a reserve sort of situation? I was under the impression there was a war going on.(I seem to recall bombs in the comic strips but I could be remembering it wrong.) If there is a war, is it paused for the holidays? (I remember they hit the pause button on the M.A.S.H. Christmas episode, but not everyone got the memo and so people died anyway. Hilarious. M.A.S.H. was weird.) So many questions, zero answers. Oh, and who was Beetle’s present for? If they don’t get to go home, that adds a layer of confusion to it. Was it for a hooker in Thailand? Yeah, let’s go with that.

But, questions and silly voice-work aside, the big question we need to ask is how did this work as a Christmas Special? Not bad, actually. I mean, it did touch on some aspects of the holiday… opening your home to others, sharing time together, the images of elves, Santa, presents, and the tree. And it sort of included a classic holiday poem, albeit a bad remix. But aside from the rudimentary festive dressings, it didn’t really make much of a point. Sarge didn’t get to spend time with his loved ones— aside from his dog— he got to sleep on his boss’s couch and hallucinate his nemesis as an elf. (Unless his secret Christmas wish was to be bossed around by the General’s wife, which is very possible.) There wasn’t any real plot. General Halftrack didn’t even have a reason for regifting the whistle aside from the fact that Sarge liked it. They could’ve tacked on something like Sarge missed his family or never got Christmas presents because he’s a huge dickhole the rest of the year. It would have been so easy to make this into an actual story. But no… no point was made or story told… it was just some weird inexplicable stuff that happened that looked a bit like Christmas. And Otto was there.

So for these reasons Beetle Bailey gets dead last in our rankings. It was an oddity and it accomplished little. But the memory of the voices continue to make me chuckle, so it earns a spot in the list.

Title card. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

#5: For Better or For Worse: The Bestest Present

For Better or For Worse: The Bestest Present was aired in 1985, and although it was just a special, I suspect it was also intended to be a pilot, since it has a sitcom-esque opening theme song along with clips that didn’t happen in the episode. An interesting thing I found out was that creator and writer Lynn’s own children voiced the children Michael and Elizabeth, and her husband played the mailman. I also found out that in 1992 a second Christmas Special was created as part of a series of specials. I did not track that one down for this post due to lack of time. (Maybe next year?)

For Better or For Worse began its life as a comic strip in 1979 and ran until 2008 when it was rebooted for a short time before quietly going back to reruns. It was created by Lynn Johnston and told the story of the Patterson family and their friends. One thing that always impressed me about this comic is that it ran in real time. The characters aged and grew up. The younger daughter April was born and graduated high school during the course of the strip. (April is not in this special… it was before her time.) I thought the real-time angle was a fantastic choice in a field where characters stay the same age and maturity forever unless the creator gets bored and suddenly ages them up a bit. (Like in the case of Luann, where it took her almost 30 years to graduate high school.) Another thing that I liked is that it didn’t shy away from difficult issues. The comic featured stories about infidelity, divorce, birth defects, child abuse, discrimination, death (most notably with the death of the family dog Farley), and more.

Aww, poor bunny. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

The special starts with Michael messing around on the school bus, singing and dancing his way home, and jumping in a puddle. He tracks water into the house and his mom, Elly, scolds him about it. They head out for Christmas shopping and junk food, the little girl Elizabeth bringing her stuffed rabbit with her. We get to see how attached she is to it on the car ride over. The kids fight over the front seat and Elly makes them sit in the back. Elly reminisces about her childhood Christmases making snowmen and caroling. Michael bitches that it’s not snowing and jokes about his mom being old.

They arrive at the mall, and the store is all decked out for the holidays. The kids are excited for it in a sedate and low-key way. (This entire special is sedate and low-key.) Michael goes straight for the toy department. In her rush to see the train set, Lizzy drops her stuffed bunny and forgets all about it.

Ahh, an inconsolable child… now it’s really Christmas. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

They get home and the dad, John is there. Lizzy finally realizes that she lost her bunny. It seems a little unlikely to me that she’d not notice her toy bunny is missing until they get home since it’s her favorite toy.

So right after leaving the mall we’re right back there, seeing the bunny get kicked around and put up onto a shelf and fall down again. A montage plays of John wandering around looking for the rabbit. He doesn’t find it despite walking right past it.

I think this was supposed to comfort her? (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Back at home Elly mentions that her mother made the rabbit herself. John goes in to break the news to Elizabeth that the bunny is lost forever and the little girl is heartbroken. Dad abruptly starts singing a weird love song to her but it does nothing to comfort her. It was weird to have him break out in song unexpectedly and even weirder seeing Lizzy continue to look wretched throughout the supposedly heart-warming song. It is accompanied by a fantasy sequence of father and daughter playing in a field of flowers. Yes, it’s as awful as it sounds and it goes on way too long but finally he stops and leaves her to her mourning.

The bunny and a photo of some old nameless lady. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Back at the mall, the janitor Walter Lederhaus bitches about the customers and how much he loathes them for being fake, greedy, and thoughtless. He thinks all kids are spoiled and don’t know what’s special. Blah blah commercialism. You know the tune. He finds the stuffed rabbit and brings it back to his office, setting it next to a photo of some old lady that he never mentions. Could be his wife, his sister, his mother, could have come with the frame… we’ll never know. He talks to the rabbit, showing his softer side. He’s realized that some old grandmother made it and someone surely misses it.

A sad girl and a tortured dog. CHRISTMAS! (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

The next morning Michael tackles Farley and hugs the poor dog against his will. Elizabeth is still depressed about her missing bunny and her mom is very dismissive about it, saying even if someone found it, who would care about a stuffed rabbit. She’ll just have to find something to replace it. Rude, lady. The mom really doesn’t seem to care about how much the toy means to her daughter.

A reword, huh? I guess he’s offering editorial services. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Michael, unable to comfort his sister, decides to help. He convinces his blasé mother to let him write a want ad about the bunny and his dad reluctantly agrees to take it to the paper.

Then we get another terrible song sung by high-pitched talentless kids singing about snow while the kids frolic and Farley flirts with a female poodle. (I know it may seem rude of me to make fun of little kid’s singing talent, but they forced me to listen to it, so it’s fair game.)

Walter sees the ad in the paper and doesn’t seem to make the connection, saying that if someone loses something, they don’t deserve to get it back. (This is just clumsy misdirection, as we’ll soon see.)

An evil robotic minion! (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Now it’s Christmas Eve and the mailman brings a parcel. Elly gets pissed at Michael for not answering the door but the framing makes it look like she’s giving the mailman a death glare. The next morning the kids open their presents. Michael torments Farley with his new toy robot dog and everyone laughs. Lizzy gets a stuffed giraffe ad Michael blurts out that it could replace the stuffed bunny, making her sad all over again. Then they remember the parcel from the previous day. It, of course, has the stuffed bunny in it. No name on it, just the name of the mall. Badgered by Elly, John calls the store manager and figures out that it must have been Walter who sent it. (They refer to him as a night watchman, but do night watchmen clean? Hmm.) Walter is alone at home and is delighted by getting a thank you from the grateful father. Michael doesn’t think a simple thank you is enough, so they invite him over for dinner.

Okay, this is cute. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Lizzy proudly shows off her newly-washed stuffed bunny and thanks Walter in person. Michael offers him money since he promised a reward/reword, but Walter refuses it, saying there’s no reward better than being with special people at Christmas. Awwwww. The end.

This is how I look every time I have to answer the door. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Thoughts: Although I appreciate that this was written by the creator (so many adaptations ignore the creator’s input) I didn’t much enjoy this special. I found it drab and boring. It fell flat in every attempt at humor. Much of the humor seemed to be pointed at parents who would see their own families reflected in the Pattersons, so I fail to see what sort of appeal this would have to children. I think the mom was supposed to be portrayed as frazzled and overworked, but she came across as dismissive and uncaring for much of it. She really didn’t seem to care that her daughter was devastated, offering no comfort and just clumsily attempting to change the subject and make her husband handle the parenting.

I can tell what Lynn was going for with this, but I don’t think it worked, and it didn’t really capture the spirit of the comic strip. My copy was poor quality, as you can tell by the screenshots. The voicework was okay (especially considering she used her own kids for it) but the songs were weirdly out of place and irritating. The animation was cheap, but could’ve been a lot worse. (Definitely better than the other two specials in this post.)

As for how it worked as a Christmas Special, I think it did better than Beetle Bailey. It had a message of thoughtfulness, sharing, and giving of yourself. The Christmas imagery was there: Santa, wreaths, gifts under a tree, a busy shopping mall. But much of the special was taken up by the kids and the parent’s reactions (or nonreactions) to them. It told a story and it was a story that had a good conclusion, so it ranks higher than Beetle Bailey, which was just a mess of random half-ideas. But if it didn’t take place at Christmas-time, the story would have worked just as well. That’s mainly why I ranked it so low. The little speech Walter makes at the end feels tacked on and his whole character was undeveloped. No real reason was given for his surliness or any real reference to his deceased wife (of whoever) aside from the photos. It did bring up some points about the commercialism of the holiday, but the points were mostly lost in the fact that Walter was crotchety and thought all kids were spoiled and ungrateful. And the main song in the special had nothing to do with Christmas, it was about a father’s love for his daughter. (And Elizabeth’s agonized face while he was singing to her was hilarious… I doubt that was intentional.) The second song was about playing in the snow, but it was so grating I would rather forget it was even there. Christmas felt like more a plot device than the point of this special, so in that it falls short.

#4: A Family Circus Christmas

A Family Circus Christmas was aired in 1979. It was the second of three holiday-themed specials produced using the characters. I found it pretty amusing that the last line of this special asks when the Easter Bunny is coming and then the next special is about Easter. It gave me horrible flashbacks to the threat at the end of the Rapsittie Kids.

Family Circus is another long-running comic strip, created in 1960 by Bil Keane until his death in 2011. Now it is done by his son. The comic shows the daily lives of the Keane family. The parents are Bil and Thelma, although they are mainly referred to as Daddy and Mommy respectively. The children, in order of age are Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J. (Peter John.) In contrast with For Better or For Worse, the characters in Family Circus never age. The main focus of the comic is on the children, the humor driven by misunderstandings, immaturity, and the brutal honesty of a child. The daily strips take on the form of a single circular panel with a caption underneath, the Sunday strips are longer format with some of them taking the form of one huge picture with a trail marking one of the kid’s roundabout journey across the landscape. Imaginary characters like one named Not-Me and ghosts feature prominently in the comic… this is worth noting as it directly impacts the content of the special.

See, told you it would make sense. Well, I guess it still doesn’t. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

As the special opens, there is a terrible theme song about dreams. Dolly and Jeffy admire their tree for a second and instantly decide to get into their mom’s closet to shake presents. I’m not kidding… the actual dialog is “It’s the best tree we’ve ever had!“ “Let’s look in Mommy’s closet!“ They quickly get caught and Mommy reminds them that Santa is always watching. This causes Jeffy and Sam the dog to hide under the bed. When Jeffy peeks out he sees the eerie ghost of Santa sitting on his toybox shaking his finger at him disapprovingly. It’s creepy and weird and sets the stage for the rest of the special.

Mommy informs the excited kids that they have to wait for Daddy to get home to decorate the tree. The kids go into their haunted-looking basement to get the decorations and they peek in the boxes, prompting Mommy to threaten them with Santa again. Jeffy hallucinates Santa again, this time on the telephone lines. Each time no one believes he saw Santa although he whiningly insists he did.

Daddy is strong. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

Daddy comes home and is attacked by his kids asking if he brought them anything and if they can make a snowman and if they can decorate the tree. (The kids are super annoying. I think they were meant to be cute, but they never quite hit that mark.)

Dead is dead Jeffy. Now go to sleep. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

This is where we get the major conflict of the story… they can’t find the star that goes on top of the tree. As they get ready for bed, Billy asks why Daddy’s eyes were leaking. Mommy explains to the boys that Daddy has been working extra hard at work, and the star was made by Grandad who loved Christmas and is up in Heaven now. Jeffy asks if he can come down from Heaven to spend Christmas with them and Billy replies with “Don’t you know anything Jeffy? He’s dead.“ (This made me laugh hard enough that I had to pause it to recover.)

After filling her kid’s heads with thoughts of mortality, Mommy leaves and Jeffy starts rapid-firing questions at his older brother, who has an answer for everything. How can Santa be in different stores at the same time? He’s super fast. How can he deliver presents to everyone in one night? He has a special watch that lets him stop time. Yup, Billy is inventing new magical powers for Santa on the fly.

So this is where candy canes come from. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

Jeffy has a dream about Santa where all the elements from his day find their way in. There’s a candy cane farm and reference to dusty candy canes, there’s a Christmas tree orchard where they specially make the bare spots on the trees, and they create snow that’s good for making snowmen. Because of Billy’s tall tales, Santa insists he can do anything, which prompts Jeffy to ask Santa to bring Grandad down from Heaven. Of course Saint Nick readily agrees to fulfill this child’s insane wish, so clearly we’re going to get a scene with a murderous corpse ala Pet Sematary.

The same annoying cheesy Christmas song from the opening plays as Jeffy falls to his death from the sleigh. Just kidding, he’s caught by Santa, floats around, and bounces on clouds. Wouldn’t that make this a more memorable special, though? Little Jeffy falling to his death in a dream. Anyway this is an overly-long sequence that just seems to be padding.

They don’t prepare you for this in Santa school. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

When Jeffy wakes and relates his dream, Billy explains that Santa can’t resurrect the dead, making his little brother cry. Billy tells Dolly about the dead grandpa stuff and she doesn’t seem interested in getting involved. She’s too busy making her list.

The kids go to see Santa at the store and there are gags about Dolly’s extensive Christmas list, and P.J. being scared of Santa. Jeffy reminds the poor mall Santa that he promised in a dream to bring back his dead grandfather. The mall Santa looks nervous and I’m assuming this ended up being his last day in the job. Jeffy tells him that if he brings Grandad back, he doesn’t have to bring a fire truck.

Back at home Jeffy jumps on Billy’s bed and again sees Santa’s judging ghost watching him. This time he has a book and gives the boy bad marks. Jeffy hurriedly cleans his room to reverse his grade. His siblings join in, I guess this time believing their brother’s psychotic delusions.

I just noticed Jeffy is sitting on P.J. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

There’s a sequence where Daddy tries to read to them but the kids keep interrupting with one-liners that I’m certain were lifted directly from several of the comic strips.

Dolly tells Mommy about Jeffy’s wish. As she gets the boys ready for bed that night, Mommy tries her best to explain death to a three year old child. In a Christmas Special. Are you seeing how weird this whole plot point is?

Jeffy meets his dead grandfather. Merry Christmas! (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

What follows is an overly dark and shadowy scene… I had to turn the brightness in the screenshot way up to make it somewhat viewable. Ghost Santa wakes Jeffy up and leads him to the tree where he meets Ghost Grandad. (Who, for some reason still has to use a cane even though he’s dead.) The ghost leads him to a shoebox at the top of the closet. To reach it Jeffy piles stuff up and nearly breaks his fool neck. He actually does fall, but Daddy catches him just before he hits the floor, once again preventing the special from having a grisly end. Of course inside the shoebox is the missing star, glowing with a mystical otherworldly light.

A mystical artifact! (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

Daddy conveniently forgot he put the star up there a year before and Jeffy explains the ghost of his dead grandfather showed him where it was. Daddy says he believes him, reinforcing the child’s insane assertions that he can talk to ghosts.

Everyone wakes up and don’t seem to much care that Jeffy was nearly paralyzed for life. They put the star in place and admire the tree. They think Santa actually did come because the cookies and milk were gone, but it was only P.J. Somehow the toddler got out of his crib and ate the treats that the parents forgot about when they went to bed. Pretty big plot hole… isn’t the whole point of the milk and cookies is that the parents eat it so the kids think it’s Santa? Whatever. I shouldn’t overthink it because the people making this sure as hell didn’t.

Mommy and Daddy look like they had quite the night. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

The next morning they open their presents and the kids get some more one liners. Jeffy realizes that Santa brought him the fire truck after all. The parents look suspiciously rumpled and satisfied. Dolly asks how many days it is until the Easter Bunny comes and mugs at the camera. The end credits roll.

I’m gonna miss Judgmental Ghost Santa. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

Thoughts: As soon as the opening song came on I hated this special instantly. The song was off-key, aggravating, and sappy. The episode itself was lame, cloying, sleepy, and dull. The special featured many moments that felt lifted directly from the comic strip, but they were integrated into the episode in a way that flowed. You wouldn’t think a generally one-panel comic would translate well to a 24 minute long episode, but it did alright telling its story with the expected run-time padding. As with the other two, the animation was cheap and the quality of my copy was poor. The song was horrible and the colors kept changing from scene to scene. (Dolly’s hair went from light brown to dark brown to red.) I know Jeffy was supposed to seem like a normal imaginative little boy, but he came across to me as either crazy or psychic. He kept hallucinating Santa and met his grandad’s ghost… an event that in the context of the show actually occurred. The ghost showed him where the star was stored, something his dad didn’t even remember doing even though it was only a year before. So ghosts exist and can be summoned by wishing on imaginary beings that you’ve hallucinated out of guilt and fear over being punished for misbehavior. Got it.

How did it work as a Christmas Special? The whole thing was about Christmas, although much of the focus was on the kids and the gosh-darned things that come out of their mouths. That’s something that, to my recollection, got old in the 80s, so it doesn’t stand up all that well nowadays. It tried its best to be heart-warming but just ended up being corny and a bit inappropriate. I mean the main plot point that the show hinged on was a deceased grandparent. They didn’t beat around the bush or use euphemisms (aside from “gone up to Heaven”) and actually referred to it as death. Imagine if this had become a beloved yearly special… how many conversations would it have sparked over the holidays about mortality and the permanence of death? (“Mommy, will my grandpa die and become a ghost too?”) Yikes. Not to mention the fact that Jeffy was reckless and almost splatted on the floor… not a word was mentioned about how kids shouldn’t climb stacked furniture and toys because it's dangerous. No, it’s fine. Daddy will catch you.

Jeffy’s festive holiday near-death experience. (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

Those points aside, Christmas was baked into this special and it did have a lot of Santa and depictions of a child’s yuletide experiences: Sneaking peeks at presents, shaking the boxes, trying not to misbehave, being afraid of Santa, the impatience and excitement of being a kid at Christmastime. For all that, it still felt lacking. It was bland and overly earnest. It felt like the joy and wonder had been sucked out of everything.

So although the special is very much rooted in Christmas and does its best to convey its messages, it loses points for being poorly executed and bringing down the mood with all the ghosts. Seriously… this special had way more talk about death than I could have ever expected and Jeffy himself almost died falling off the chair at the end. It’s actually kind of awesome to have the clashing themes of family joy and mortality in a place you wouldn’t expect to see it. For that reason it gets placed above the other two, but conversely cannot reach higher on the list. I mean, on one hand bravo for being unexpectedly edgy and pushing boundaries. But on the other hand, maybe a little less of a body count in your Christmas Special intended for very young children?

Merry Christmas! (Credit: Bil Keane , NBC)

And that’s Part 1 of our cartoon marathon! We’re halfway through, and the quality gets notably better from here. The way it worked out was that I had three subpar offerings and three good specials, so the symmetry worked out well.

Hey, you don’t hold rabbits that way, man. (Credit: Lynn Johnston, CTV Television Network)

Thank you for joining me for the first installment of this year’s Christmas special. I had fun watching these specials and making fun of them and I hope you all did too. Next time we’ll look at the three better ones, so I’ll see you then!