The best Christmas episodes and tv specials

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, since we already have a thread for Christmas movies, I thought that I would start a thread to discuss your favorite Christmas episodes of sitcoms, and tv specials. Full disclosure, while I do watch modern shows that have Christmas episodes, they just don't compare to the classics that I grew up with, so I'll only be mentioning older material, but if any of you have any modern favorites, please share them here, as they might be something that the rest of us might like.

Obviously, I'm going to start with the classic tv specials that we all know and love, like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Of course, you can include the other Rankin/Bass stop-motion specials in there as well. I will also mention Christmas Eve on Sesame Street from 1978, I loved this tv special when I was a kid, and I still do.

There have been so many Christmas episodes of shows that it would be almost impossible to list every single one, so I'll mention a few of my favorite shows, some of the these shows had multiple Christmas episodes through the seasons. In no particular order - Bewitched, Growing Pains, The Wonder Years, The Waltons, Frasier, Seinfeld, Happy Days, Family Matters, Full House, Saved by the Bell, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, The Golden Girls, Mama’s Family, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, The Jeffersons, The X-Files, and The Brady Bunch. I should also mention A Very Brady Christmas from 1988, another tv movie that was really good.

Of course, I have to mention The Simpsons and South Park Christmas episodes. They have both had some great episodes, too many to list, but I will say that my absolute favorite episode of South Park is Woodland Critter Christmas, I laughed so hard the first time I watched it that I fell off the couch. There are so many other great Christmas cartoon episodes and specials that I love as well, here are just a few I could think of right now, such as The Smurfs, The Flintstones, A Chipmunk Christmas, Care Bears, Yogi's First Christmas, He-Man and She-Ra, King of the Hill, and Mickey's Christmas Carol. Actually, you could put any animated version of A Christmas Carol on that list as well because most of them are good.

I think that one of my favorite Christmas specials is ALF's Special Christmas, This is one of the most heartwarming Christmas specials that I've ever watched, and one that I still enjoy to this day, and in my opinion, it's one of the most underrated as well. It starts out with the usual comedy, but soon gets very emotional, and then very very dark, a direction that you wouldn't expect from a show like this. I won't go into spoilers, but I definitely recommend that you watch it if you haven't already. I promise that you will like it.

You can watch it by clicking the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dja4Wz-e3c

[Murfreesboro]

I'll have to give this some thought. But one thing I do remember from the 60s and 70s is the many Christmas specials we used to see back then. Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and Andy Williams used to have them every year. So did Lawrence Welk. The Carpenters did two or three in the 70s. These were all just musical variety specials, but I enjoyed them. The duet you sometimes hear on the radio, Bing Crosby singing the Drummer Boy and David Bowie Peace on Earth, came from Crosby's tv special the year he invited Bowie to be his special guest. I think it might have aired posthumously. Those tv shows are always filmed in August, and Crosby died of a heart attack in the early fall, IIRC.

[Andybev01]

Every Frasier Christmas episode is a gem, my favorite being "Merry Christmas Mrs. Moskowitz'.

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, that's a great one! Season 6? I think. Frasier always had such superb holiday episodes. Their Valentine's and Halloween episodes were also brilliant.

I'm a fan of the new All Creatures Great and Small. It's very cozy, so it might or might not be to your taste. But it's well done, and each season ends with a Christmas episode.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I'll get back to this tomorrow when the forum isn't signing me out every 5 minutes.

By the way, if it says that I'm still online, I'm not. ---------->

The forum was glitching again and it signed me out while I was typing, so I signed in again and it's still signing me out, but it still says that I'm online. Somebody should really update this antiquated forum.

Help me Andy-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

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