Least favorite Christmas specials/episodes?

There are plenty of bad Christmas specials. So, listing most of those would be kind of pointless.

However, of the more famous and popular ones (and people are going to be dumbfounded by this, probably) but I'm not really a big fan of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I know it's supposedly a classic and all. The thing is, I just don't really care for Peanuts. It's too depressing. Charlie Brown himself is too neurotic. He reminds me of . . . well . . . myself if things got a lot worse. That kid's got to learn to stop worrying and enjoy himself.
 
Oh man. Third'd. They ruined a perfectly funny albeit morbid Christmas song and tried to stretch it out into a family movie with subpar animation and acting. You can bet it was a disaster.
 
I don't see how anyone could prefer Returns over the original. The reviewer was also wrong in that Frosty's Winter Wonderland stopped airing on network television long before Frosty Returns came out.
 
And what scares me is that The CW keeps running it year after year trying to make it a classic. But it's just as forgettable as...well... I can't even think of any Christmas specials that pointless. Even Jingle Bell Rock from DIC had a better storyline, if cliched.

I want to add one thing. Someone's gonna get really made at me, but...

I really don't care for Little Drummer Warners (Animaniacs). I mean, I like how they actually were able to pass religion, the true meaning of Christmas, through a kid's show in the 90's (or ever) but I have the same issues with this one as I have with the Flame cartoons. Adding a few little jokes and playing the rest straight just... well... isn't Animaniacs to me. I mean, yeah, there's no way Yakko's going to drop and anvil on one of the wisemen, or Wakko making a Frankecense/ Frankinstine joke. But even I liked the religious episodes about Adam and Eve and Noah's arc because... well, they had the same spirit Animaniacs has.
 
Oh yeah, that one is probably the top of the heap as far as Holiday crap goes. But since it's not 100% animated, it technically doesn't count. (And FWIW, I actually sat through the whole thing. NEVER AGAIN)

But here's my picks:

A Flintstones Christmas and A Flintstone's Christmas Carol - Never mind the fact that it's highly questionable as to why they'd be celebrating the birth of Christ several thousand years before He was born... they're just really uninspired and HOW many remakes of 'A Christmas Carol' can there be?

The Simpsons: Miracle On Evergreen Terrace - This is probably right up there with the Star Wars Holiday Special. I don't mind dark comedy sometimes -heck, I love it when it's done right-, but this is one of the very, very few episodes of any cartoon that drives me to RAGE after watching it.

Veggie Tales: The Toy that Saved Christmas - While not horrible by any means, when put up against the far more sophisticated 'The Star of Christmas' (which actually moved me to tears at the end), this just seems so... simplistic in comparison. But in fairness, it has more heart to it than any of the post-'Star'/bankruptcy episodes do.

I'm not exactly fond of the Rankin-Bass stuff either... though my family enjoys a yearly roasting of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' every now and then.

I'm sure I'll think of more... especially since Boomerang is showing a majority of them this month, too.
 
Brainatra mentioned 5F07 "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", and I must back up the sentiment. This episode is frustratingly, agonizingly, and insultingly bad - not just by Christmas show standards, but by the standards of "The Simpsons" as a series. The first half is actually a pretty decent character study - Bart accidentally burns down the tree and destroys the family's presents, so he covers up by fabricating a story about a burglar stealing everything. Then when all of Springfield pitches in to help the family recover from the "theft", Bart is stricken with guilt, knowing that he's basically swindled the entire town out of their money. Now, if the remainder of the episode had focused exclusively on Bart's stuggle with his conscience, then it would have been a great episode, perhaps on par with the show's first two Christmas episodes.

But that's not what happens. Instead, when Bart finally confesses, it's the entire Simpson family who receives the consequences. Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie were just as much in the dark as the rest of Springfield was, yet for no apparent reason, they receive the hatred and vitriol of the townspeople for a scam in which they had no active part. Bart's self-struggle is completely abandoned in favor of a third act featuring the Simpsons becoming social outcasts, despised by everyone they know for reasons beyond their control. Finally, to "get even", the citizens of Springfield loot the Simpsons' house, stealing all of their worldly possessions. When the episode closes on that scene of the family sitting alone in the bare living room with nothing left but a single washcloth, I as a viewer do not feel entertained - I feel furious. Furious at the characters for being such heartless monsters, but even more furious at the writers for screwing up what should have been a great episode.

Give me 7G08 "Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire" and 3F07 "Marge Be Not Proud", but this episode can rot for all I care. It's the darkest blemish on the already somewhat tarnished Season 9 - the first significant indication that "The Simpsons" would never again be as good as it was during its first eight years.
 
Grandma got run over by a reindeer is like a car wreck on cartoon network for me. I usually watch while wrapping presents and I just can't look away even during painful musical numbers such as "Grandpa's Gonna Sue The Pants Offa Santa (That's What Grandpa's Gonna Do)".

Another Christmas Special that I dislike is the Dexter's Lab short where Dexter duels with Santa. The ending is a bit too cynical for me, I enjoy cynicism and such but in Christmas specials I feel you need to have some heart to them. I mean even the Something Positive Holiday Strips have some warmth and cheer to them and thats one of the "darker" strips out there.

On a side note the first Smurf's Christmas Special which I affectionately refer to as the Smurfs Conquer Satan is just bizarre...
 
Okay, where did this hate for "Dexter vs. Santa's Claws" come from?! There's so much to love about it:

- The Die Hard reference ("Welcome to the party, pops!")...which makes the episode a nice companion to the equally hilarious "Trapped With a Vengeance".
- The surreal aspect of Santa's dialogue; (almost) nothing but "Ho-ho-ho's" displaying a number of emotions (and a special nod to Jeff Bennett for his voice work).
- The brief bit at the end where Dexter's teeth become pointed.

With Dexter trying to rationalize how children get Christmas presents, "Dexter vs. Santa's Claws" is much funnier (and truer to its characters) than, say, "The Fright Before Christmas".
 
Catching up on the comments...

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" wasn't the greatest, but it had its moments... vs., well---

"Frosty Returns": I hate Frosty Returns---and CBS' attempts at making this one a "classic" by rerunning it every year. The fact it has an environmental theme or uses terms like "Winter" instead of "Christmas" isn't what bothered me, though.

>>
So there you have it. The complete secularization and homogenation of Christmas as a humanistic winter holiday to be celebrated by corporate heads and weirdo social activists who really wish the word "Christ" wasn't in Christmas. I feel ill. I'll have to watch Charlie Brown to wash this horrible special out of my mind.
 
Whose genius idea was it to give a novelty Christmas song some backstory?!

It's like making the Grinch a pitiable outcast or giving Willy Wonka issues with his father.

EDIT: Nearly forgot The Night B4 Christmas.

"Christmastime is the best time, 'cause the best time is Christmastime"...CAN'T ARGUE WITH THAT LOGIC! :shrug:
 
I love the ending to "Dexter vs Santa's Claws". I love how the "moral" just comes out of nowhere like that. Yeah, Christmas isn't really about the presents (and you'd have to be a really shallow person to think that) but it's funny as a joke. People who get upset at this sort of stuff need thicker skins.
 
I should have specified I enjoy the special up until the ending. I agree Santa speaking in Ho Ho Hos is brilliant. I did not catch the Die Hard reference as it has been years since I've seen that movie. Dexter's insistence in calling Santa and referring to the reindeer as mom is good as well. Just the ending leaves me feeling a bit sour. (It doesn't induce blood curdling rage just a mild sense of irritation) Though it is what it is and thinking of the short I can't honestly think of any other way it could end...

I was not aware there was more than one Dexter holiday episode. Was the Fright Before Christmas produced towards the end of the series' run?
 
Honestly, what did you expect in a Smurfs special, and a Christmas special to boot? For the villain to be sliced in half by the Fire Sword of Ganandorf, then for the blue guys to feast upon his entrails?
 
I remember watching the special as a kid and being completely weirded out by that singing. It was ridiculously cheesy even by combined Smurfs and Christmas standards.

I doubt anyone would have expected anything like you suggested, but I was kind of expecting some more with the usual for the show, like Papa Smurf using magic to defeat the villain. I mean, they could have done the exact same thing they did, but chanting a spell instead of singing a song.

There was another Smurfs Christmas episode, which involved Chlorhydris putting a spell on Santa Claus to turn him evil. I hardly remember much of it but I recall liking it better.
 
Two specials, two memorably cheesy/stupid songs that will stay with me for the rest of my days.

Which is worse, "Grandma's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa" or "Goodness Makes the Badness Go Away"?



I would have LOVED to see that. :evil: :D
 
Originally Posted by Moi
Honestly, what did you expect in a Smurfs special, and a Christmas special to boot? For the villain to be sliced in half by the Fire Sword of Ganandorf, then for the blue guys to feast upon his entrails?



Yes, yes, Movie06, we know. If it's happy and entertains young children, you hate it, despite the fact that the existence of these kids' shows, movies and products isn't hurting you at all, they're not aimed at you and you're far too old to be dripping venom about stuff which doesn't affect you in any way. We got it. :yawn:

Now how about we try to get back on-topic?
 
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