As a kid, you come to expect certain things around Christmas time: stockings hung by the chimney with care, ornaments dangling from a lit Christmas tree, opening each day of the advent calendar… and the tradition of animated Christmas specials playing on TV. You know, the ones they play every year on at least one station.Â
Some of these Christmas specials are more memorable than others, and get much more repeat play each year even to this day (though they were created back in the ’60s and ’70s). Today, we’re going to rank the five most memorable of those animated Christmas TV specials.
Produced by Rankin/Bass Productions (which produced 4 out of 5 of the specials on this list), Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town features the voices of Fred Astaire and Mickey Rooney, and first aired on ABC in 1970. The movie is basically the origin story of Santa Claus aka Kris Kringle, and features the memorable villain Burgermeister Meisterburger, which you have to admit is a pretty epic villain name.Â
Another of the stop-motion animated specials on this list, The Year Without a Santa Claus debuted on ABC in 1974, and is about a weary Santa Claus deciding to skip out on Christmas one year as he doesn’t think people believe in him anymore. It’s possible this is supposed to be a sequel of sorts to the Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town special, as it features Mickey Rooney as the voice of Santa again. Nonetheless, the most memorable piece of this special is the villain, or should we say, villains – the Snow Miser and the Heat Miser, who definitely have the most unforgettable songs in the movie, titled very creatively, “The Snow Miser Song” and “The Heat Miser Song.” You know, just to be clear and all.
Frosty the Snowman debuted in 1969 on CBS, and was the first television special featuring the character of Frosty the Snowman. The special is based on the well-known song of the same name, and shows how Frosty came to be. It actually spawned quite a few sequels (or… “sequels” as not all of them are very related to the original TV special), including Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, Frosty Returns, and The Legend of Frosty the Snowman.
Though there are a handful of different Peanuts specials now, A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first. It debuted on CBS in 1965, and features Charlie feeling depressed around the holiday season, particularly after his peers mock him after trying to put on a Christmas play. In the end, everyone comes together to celebrate and all is well. Interestingly, the special was commissioned and sponsored by Coca-Cola. It was also quite unorthodox in a handful of ways, which we’ll discuss more in the Five Fast Facts section below.
And of course, the most famous reindeer of all comes in at the top spot, though he certainly did have tough contention from Charlie Brown. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first aired on NBC in 1964, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. It’s based on the 1949 song from Johnny Marks (which itself is based on a 1939 poem by Robert L. May), and of course features the origin story of Rudolph and how he was originally a misfit among his peers with his bright red nose. It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special.
- Rudolph has aired on CBS since 1972, and in 2005 got a high-definition digitally remastered version. 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the special, and the USPS gave Rudolph a series of his own stamps.
- The Charlie Brown special featured child actors doing the voice work, which was highly unusual. The score was similarly unorthodox, featuring jazz music, and the lack of a laugh track to go along with the animation was also unexpected. Of course, all of these things now make it a classic, and earned it an Emmy and a Peabody award.
- Rankin and Bass wanted Frosty the Snowman to look like a Christmas card, so they hired Paul Coker Jr., a greeting card and Mad magazine artist, to do the character and background drawings.Â
- A live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on NBC in 2006. The remake stars John Goodman as Santa Claus, Michael McKean as the Snow Miser, and Harvey Fierstein as the Heat Miser, and follows largely the same plot as the original special.
- In 2011, a video game version of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was released on the Nintendo DS and Wii.
- Rudolph has aired on CBS since 1972, and in 2005 got a high-definition digitally remastered version. 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the special, and the USPS gave Rudolph a series of his own stamps.
- The Charlie Brown special featured child actors doing the voice work, which was highly unusual. The score was similarly unorthodox, featuring jazz music, and the lack of a laugh track to go along with the animation was also unexpected. Of course, all of these things now make it a classic, and earned it an Emmy and a Peabody award.
- Rankin and Bass wanted Frosty the Snowman to look like a Christmas card, so they hired Paul Coker Jr., a greeting card and Mad magazine artist, to do the character and background drawings.Â
- A live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on NBC in 2006. The remake stars John Goodman as Santa Claus, Michael McKean as the Snow Miser, and Harvey Fierstein as the Heat Miser, and follows largely the same plot as the original special.
- In 2011, a video game version of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was released on the Nintendo DS and Wii.
