Favorite Muppet Christmas Specials

[zns]

With the holiday season fast approaching us, I thought that this would be the best time to start a discussion like this on the forum. Many of us right now are getting ready to watch some holiday movies and programs that are either showing up on television or on you VHS/DVD. Of course, with all of us here being Henson enthusiasts, we are also watching numerous Muppet Christmas programs in the next coming weeks.

I don't know if any of you have ever talked about this, but seeing as how there are so many different specials that the Muppet have done each year during the Christmas season, I am only curious to know which program you like the best. It would help if we could all explain why and decide on what makes it so asignificant each and every year.

Happy Holidays

 

[zns]

Here are my more personal favorites:

1. A Muppet Family Christmas
The use of bringing every major character from every major production from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock is tryul and iconic use of the holiday spirit. Just seeing everyone who comes from a different place is truly unique in the fact that this is what the Christmas season is truly about. The chance for all of us to join together and be with the ones that you love the most is the real reason why we celebrate like this every year. More importantly though, the love that each one of us has for one another is what bruings us closer.

2.Emmet Otters Jugband Christmas
Knowing the sacrifices that you have to make in order to show how much you love someone is by far one of the best gifts that any person could recieve. When Ma and Emmet Otter have to take the things that belong to each one of them in order to help out, it's easy to see how far anyone would go just prove that they care. But greater is the gift of sharing the love and exhuberance at Christmas truly the most rewarding.

3.The Great Santa Clause Switch
Considering that this is the very first full Christmas presentation that the Muppet ever did is unique in its own way. But there is much more to be said than what meets the mind. Despite the efforts of Cosmo Scam to kidnap Santa Clause on Christmas Eve and rob every house in the world goes to show us just one thing. No matter how much you disapprove of the holidays, you cannot take away the joy and happiness of being together and sharing the love of all mankind. For without love, there is no use in celebration.

Once again, please feel free to share your own ideas about you favorite Muppet Christmas presentation.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm going to say Muppet Family Christmas as well. I mean, there is just so much that has been said about that special, and we all know the reasons why it's the best of the best. The Mingling of The Fraggle Rock, Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters (all the while mentioning the Muppet Babies) ... but I see it as much, much more than that. It shows the sweetness of singing carols around the fireplace and the sharing of the Fraggle Pebble as well as the wackiness of everyone slipping on the icy patch and the Chef trying to cook Big Bird (before it turns into another classic sweet moment). The 2 things the muppets do best, I feel.

Also Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. Yeah, I love Cookie eating the typewriter, the telephone, Gordon's tree... but the entire interplay between Oscar and Big Bird was just amazing. Oscar making Bird worry about Santa not coming and not being real, causing Bird to get lost on a cold night... and Oscar worrying the most about him at the end... just wonderful. And the Ernie and Bert "Gift of the Magi" thing was also great.

Honorable Mentions:

VMX and LTS. While VMX does date itself with all the Simpsons-like parodies in the film, it still manages to be madcap and sweet at the same time. Plus, even if you took the satires out, you'd still have a pretty good muppet special. Didn't like the Scrubs bit then, still don't like it now. Whoever wrote that bit should have WATCHED an episode first. They treated it as a generic medical show. And all those other NBC promos they put in the show don't help this movie as it ages, either. But still a good special. As for LTS, even though it SHOULD have been a full 2 hour (or at least hour and a half) broadcast movie, I think it was the best Muppet project we've seen in a while. It does feel like you're watching the first half hour of a movie, and then the last half hour of it. And it's 40 minute run time flies by.

And all the negative stuff I usually say about MCC, I do still like it as a Christmas movie. It is my third favorite Christmas Carol adaption (behind Mr. Magoo and Mickey's versions). While not my favorite Muppet Movie as a muppet movie, I still enjoy it.

Also for Honorable Mention, I submit Elmo Save Christmas and EW: Happy Holidays. While ESC isn't Christmas Eve, it still is a fun little special. And we have one of the last Kermit the Frog SS appearances until EW: Frogs. And I do like the fact Elmo screws something up for a change. As for Happy Holidays, I just like the fact it's called "Happy holidays" and actually mentions OTHER Holidays besides Christmas. I never got that logic of trying to call it a Holiday Tree... there's no tree in Hanukkah and Kwanzaa... but I'm not going there.

As for LEAST favorite, I have to go with A Special Sesame Street Christmas. Now, I think Elmo's Countdown is almost an eye sore, it has some entertaining bits here and there... but SSSC is just dull, and has the stigmata of being a 1970's prime time network "Let's see how many celebrities we can shove into this for ratings sake" special (You know what I'm talking about). I especially like the fact that 90% of the songs they sing AREN"T even Christmas songs.

 

[muppetmonster]

Besides the obvious pick, "a Muppet Christmast Carol", I pick "a Muppet family Christmas", because you do not just see the Sesame Street and Muppet Show muppets coming together, but also the Fraggle Rock muppets, and you also see reference to the Muppet Babies. The special also has a good soundtrack though sung by the Muppets, and a decent plot, though the muppets could have done more things together, in my opinion.

I do not remember the Christmas Sesame Street special, though I did see it, but I was not that impressed with "the Muppets: a letter to Santa" or "it's a very merry Muppet Christmas" to tell you the truth. I love the cast and the parodies in the latter, but the film lacked too me, and the former, was not even a true Muppets special. The Muppets were just plain unfunny and the plot was not even that interesting.

I cannot remember any more Muppet specials, but these are the big ones for me.

- Muppetmonster

 

[Red Fraggle]

MCC of course! its very special to me in alot of ways! First off it was probably teh first version of a christmas carol i ever saw, second that my boyfreind's mom got it for me my first christmas with him- possibly the best gift i got that year- thirdly tat it brigns two timless things together, the muppets themselves and the story of A Christmas carol. No matter what age, generation, or econimc state we live in both are universally enjoyable.

cant rember many others but i too was not very impresed by A veryy Merry Muppet christmas the story was just a bit too cliche' aits a wonderfull life has been redone too many times in too many ways u cant duplicate the effect of teh original! i did like some of teh guests tars adn teh muppets were great but i thought taht jaon cusacks charachter was overdone!

 

[animalrescuer]

I have several favorites in terms of Muppet Christmas specials.
I like "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" because of the story lines within it, Bert and Ernie's version of "Gift of the Magi" and Big Bird finding out how Santa gets down the chimneys of New York and everyone looking for him near the end and having him home safe and sound. I like the ice skating scene most of all, makes me want to try ice skating for the first time.
"Muppet Christmas Carol" is I think the best adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" there is. I like "Mickey's Christmas Carol", too, but that's another story. Why is it the best? Everything is better with Muppets!
"Elmo saves Christmas" has a good story line, not great like "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street", but it's fun to watch either way. Face it, if it was Christmas every day, it would get boring really fast.
"Letters to Santa" is a great special. What makes it is the score by the great Paul Williams and that he makes a cameo as an elf. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me as to why. Plus, it's great that several classic Muppets make a comeback in this, Scooter, Robin, the Electric Mayhem and everyone else. I agree it should have been longer, but it's a great special all the same.
"A Muppet Family Christmas" is my second favorite Muppet Christmas special. I love how all the major Muppet characters from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock all have a part in this. It's amazing how Jim Henson figured out how to bring all these characters together and make this special so fantastic!
And now, my favorite Muppet Christmas special: "Emmet Otter's Jug-band Christmas"!
Why you ask? Well, it just shows that even in rough times, they still care for each other and want to do something to make the season brighter for them. But in the end, this special shows that even if you don't have enough money for presents, friends and family are the best Christmas present of all. On a final note: Paul Williams' music is outstanding in this special. Being that this was his first time writing songs for Muppets, he was supurb in writing the songs in this wonderful special.

My least favorites: I don't really care for "Elmo's Christmas Countdown". Just a hodgepodge of celebrities in too short of time. And was Steve Schrippa and Tony Sorico's appearance as Ernie and Bert really necessary? I don't think so.
"It's a very merry Muppet Christmas movie". I mean I'll watch it, but I don't really care for it as much as the others. The plot is good, but some of the things in the movie I don't think were really needed in the movie. I like all the parodies added in the movie like "A Christmas Story", "How the Grinch stole Christmas" and some instances of "The Gift of the Magi", but that's about it. I don't like when Kermit views a life without him, things turn too modern, a club scene with Scooter as a cage dancer and Rizzo being on Fear Factor.

 

[animalrescuer]

I forgot to mention that I also like the Fraggle Rock episode "The Bells of Fraggle Rock". It's almost like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" when one of the main characters is struggling to find out what the holiday season's really about. In the end, Gobo learns that ringing all the bells keeps the rock moving and the great bell is in their heart, not anywhere in the rock. But it's really about being with others and celebrating the season with joy and Fraggle music.

 

[Frogster]

It's hard for me to choose between MCC and MFC. So I'm at a tie with both.

 

[rexcrk]

I enjoy all four Muppet Christmas specials, but Muppet Christmas Carol is definitely my favorite.

 

[Drtooth]

My least favorites: I don't really care for "Elmo's Christmas Countdown". Just a hodgepodge of celebrities in too short of time. And was Steve Schrippa and Tony Sorico's appearance as Ernie and Bert really necessary? I don't think so.

I can't say I really liked it... I did initially, but once it sank in, it fely schizophrenic or like it had ADHD. But compared to Special Sesame Street Christmas (it's online if you care to try to watch it) at least we have most of the Sesame Street muppets and all the songs sung at least have something to do with Christmas. That said, I doubt I wanna watch either again.