The Christmas Toy (1986)

 

The Christmas Toy is a Jim Henson creation. If you don't know who Jim Henson was, then shame on you. He was the creator of the Muppets. This Christmas special tells the story of a bunch of toys that come to life when no one is around. Sound familiar?

Rugby the tiger was a new toy last year and current favourite and is under the impression that he will be a part of Christmas again so decides to wrap himself up under the tree. It turns out that if toys are caught out in the open or not in their usual spot they will be frozen forever. Upon discovering Rugby's plan, the rest of the toys decide to try and stop him before he or any other toys are frozen forever.

The new toy in town that looks to replace Rugby is Meteora, 'Queen of the asteroids'. She doesn't think she's a toy but thinks she's from outer space. Wow Pixar, it's almost as if you aren't original or something!

 There's even a cute little mouse called Mew. Ha wow, let me guess, there's another mouse in it called Mewtwo? Now that WOULD be funny.

There is a bit of a problem with the frozen forever plot however as Mew ends up being caught on the landing and freezes, but then Rugby sings a song to him and he and loads of the other frozen toys magically come back to life too. So the whole being frozen forever thing is never properly explained so it loses it's plausibility. But, Rugby's love brought Mew back to life and this extends to the other toys who come back to life. None of the toys are truly forgotten whilst there are people around who love them. It's a fitting theme for Christmas, a time to let loved ones know you love them before it's too late. No heartfelt song can resurrect someone in real life.

I loved the Christmas Toy. Nostalgia takes me back to watching this as a child and hearing the songs again really took me back.

 
I remember one scene when the little clown toy was frozen forever after being found by the mum. It was quite a traumatising scene as a child for some reason. It's not as if I had an affinity with clowns or anything. Clowns are shit and are not funny or scary.

It's worth a watch as anything by Jim Henson is great. It's no Muppet Christmas Carol but it's still a fun, magical Christmas film.

South Park: Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics (1999)

There are many South Park Christmas specials, and they're all pretty good. Two of my favourites are animations that Trey Parker and Matt Stone created in the early 90's called The Spirit of Christmas. One is known as Jesus V Frosty, which has the boys build a snowman that comes to life and starts killing people.

The other is Jesus V Santa which has the two fighting over who Christmas is about and features the Mortal Kombat music.

These two technically aren't a part of the South Park series so I have chosen Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics from season 3. This South Park episode is unlike any other. There is no plot and has many of the main characters singing Christmas songs. We have The Dreidel Song by Kyle, Cartman, Stan and Kyle's parents where Kyle tries to teach Ike about Dreidels, but Cartman comes along and insults their religion.

Mr. Mackey sings 'Carol of the Bells' while dressed as a bell, Mr. Garrison sings 'Merry Fucking Christmas' where he goes to countries that don't celebrate Christmas and wishes all their denominations a merry fucking Christmas.

Cartman sings 'O, Holy Night' with all the wrong lyrics, Hitler and Satan sing 'Christmas Time in Hell', and Santa and Jesus perform a medley of Christmas songs, but Santa gets jealous as there are loads of songs about Jesus but hardly any about Santa, so he resorts to singing 'Rio' by Duran Duran.

The episode ends with the main characters and many of the female characters singing 'Have Yourself a Merry Christmas' in a tribute to voice actor Mary Kay Bergman, who voiced many of the female characters. She committed suicide earlier on in the year.

Throughout this episode, just before each ad break, is a news reporter repeating the phrase, "Fighting the Frizzies at 11". This is a reference to the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. This was awful, and the less everyone knows about this special, the better. Chewbacca and his family, jeez.



There is an album of the same name that was released prior to this episode which contains more songs. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are gifted song writers and have won numerous awards for their original music. They even wrote Broadway musical The Book of Mormon.




Now I love South Park, I always have. I remember when it first aired in 1997 and obviously as a child I loved the profanity, but it wasn't until a few years later that I began to watch more of it. A lot of people say, "South Park? That show is stupid and immature, it's shit". These people are correct about the immature aspect of the earlier seasons, but South Park became what many shows have never done, and that is that it became a social commentary. It's tackled subjects such as sexism, P.C culture, social media, politics, religion, body images, racism and many more. So watch a later episode and clue yourself up. And definitely watch this Christmas episode, it's hilarious.

Father Christmas (1991)

This bloomin' great Christmas animation combines both of Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas books into one animation.

We follow Father Christmas (Voiced by the late Mel Smith, who was fantastic on Not the Nine O' Clock News) throughout the year when he is off work. He's in need of a proper good holiday so he goes to France, Scotland and Las Vegas. Everywhere he goes he can't get away from the fact that everyone is like, "Hey, he looks like Santa Claus". Which is what he wants to get away from.

He gets diarrhea in France whilst out camping and has to shit amongst the bushes and cows, and asks for chips and ketchup with his meal, perfectly capturing the real British tourist representation. (When I was in Malta last some British people asked for mayonnaise. Fucking mayonnaise)

He gets merry with the Scots and lives it large in Las Vegas before realising he is too old for it all and heads back to rainy England to start preparing for Christmas.

This animation is a staple part of British TV at Christmas and is usually shown alongside Raymond Briggs' other creation; The Snowman. Even James and his snowman friend from that film feature in Father Christmas when Santa goes to the North Pole for a wild party full of debauchery with lots of other snowmen. Once again the animation is fantastic with it's simple but effective soft crayoned cells and layouts.

It's nowhere near as sad as The Snowman (there's no death in this one) but Santa is presented as pretty damn grumpy and we get to see how he lives every day. His dog and cat make the animation all the better for me, as they constantly follow him everywhere and annoy him, much like real pets do. Actually, the saddest part of the whole animation is when he takes the pets to the kennels before he goes on holiday. That part always made me sad as a kid. It was almost as upsetting as Gromit leaving home.

I'm fairly sure everyone has seen Father Christmas, it's on every year so there's no escaping it. And who can forget that brilliant theme song? ALL TOGETHER NOW...

Santa World: Dusty's Tale (1991?)

I doubt anyone reading this has ever seen or ever heard of this TV movie. There is nothing online about it except for it being on Youtube. However I'm sure you've all actually seen the characters from it before without realising it. They all feature in Shakin' Stevens' music video for Merry Christmas Everyone from 1991.

It is a Swedish movie set in Santa World in Mora, a place you can actually visit.


Dusty's Tale tells the story of Dusty the Snowman, a snowman (obviously) with a stammer who is built by children in the winter but melts in the spring. This is very lonely.

He wishes to find Santa as there is a legend among snowmen that he can grant eternal life. He runs into a snow queen randomly who listens to his sorry tale and with her magic powers freezes him for one summer, but after that he's on his own.

I just want to point out now that the Dusty costume is shit. It's really shit. His eyes are just foam or paper which don't move, and later in the movie they're replaced with sad eyes. It's like stop animation, but not.

So Dusty spends his summer fucking around playing with children like an adult who lacks the social skills to interact with other adults so hangs around with small children instead. Somehow he manages to forget to look for Santa, so ends up looking for him on Christmas Eve. Yep, it's almost as easy to forget as forgetting to buy milk. If he doesn't get Santa to grant him life on Christmas Day it will be too late.

When he does go looking for Santa though, Santa is a dick and spends the whole movie running and hiding from him.

Then at the very end just turns up like, "Na I was just fucking with you". Santa is harsh. You're a dick Santa.

Upon watching the movie recently I completely forgot how creepy Santa is. Not only does he have cameras in his house so he can watch the children playing, but he just looks like a creep. He's not Santa Claus, he's pedo Clause. That's definitely how it looks.

However, I loved this movie as a child (and I was probably the only one who did and had even seen it) and even though I've now realised how creepy and shit it is, I still love it. Once again, it makes me reminisce on my childhood and now I can't get the theme song out of my head.

Check it out, you can watch it on Youtube here and it's only half an hour long. I'm sure you can all take time away from Facebook to watch it.

Gremlins (1984)

Did you know Gremlins is based on a true story? 
It's not.

I watched Gremlins when I was very little. Which is quite surprising seeing as it was rated a 15. It is classed as a horror but as a child it never scared me, I just found it hilarious. Stripe and all those other Gremlins are evil but hilarious throughout the movie. I understood that it was a horror though. I mean, the theme music for one comes straight out of a Halloween film. It's awesome.

The darkest thing for me from the movie is the monologue by Kate, played by Phoebe Cates.

I guess she found out at a young age Santa wasn't real.

I think this is actually the scariest part of the movie. The slow rendition of Silent Night playing in the background makes the scene even more chilling.

Another scene that I always found disturbing was the snow plow scene. Knowing that Futterman and his wife were supposed to die always left me feeling uneasy. Even though he survives and is in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, I could never shake the feeling of how dark it was.

An even darker scene was actually cut from the movie. Billy comes home just in time to see his mother's head bouncing down the stairs. It was cut in order to make the movie more marketable as a family film and give way for more comedy. And there is lots of comedy. Let's not forget that this is a comedy/horror film, and although the Gremlins are evil and violent there is a lot more comedy than horror. 

My favourites include seeing uncharitable old bat Mrs. Deagle being launched out of her window on her stair lift. I ALWAYS laughed at that scene as it was very comedic and not realistic at all. So it was okay to laugh at an old woman dying. 

Ironically, the Gremlins themselves were the funniest part of the movie. They sang Christmas carols, (which leads up to Mrs. Deagle's death) sing along to the theme song from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the cinema, and have a blast in a bar getting up to all kinds of crazy shit.

Gremlins is definitely a Christmas film. It has tinsel, Christmas music, carolers, and Gizmo was a Christmas gift.


It has Christmas carolers!

It's just a very dark Christmas movie that's all. It's quite anti-Christmas I guess. It tears it to pieces, and even has Santa mauled by Gremlins.



But I have always loved it and the Gremlins for some reason never scared me as a kid. It didn't take itself serious in the slightest and embraces it's ridiculous plot. It should be shown every Christmas and every child should have to watch it, mainly for the ending;

"Bye bye, woof woof". 

Then when they're bad you can just tell them there's a Gremlin in the house. I'm sure that'll work.

A Chipmunk Christmas (1981)

The modern Chipmunk films are shit. They are really, really shit and completely ruined The Chipmunks. Horrible looking CGI chipmunks, who were just actual chipmunks instead of chipmunks with human features, sent shivers of sheer horror down my spine. I don't think I've ever used the word chipmunks in one paragraph so much. Chipmunks.

The cartoon series of The Chipmunks however were better. Yeah sure they're for kids so they probably weren't that great but at least they only lasted around 20 minutes so you didn't have to listen to high pitched voices for that long. When I was little I watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks series that ran from 1983-1990 on reruns and on VHS. The intro was so damn amazing too and upon watching it (many times) as I write this I remember how catchy and awesome it was.

Before this series though there was a Christmas special called A Chipmunk Christmas which was released in 1981. This Christmas special is one of the biggest flashbacks to my childhood. Watching it now brings so many feelings and memories flooding back. The feels.

Alvin learns of a boy called Tommy who is terminally sick. I know, how dark is that for a kids cartoon? Tommy's last wish is to have his own harmonica, so Alvin selflessly gives Tommy his own one. However, the Chipmunks have just been hired to play Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve and Alvin is expected to deliver a harmonica solo. As the harmonica was a gift from Dave, Alvin feels that he cannot tell him what's happened, so Simon and Theodore help him make money so he can buy another one. Dave discovers that they are trying to make money to buy Alvin a gift for himself and assumes they don't know the spirit of Christmas.

Alvin has a nightmare, which is a pretty bad scene to be honest, and Dave hears him shouting "I need money" in his sleep and once again thinks Alvin is being selfish.

In the end though an old woman buys the harmonica for Alvin and he plays Carnegie Hall in front of Tommy, and giving him the harmonica has saved his life. So the gift of giving is a big message here.

At just about 20 minutes long this Christmas special seems a bit short but it is a pretty sweet story and it manages to get the message across without being too preachy. The animation is pretty traditional and although being done in the 80's, it looks a lot older which I absolutely love. I think the main hook though is the music. 'Christmas Don't be Late' and 'Wonderful Day' are performed and every time I hear these I get a nostalgic tingle down my spine.




I downloaded this special for my nieces and nephews a few years ago because I wanted them to be able to watch this too. And to remind them that kids TV now is shit and they missed out on some great things. Damn kids.

The Office: Classy Christmas (2010)

Usually, British TV exports to America are awful. America have tried recreating so many British TV shows; The Inbetweeners, Red Dwarf, The Vicar of Dibley, Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, House of Cards. I could go on forever. Do you know what the common theme with all of these shows are? They pretty much all flopped in America. Really badly. You cannot take a British script and recreate it in America because the humour is just far too different. Now one of the only exceptions to this list is The Office. If anything, The US Office is actually funnier than the British version. It goes on a bit too long with it's 9 seasons, but overall it does a really good job.

The Office had many Christmas specials, and a lot of them were really good. My favourite is from Season 7; Classy Christmas. By now, The Office was well past its peak but this two-part episode remains a good one. 

The episode starts off hilariously with everyone stood outside waiting for an office group photo. They spend ages trying to get the perfect fun picture. They can never get it right, then it cuts to Michael in his office.

Jim declares that it's snowing much to the scrutiny of Dwight, so Jim goes outside, makes a snowball and comes back into the office and throws it at Dwight to prove a point. Jim refuses to apologise so Dwight challenges him to a snowball fight. An actual fight.

The main story in this episode is the temporary return of Holly Flax who is covering for Toby. His announcement is immediately interrupted by Michael who as usual verbally bullies him. 

Jim goes outside to meet Dwight for their snowball fight but Dwight is nowhere to be seen. There is only a snowman stood in the parking lot. He turns to go back inside to find the front door has been chained shut. Dwight then emerges from the snowman and bombards Jim with snowballs. BOMBARDMENT!

Later on Jim passes who he assumes to be Pam, but then Dwight turns around in the chair wearing a wig and women's clothing, then once again bombards Jim with snowballs.



This episode is so enjoyable for me because,unlike many Office episodes, this one isn't that funny. Not because the writing is bad, but because it's a sad episode. We see an emotional change in Michael. The return of Holly gives him the hope that they can start a life together, but when he learns she is in a long distance relationship with A.J, he not only becomes his usual jealous self, but he feels betrayed due to the fact that Holly told him a long distance relationship between them wouldn't work. This made Michael a sympathetic figure for once, and I actually started to turn on Holly. 

Obviously the snowball fights are hilarious but they do have a sinister side to them. Seeing Jim covered in his own blood due to Dwight's constant bombardment bought a bit more reality to the scenario and the always happy, chirpy Jim seemed broken.

But ultimately the episode tells us that all is not lost, and that things will always work out in the end. And I guess that's quite a promising message.