I don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks, I LOVE the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials!
They were a tradition when I was a kid, they’re a tradition now, I’ll make sure they’re a tradition with my future kids. They’re the essence of nostalgia for me. However, which ones are truly the best at capturing the Christmas spirit? Let’s find out!
Honorable Mention: “Pinocchio’s Christmas”
I’ll admit this is mostly here because this is one of the two we owned on VHS and thus is actually probably the special I’ve seen the most throughout my life. Heck I’ve probably seen this more times than the Disney version if I’m being honest. It was an odd choice to have Pinocchio as the main character. What’s even stranger is how this feels like it’s a mid point in a larger story. As if this is but one episode plucked out of a full series. There are parts that feel more like scenes from the book like when Pinocchio first meets the Talking Cricket, just without the murder. Still for as bizarre as the special is the songs are burned into my brain. It really is the kind of thing I can’t defend on any real level, but like I said it bleeds nostalgia for me.
5.) “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
This and “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” were probably the two specials I looked forward to the most during the holiday season as a kid. It just didn’t really feel like Christmas without them. Re-watching it, knowing what this all led to… this is a WEIRD story. I love it all, but there’s no doubt it’s so weird! Although I guess it had to be. I mean if you’re charged with coming up with a story based off a Christmas song, you’re going to have to add a bunch to stretch it out. Somehow it works in the end, maybe it’s the nostalgia that does it. As a kid my favorite parts were the prospector and the Abominable Snowman. I always wished they had appeared in more of the specials. Especially when you consider that Rudolph did have sequels in the Rankin/Bass… series I guess you’d call it.
4.) “Santa’s Coming to Town”
The other special we owned on VHS and I watched a ton as a kid. I never really had heard any other take on the origin of Santa before so this is kinda my own head cannon. It’s also a little out there at times, but it really does a good job hitting all the major point you’d expect. This was also a turning point as they hired former Biggest Star in the World, Mickey Rooney as Santa. He continued to voice Santa in most of the specials that came after this. It oddly does give it a little bit of a feeling of continuity, despite all the other changes from special to special. I’ll admit the Winter Warlock legitimately scared me as a kid. Not as bad as other things, but hey this is made by the same people who created the creepiest Gollum. Maybe the fact he turns good and has one of the happiest songs ever afterwards helps. It’s one I often find myself re-watching. No joke, my brother and I still to this day quote Burgermeister Meisterburger to each other.
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3.) “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland”
Now I had to re-watch these specials (or in some cases watch for the first time) to make a fair assessment. At first I was going to put the original “Frosty the Snowman” special in this spot. Somehow I had always missed this sequel. I remember the sorta-sequel “Frosty Returns” (but it actually wasn’t Rankin/Bass) and the crossover special “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July.” Somehow this special just seemed to elude me over the years. While it can be just as all over the place like the first special I suppose I just like the world-building in it. The goal of the first “Frosty” special was to make it look like a Christmas card come to life. They keep that visual style here with some slight design alterations. We also get an interesting (for the Rankin/Bass cannon) villain with Jack Frost. He would later get his very own special as a hero. The designs are similar enough in both that you could argue they’re the same, but with how inconsistent these kid shows were back then who knows. What I do know is they once again perfectly capture Frosty’s innocence and just have a perfect voice. My only real complaint since this is most definitely the same town, they even run into the same cop to do the same accidentally swallowing the whistle gag. Where is Karen? After Frosty and her went through so much in the last one, I would have like a little reunion between the two.
2. “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus”)
How to describe this one? Well I guess I’ll start off by mentioning that this was Rankin/Bass’ final stop-motion Christmas special. I don’t know if they knew that going in, but this is a very good special to go out on. What’s interesting is that this one junks the inter-connectiveness of the previous specials. No Mickey Rooney as Santa in this one. However, they had to do this as it is a different take on the Santa origin story. It’s based on a book of the same name by L. Frank Baum. Yes THAT L. Frank Baum. Despite that it doesn’t feel very “Oz” like, though that may have to do with 2 aspects. One apparently is that this 40 minute special could only cover small amount of the book. What’s really funny is that the character who feels the most like something Baum would have written was entirely created for the special. Another thing I really like about this film is the way everything seem so important. Even the act of the fairy deciding she wants to be mother to the baby Santa. I’d say the tone of the story feels more like JRR Tolkien. Which is very possibly due to the fact aside from these stop-motion specials their other most famous creation would be their animated adaptations of “The Hobbit” and “Return of the King.” It doesn’t help when the choir sounds the exact same during some of the songs. You know as a kid I had no idea they were made by the same people, but on a subconscious level I must have noticed a connection between the two because I always imagined what it would be like if someone did a version of “The Hobbit” in the same way as these specials. So this was like seeing young Eric’s fantasy film.
1.) “The Year Without A Santa Claus”
Now when I was a young kid this was NOT a special that played in heavy rotation. I was actually first introduced to it during “Batman and Robin” so if you ever wanted me to say something positive about that film, there it is. Apparently this is based on a book. I’d be curious to see how accurate it is. Of course we all remember the Heat Miser and Cold Miser parts which are a ton of fun. It has that Rankin/Bass weirdness we all know and love. Where it really shines is in Santa himself and his relationship with Christmas. First, we have a very bitter man who really only gets involved in the story because he has to. There’s the part where he befriends a young disbelieving boy and convinces him to believe again with what I think is the best original song that ever came out of the Rankin/Bass specials. Then, when you’d think the story is winding down we get their best use of a preexisting song, “Blue Christmas.” As Santa finally sees what he’s worth to the world we get an incredibly triumphant return of Santa. It’s moments like that when I re-watch this each year that remind me what I love about the holidays.
Merry Christmas everyone!