It’s the most wonderful time of the year, or so the song goes. Christmas is a good time to get the decorations up, get the food just right, then settle down to some nice seasonal programming. There are Christmas movies and specials for everyone, whether they love the holidays (Rankin-Bass specials), hate them (Black Christmas, The Ice Harvest), or just miss Halloween (The Nightmare Before Christmas).
While the likes of The Grinch, A Christmas Story, and It's a Wonderful Life are beloved classics, people might find something less familiar tucked away in the schedules. Something that was shown way back when, then faded from history until they were unearthed years later. While some of these specials are obscure for a reason, there are a few hidden gems here too.
8 Doctor Who: "The Feast Of Steven"
Doctor Who’s Christmas Specials feel like a more modern tradition, with "The Christmas Invasion," "The Runaway Bride," and "Voyage of the Damned" all being made under Russell T. Davies’ reboot. However, he wasn’t the first to bring Christmas cheer to the Timelord. The first holiday-themed episode of Doctor Who was made all the way back in 1965 in "The Feast of Steven."
It was technically the seventh part of "The Daleks’ Master Plan," but it has little to do with that plot. The episode is more about the Doctor’s companions Sara and Steven saving him from police custody in 1960s Britain before meeting Charlie Chaplin and Bing Crosby in Golden Age Hollywood. It sticks out because the Doctor showcases one of his rare abilities: breaking the 4th Wall to wish viewers a Happy Christmas.
7 The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas
Animated by DePatie-Freleng, the studio behind The Pink Panther animations, this special was made for NBC back in 1973. The story was simple enough: while other bears hibernate for the winter, Theodore "Ted" E. Bear wants to know what this ‘Christmas’ thing is. So, he goes out in search of it. The title gives away his level of success.
The special was on Netflix for a time. Now it can be picked out on TUBI or Lionsgate’s YouTube channel for anyone who’s curious. It had a solid voice cast too, featuring narration by Casey Kasem, Charlotte’s Web actor Robert Holt as Santa, the ubiquitous Michael Bell as Honey Bear, and Tom Smothers of the Smothers Brothers as Ted E. Bear.
6 The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold
Of all of Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion Christmas specials, this has to be one of the more inexplicable ones. It’s simple enough on the face of it: a boy called Dinty Doyle goes to an uncharted island and digs up a pine tree where he discovers a tribe of leprechauns. He also accidentally releases the banshee Old Mag the Hag.
She’s after a pot of gold for Christmas, and Blarney Kilakilarney’s treasure is ripe for the taking. It’s up to Dinty to help keep the gold safe from Old Mag while the others figure out how to trap her again. It has all the charm of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, even if the Irish stereotypes would make any friend from Eire ask if they could stick on Father Ted instead.
5 Ziggy’s Gift
Animator Richard Williams is an icon in the industry for his work on multiple shorts, sequences, and specials. He also helped create Who Framed Roger Rabbit, including designing Jessica Rabbit. However, eight years prior to that film, he directed this cheery adaptation of Tom Wilson’s Ziggy comics.
Ziggy’s Gift has the titular lead and his dog Fuzz help raise money for the poor by working as a street Santa. While surrounded by thieves, his corrupt co-workers, and a suspicious cop, he keeps himself honest to help the less fortunate. The special was largely mute, save for music by Harry Nilsson. It won an Emmy in 1983, though it hasn’t stuck in viewers’ minds since.
4 A Claymation Christmas Celebration
Mention Will Vinton and chances are people will recall his Claymation work in the 1980s, bringing the likes of The Noid and the California Raisins to life. Not to leave an audience hanging, he brought the Raisins back for this musical special where they sing a soulful rendition of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
They’re just one of many musical acts introduced by Rex and Herb, two very Christmassy dinosaurs. When Rex isn’t trying to pronounce "Here We Come A-Wassailing" correctly, he and Herb introduce the Magi singing a 1950s version of "We Three Kings," a comedy version of "Carol of the Bells" with Quasimodo, and two walruses doing ice ballet to "Angels We Have Heard on High."
3 Father Christmas
People might be more familiar with Frosty the Snowman, but some may also know Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. It was a touching tale about a boy’s snowman who comes to life and takes him on an adventure to the land of snowmen. The short knew how to pull the viewers’ heartstrings without overdoing the schmaltz. Weirdly, it got a spin-off nine years later in 1991 focusing on Santa Claus, aka Father Christmas.
Instead of being a jolly elf from the North Pole, he’s an ordinary bloke from London who lives alone with a cat, dog, and reindeer. He goes on holiday before the holidays where he gorges himself until he gets sick in France, freezes after a skinny dip in a Scottish loch, and gambles away his cash in Las Vegas. Despite that, it’s not really an edgy take on Santa, as he’s still a jolly figure who gets presents out on time. He's just an ordinary guy on top of that.
2 A Christmas Carol
Out of all the different versions of A Christmas Carol out there, there are bound to be a few odd ones that slip through the cracks. This one from 2000 had less to do with Charles Dickens and more to do with Groundhog Day and Jason Statham-esque Cockney gangster antics. Though viewers had to make do with his cheaper British TV counterpart Ross Kemp.
Kemp’s Eddie Scrooge is a loan shark who forces one of his debtors, Bob Cratchitt, to come on his debt-collecting gigs. Jacob Marley is an old friend of his who was killed during a "job," and Scrooge’s nephew is a cop looking into Marley’s case. Aside from learning to be more generous, he has to give Marley justice by telling his nephew what he knows and mending the bridge with his ex-partner Bella. Its attempts to be more serious ironically make it goofier than the one full of Muppets.
1 Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe In Santa
This infamous 3D animated atrocity isn’t so obscure now, as it was rediscovered and uploaded in full to the web in 2015. Before then, it felt like a barely remembered, holiday-themed fever dream as it was only shown once on TV in 2002. Plot-wise, it wasn’t anything special: a young boy called Ricky gifts his most treasured possession, his teddy bear, to his crush Nicole as she learns to value things beyond their worth.
Its development was more interesting as, according to the daughter of executive producer Chris Rose, he let animators Wolf Tracer Studio work on the project on a trust basis. He gave them $500,000, then never checked their work once until it was broadcast. That budget got him an all-star cast of voice actors like Mark Hamill, Grey DeLisle, and co-producer Nancy Cartwright. Visually, it got him a disaster that lingered in people’s minds for years.