the sheer number of Rankin-Bass specials are daunting… and each one adds some bizarre new element. A lot of them (like Jack Frost) aren't even really about Christmas at all. But their batting average was still fairly good when you consider how many people remember at least a few of the following:

I wish more people liked Nestor, The Long Eared Christmas Donkey

it's actually an adaptation of a Baum novel. It was certainly bizarre and I'm not at all shocked that it is the hardest Rankin-Bass special to find these days

The Rudolph sequels (Shiny New Year and Christmas in July) are both pretty batshit. Shiny New Year has it's charms, though… in particular dealing with a non-kid friendly holiday in a kid friendly manner.

April saying that made the joke funnier.

I always find it weird when a show airs a Christmas episode too early and then has that weird Not Christmas episode 10 days before Christmas.

I won't be able to watch that movie without thinking of Ben and Kate.

..

yeah… a Santa of another race would still be recognized by children as Santa, or at least a variant. A female Santa would never actually be accepted as such because it is so far outside the realm of the established character… children would likely mistake her for Mrs. Claus and then become confused by the insistence…

Fishburne is limited in his appearances because he's also doing Hannibal

studies have repeatedly shown that conservatives do not understand the Colbert character and believe that he is an exaggerated reflection of Colbert's actual views

Yeah, Colbert isn't exactly doing surrealism. And Bill Maher was allowed to have political HOT TAKES every night on network TV 20 years ago. Honestly, I think all of these opinions are overblown

I mean, I don't want to state the obvious here but there aren't that many Jewish people and studies are increasingly showing that a majority of non-Christians celebrate Christmas in one form or another. So most "happy Holidays" non-denominational phrasing, while obviously the polite thing to do, is probably wholly…

god, I don't remember the last time I saw Norelco Santa

There's that Rugrats Hanukkah special but I feel like they already covered that one year?

I've searched it out and Garfield is lost to time… the only thing out there on TV is some weird CG new Garfield show from the 00's

it's on ABC Family one night next week at like 4 am because reasons

yeah, it's disturbing to me… along with ABC Family shunting virtually all of Rankin-Bass' less famous output to the midnight hours in the immediate leadup to Christmas in favor of terrible TV movies and a million repeats of Fred Claus, it makes me sad. It's not like they're being replaced by newer favorites, just…

Yeah, I'd much rather burn my childhood video tapes onto DVDs than go buy some soulless boxset devoid of all the context. The ad for next weeks episode of Life Goes On is as much a part of Rudolph for me as Yukon Cornelius

Tower of fucking Joy