#1 - It's a Wonderful Life

December 22, 2000. I'm in my third grade class the last day before Christmas break. My teacher brought in a TV earlier in the day and had left it there while we did some work. After we were done he asks us "Have you ever wished you were never born?". Some of us say yes and begins to say "Well, I know a great Christmas movie about a man who wishes he was never born and we're gonna watch it right now." He puts on the TV and we begin to watch It's a Wonderful Life.

At the time, I recognized the ending clip of George Bailey running through Bedford Falls wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas!" from seeing it play on TV's in movies like Gremlins but the movie did strike a cord with most of us. For the rest of the year, we would occassionally use the "Hee-haw" greeting and "the George Bailey movie" stuck in my memory for years without actually watching It's a Wonderful Life.

Last year, I began to come into a severe depression which temporarily blocked me from the outside world. In hopes of a movie to light my spirits, I turned to It's a Wonderful Life. Watching the movie on Google Video, I nearly broke down sitting at my computer watching every scene, it's just that powerful a movie to get you back up on your feet. George Bailey is a man with a heart of gold and gives so much sacrifice but rarely gets thanks for it. In the end, he discovers how much the town really does love him for what he has done for them. Being one of the very few movies that can get me to cry, It's a Wonderful Life is a masterpiece and is not only the greatest Christmas movie of all-time, but one of the greatest movies of all-time.

Remember for the rest of the holiday season and all year round, as Clarence told George Bailey... "remember no man is a failure who has friends." Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

(and a very special thanks to my third grade teacher, Mr. Richard Friedman, for helping me discover this wonderful movie earlier than I would have otherwise. It's rare you find a man with as good a soul as George Bailey himself as you will in Mr. Friedman. Wherever you are, god bless you and thank you for being one of the very best teachers I ever had.)

#2 - The Muppet Christmas Carol

As children, we all have one of those Disney movies we adore and have down memorized. For my era, it was usally The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin or The Lion King. Another one for me was The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Being born in 1991, The Muppet Christmas Carol was one of the first forays the Muppets did to mainstream media after the death of their creator Jim Henson. I was obviously too young to see the movie in theaters but once it came out on home video, it became a big staple of the holidays in the BobThePizzaBoy household. Of all the adaptations of Dickens' A Christmas Carol out there, this is one of the very best. Not only do we get the original Dickens prowse, given to us by Gonzo, but we get direct text right from the novella making this one of the most very accurate versions of the book.

I finally read A Christmas Carol in 5th grade when my teacher had it in his classroom amoung other classic novels. I didn't actually get to finish it but I was left in awe of how accurate all the lines were, the movie was practically playing out in my head.

It's also one of the Muppets' finest hours and probably the very best thing they've done since Jim Henson's death. It's strange... it seems the farther they've gotten from 1990 the quality has greatly lowered in Muppet productions. With last year's Letters to Santa things seem to be getting better. But for me, The Muppet Christmas Carol is a dark, funny and all around entertaining masterpiece that should and will be embraced for years to come.

#3 - Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

I'll just flat-out say it. I LOVE Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. This was one of my favorite Christmas specials when I was a kid, the one you would watch constantly even when it wasn't Christmas. To me, it was just Big Bird trying to figure out how Santa Claus gets down the chimney. But as I've gotten older I began to see the true heart of it.

It is often said by those who worked on the show during Jon Stone's tenure that "if you want to see the heart of Jon Stone, you watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street". This seems to be very much the truth. From the opening skating party sequence (which facinated me as a child) to the final post-credits scene of Cookie Monster eating Gordon and Susan's tree, this special only had one goal: to entertain everyone in the family as much as possible. It succeeds. Even in this pre-Elmo era, it's still a wonderful special. It's a crying shame PBS doesn't run it anymore, but with the advent of DVD, this underrated holiday classic still holds up as it did in 1978.

#4 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Let me just say right now, I made this top 12 list before I was in Seussical.

That said, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, even based on a book is another Christmas special with a good message and is hilarious as well. As one of Chuck Jones' most iconic animated films, it manages to combine the typical Looney Tunes humor we always associated with Jones with Dr. Seuss' classic tale. Even quoting the book word-for-word, he manages to hit the nail on the head.

While only a half-hour long, it manages to pack a lot of punch. Again, it's another iconic holiday classic that is maybe too-close-for-comfort to some of us during the holidays.

#5 - A Muppet Family Christmas

The Muppet Show Muppets. Sesame Street Muppets. Fraggle Rock Muppets. Muppet Babies in Muppet form. All in the same special. If that isn't any Henson fan's dream come true, I don't know what is. Truth is Muppet Family Christmas is short on plot but makes up for it with a lot of great music and laughs.

There are so many highlights in this special. From the Muppets, Sesame crew, Fraggles and all together. From Big Bird trying to be cooked by the Swedish Chef, Kermit and Robin meeting the Fraggles, the Sesame Street pagent of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (and Sam the Eagle's reaction!), seeing the Muppet Babies in puppet form (and actually appealing!). It's a treat all-around.

It is a bit hard to come by uncut, but it's worth it. Here's hoping it comes out on DVD again soon.

#6 - The Simpsons: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

The first episode of what was to be a great, great series. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire is a Charlie Brown Christmas for the 1980's. As a show like The Simpsons has been on for 20 years, they have done many Christmas episodes since that iconic first show but in my opinion none of them top this classic.

As this was from the first season, the animation is a bit more sketchy and the writing is a bit akward but it's pure gold. We can't deny that Homer Simpson does have great intentions, he just wants to give his family a good yet cost-effective Christmas. He goes through a living hell to get it but in the end he gets Santa's Little Helper which makes the family more than happy. It's not a huge commentary on the holidays, it's just a bit of a charmer, a.special with a heart of gold.

It's too bad FOX can't run this special due to syndication issues. If your local UHF station shows it, be sure to watch it. It's a modern holiday classic.

#7 - A Charlie Brown Christmas

There's something about those old Charlie Brown specials that just makes me like them a lot. I tend to avoid mid-60's television animation but A Charlie Brown Christmas is a bright gem. From that famous opening ice skating scene to the entire Peanuts gang humming "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" it's just something that brings you back every year.

Charlie Brown is quite a character, a cynic who doesn't get what the point of the holidays was. Snoopy is the only character who gets any out loud laughs but A Charlie Brown Christmas doesn't have to be laugh out loud funny. It's the characters and the way the animation is done that really lures people in. It's very subtle but it's a classic just to see all these iconic characters together.

A Charlie Brown Christmas has become a Christmas mainstay and it deserves to stay that way. It's one of the true classics of holiday animated specials.

#8 - Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Let's not deny it, MST3K is one of the greatest things to hit our televisions and the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians episode is one of the Bots' best moments.

Joel, Crow and Tom Servo always make movies easier to sit through and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, a convolted mess of a turkey if there ever was one, is one of the ones that would make you want to hang yourself otherwise but makes up for it with Joel and the Bots hilarious commentary. They are on a roll in this episode. "Dial M for Mutant!"

The host segments are also perfect, the invention exchange which pays homage to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the iconic "A Patrick Swayze Christmas" song, the Christmas additions onto the robots, it's clear the guys at Best Brains love Christmas and were more than happy to do a Christmas episode. So, for any MST3K fan... or any newbie: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a must.

#9 - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Arguably the most popular of the National Lampoon's Vacation movies, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is the kind of film that gets better the more you watch it. In complete honesty, I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid and even then I rarely saw the entire movie. But it's just one of those things you associate with the holidays.

Clark Griswold and his family clearly represent some of the best comedy in the 1980's and Christmas Vacation uses the best concept: a dad who just wants to have the perfect Christmas, and takes it to the extremes. I remember the sledding scene very well from NBC's annual airings as well as the Griswolds' barely fitting their tree in the family house at the beginning of the movie. It just combines so many things associated with the holidays and takes them by the ears on a wild ride.

If you haven't seen Christmas Vacation, make sure you make a point of it this holiday season.

#10 - Seinfeld: The Strike

By the time Seinfeld ended in 1998, we can't deny that the show was running out of a little steam. But during that final Christmas season that the show was around for, they definitley saved the best for last.

This iconic episode brought us Festivus, the great holiday consisting of an aluminum "Festivus pole", practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and the "Feats of Strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles". The end result is hilarious.

The main plot about "two-faced" people is fairly amusing but the Festivus stuff takes the cake. Try not to be in stitches during many of the Festivus references even if "The Strike" in question might not make you smile". This episode also includes George Constanza's "The Human Fund," which has also become a well-known part of the show.

Basically, every Seinfeld fan should watch this episode. It's one of the defining moments of the series, even though it was near the end of it's run, it still shows what was so great about Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer.

#11 - VeggieTales: The Toy That Saved Christmas

Ok, so I do grill on Bob and Larry quite a bit on this blog, but the honest truth is I do have a soft spot for VeggieTales. It wasn't a huge part of my life for very long but in a way it embodies what I grew to like about cartoons. VeggieTales lacked the disgusting humor of SpongeBob SquarePants and the inane action of Pokemon, opting for dry humor. It became very risky when the videos kept coming on (I remember being in awe of but baffled by the more serious tone of the Veggie's take on the Biblical tale of Esther), but they manage to be entertaining without being in-your-face.

The Toy That Saved Christmas was the first VeggieTale I saw. I got the tape for Christmas in first grade, which was right around the peak of the franchise's popularity. It doesn't hold a candle to most holiday standards. The story is very rushed for one thing, but it's message is plain and clear and it's a damn good message: as Grandpa George says right in the special "Christmas isn't about getting, it's about giving!" While it's very short and very rushed and the humor is more low-key than in other VeggieTales installments, The Toy That Saved Christmas is still fairly entertaining and really warms your heart. Even if Buzz-Saw Louie was clearly Big Idea's attempt at trying to make their way up to Pixar standards (remember, this video showed up in Christian bookstores a year after Toy Story's release) and he's a bit on the bland side, Bob and Larry's always-great chemistry and the overall mood save this.

And of course, I'd be stupid to ignore the Silly Song with Larry. "Oh, Santa!". About 5 years ago, I was on a Boy Scout camping trip and a very dark-minded child named Mitchell kept playing that song on a tape recorder to annoy everybody. When we finally took the cassette player when he wasn't looking, we listened in complete confusion and then discovered the rest of the cassette (labeled "Songs with Larry") we discovered it was just Mitchell singing very dark songs about death and doom till the end of the earth. It was hilarious and that connection alone gets The Toy That Saved Christmas on the list.

Buy it from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/VeggieTales-Toy-That-Saved-Christmas/dp/B00006JDVN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1260924430&sr=1-1

#12 - Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas seems like something Rankin/Bass would do in the 1960's but with Jim Henson in the director's chair, the sentimental tone of the special is taken to an all-time high. But that's okay, because Emmet Otter is a moving take of The Gift of the Magi.

I first became aware of this special as a youngster when the Hensons used a song from it on a Muppet Sing-Along video. I have memories of Nickelodeon running the special every year when they owned the rights to the Muppet specials, but that's very vauge and a bit before my time. My full-time exposure to Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas came when Disney finally released it in 1996 as one of the final Jim Henson Video titles. As an five-year old, the lack of Kermit the Frog even though he was prominantly featured on the VHS box and thus was rather bored by it. As I've gotten older however, I've realized what a moving special this is.

Serving as a test for many of the puppet special effects and sense of detail that would come to good use the following year for The Muppet Movie, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas feels very theatrical and at the same time keeps a classic quality to it. Perhaps a comparison to Thorton Wilder's play Our Town is in order between that play's setting of Grover's Corners and the settings of Frogtown Hollow and Waterville. Our Town is for the most part a straightforward play with very, very subtle humor. Emmet Otter is the same way and that helps the special, the typical Muppet humor wouldn't have worked in this special. The always-excellent Paul Williams score also helps this special. It's impossible not to be moved by the song most associated with this special, "When the River Meets the Sea". It's easy to see why this show was adapted into a stage musical, playing yearly at the Goodspeed Opera House. Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, check it out.

You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Emmet-Otters-Jug-Band-Christmas-Goelz/dp/B002LII6D2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1260829937&sr=1-1

It's almost Christmas!

Unless you've been living under a rock, then you know that next Friday is Christmas! In conjunction with the supposed 12 days of Christmas, I am proud to announce that for the next 12 days we here on this blog will be counting down my personal top 12 favorite Christmas specials. I've tried to have a little variety and avoided many Christmas standards like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for that reason. But we have a lot coming your way. We've got Muppets, a yellow-skinned family, a show about nothing, talking Christian vegetables and even a man named George Bailey. But only one can come out as #1. Who will it be? Keep stopping by every day till December 25 to see what Christmas special will be #1. See you tomorrow with #12!