#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