The holidays are here, and that means holiday specials resurface on TVs. Classics like “ A Charlie Brown Christmas” are enjoyed across America. However, it feels like these holiday classics are becoming less important concepts in the entertainment industry.
The first-ever animated Christmas special specifically adapted for TV, “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” aired on NBC on Dec 18, 1962. In this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Mister Magoo is cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in a Broadway adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” and we follow him and the rest of the characters through their portrayal of the story.
For those who want to watch it, the full 52-minute Christmas special is available on the Internet Archive.
“Mister Magoo’s” started a wave during the 1960s. This decade produced “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965), and beloved classics like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964) and “Frosty the Snowman”(1969).
Network television shows realized the value of Christmas-specific episodes. Big sitcoms like “Friends” and “The Office produced Christmas episodes now widely recognized as classics.
Tim Havens, a communications professor at the University of Iowa, said the charm of these Christmas specials was that “In the early days of TV, only a handful of holiday specials aired, often only one time during the season.”
This has changed with the rise of streaming services. Many of these specials can be found on streaming services, and as people cut cable, the occasions for these specials isn’t the same.
This has created a negative spiral as fewer Christmas specials are being produced.
Cosmopolitan’s guide to Christmas TV specials this year seems a little bare. Most of the suggested shows are live music and dance performances, evening show specials, parades or reruns.
There are some new notables, such as Apple TV’s “The First Snow of Fraggle Rock” and ABC’s “Prep and Landing: The Snowball Protocol.”
Due to streaming, people keep going back to what they know.
“We rewatch old movies because they allow us to relive a time we remember with fondness.” Dr. Robert Kraft said for Psychology Today.
And Christmas is at the peak of this idea. All the traditions and things that feel like a necessary part of Christmas trigger these desires to relive times.
For many, these specials are part of what helps them relive the moments they treasure, since people can watch them many times and feel nostalgic; there isn’t an incentive for creating new Christmas specials.
This hasn’t stopped some shows from trying their hand at Christmas episodes. “Abbott Elementary” released a double feature of Christmas episodes in 2024, which garnered positive reception from viewers.
Shows have also switched how they do Christmas episodes. “The Bear,” which has dominated awards, took a wildly different approach to Christmas specials with episode six of Season 2, “Fishes.”
The hour-long flashback episode isn’t filled with the typical joy of Christmas but feels like more of a tension-laden stand-off between a mother and son. It caught the attention of critics and awards. The episode was nominated for 16 awards and won seven.
“Fishes” might have laid the groundwork for something attention-grabbing for Christmas specials going forward.
Nostalgia keeps a consistent audience for the older products they grew up watching. Christmas episodes and specials are not a thing of the past, but the approach might need some tweaking.
