December 18th brings with it the realization that we are now one week away from Christmas – start panicking! Why panic? Well, if you’ve been putting off your Christmas shopping you’re now in danger of missing out all together. This is the point where it’s risky to order anything online expecting it in time for Christmas unless you’re willing to spend a gross sum of money on next day air. If you’re the sort that prefers to shop in person you have one weekend left to venture forth and brave the crowds. They’re probably going to be at their worst this weekend, though probably not as bad as they would have been for Black Friday if you’re looking for a silver lining.
I tend to be an early shopper because I like getting it out of the way so for me December 18 brings a different kind of anxiety: we only have one more week for Christmas viewing! When I was a kid, I kind of extended the Christmas viewing season to New Year’s Day, but the older I get the less willing to do that I am. Once Christmas comes and goes so too does the magic. Even the night of Christmas can be a tough time to figure out what to watch. Sometimes I have too much left on my plate that it feels pointless, and with the actual festivities in the rear view mirror the holiday just feels over. That’s why I cram as much viewing into the days leading up to Christmas as I can. In a way, the day of Christmas doesn’t even present much of an opportunity to watch anything. I usually throw on The Christmas Tape in the morning and sometimes I end up just doing the same at night. Since we’re nearing the top 50 of our countdown, there’s still a lot to go over. These are all pretty great so if you’re watching along you have some serious work cut out for you!
63 – Robot Chicken’s Santa’s Dead (Spoiler Alert) Holiday Murder Thing Special
If you’ve seen one episode of Robot Chicken you may feel like you’ve seen them all. It’s essentially a stop-motion sketch comedy show that makes use of old toys in place of expensive puppets. Well, this episode is entirely different! Not in medium, it’s still stop-motion using repurposed action figures, but it’s not a sketch format. This is a standard length episode of Robot Chicken which is about 11 minutes, but it tells one cohesive story. As the title reveals, Santa is dead and the format is a murder mystery on a train. Only one person is up to the task of solving this one and his name is Jesus! The suspects? A reindeer with lash marks, a nutcracker who happens to be Jewish, MAGA Krampus, and a cookie looking for a sugar daddy, among others. It still contains a lot of the same brand of humor one expects of the show and actually has an impressive voice cast which includes a couple of Seinfeld alums. The format helps to make this the most memorable Robot Chicken Christmas special and, for now, it’s also the last one. Saving the best for last is always a good move.
62 – Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future
Do you like your Christmas specials to feature as little of the holiday as possible? Then Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the show for you! This is barely a Christmas special as a weird robot ghost claiming to be from the future shows up and starts haunting Carl’s house. He has a story to tell about the origins of Santa Claus, or Claws, which he does in very elaborate fashion for all who care (or don’t). That story takes up about half of the episode’s duration and once it’s over so is Christmas. It then pivots to a story about Carl trying to sell his haunted house and one person takes interest: Glenn Danzig. Yes, as a fan of the man’s music I am predisposed to like this, but it is genuinely funny if you like the sort of humor Adult Swim was going for in the early aughts. Danzig (playing himself) likes the house because the ghost makes the house bleed which nets Carl a cool million, but forces the ghost to take on a housemate he really doesn’t like. It’s pretty nonsensical and lacking in holiday cheer, but it’s also really brief and pretty funny so why not watch it every year?
61 – Regular Show – The Christmas Special
This appropriately titled episode of Regular Show sees the main cast try to celebrate the holiday with a low key party, but when the pair of Mordecai and Rigby discover a near death Santa in their friend’s garage they have a Christmas quest forced upon them. They basically are entrusted to destroy a MacGuffin and keep it from falling into the hands of an elf gone bad. Unfortunately, that elf has his own militia that the boys and their friends have to run from which takes them on a pretty gnarly journey. This is a fast-paced and surprisingly action-packed holiday episode that has a fair amount of real suspense, though I don’t think anyone expects the bad guy to win and for Christmas to be destroyed. It makes an attempt at creating some Christmas lore and it’s not bad and probably works for the show – if they revisit it (I didn’t watch further). The animation is mostly good, though the character designs are kind of intentionally ugly in places. It’s not as ugly as Bojack Horseman, but the two share a similar aesthetic only Regular Show has characters made out of inanimate objects as well as animals. It’s certainly a choice.
60 – American Dad! – The Best Christmas Story Never Told
American Dad! is perhaps the most reliable source of Christmas content year in and year out and this is the episode that started it all. Coming in the show’s third season is “The Best Christmas Story Never Told” which sees Stan and Francine travel through time to save Christmas. Because of the time travel story, it actually doesn’t take place at Christmas beyond the first act and briefly at the end of the episode to tie everything back together. As an early American Dad! episode, Stan’s hyper-conservative ideals are on full display as he basically has a meltdown over a clerk saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” which he irrationally blames on Jane Fonda. This puts him at odds with his family and triggers a Christmas tradition: a visit from a ghost. The Ghost of Christmas Past finds Stan that night and takes him back to the 1970s in a bid to teach him the true meaning of Christmas, only Stan goes AWOL to try and track down Jane Fonda to prevent the future he despises from coming true. Long story short, Stan screws up and makes the future a communist hell hole and the only way to save it is for him to shoot his idol: Ronald Reagan. It’s a complex plot, but one that pays off and basically tortures its protagonist, but since he’s kind of the villain of the show, we’re okay with the torture! It’s a hell of a Christmas debut for the now long-running series.
Metalocalypse is the show I always say is one I should like more than I do. It’s just never “clicked” for me like some other shows, maybe because it came just a little too late for me? Had this premiered earlier in my life I probably would have watched it over and over like I did most Adult Swim shows, but alas, it did not. Still, when I do catch it I find it funny and this episode is a rather absurd look at the Christmas holiday through the lens of a death metal band. The boys, as the biggest band in the world, are tasked with putting on a Christmas show while also dealing with their own visiting mothers and a coked-out clown. They have so hard of a time finding a sponsor for their special that they’re forced to work with the Christian Church which nixes most of their ideas consisting of murder and tits. It naturally goes horribly wrong and the special is a disaster that pisses off the church, but at least the creepy clown gets a handjob! I guess it goes without saying that this probably isn’t the special to watch with your grandmother.
58 – King of the Hill – Pretty, Pretty Dresses
Oh Christmas, you are such a wonderful time of year for many, but for others you’re the worst. Take Bill, for instance. He’s an unhappily divorced, middle-aged, childless, man with little to live for. Christmas basically breaks him in this episode of King of the Hill that makes caring for your suicidal friend seem funny. The show is able to get away with it because Bill’s attempts at suicide are so clearly a cry for help and not serious. Or they are serious, but he’s just really bad at killing himself. Eventually his brain breaks and he starts believing that he’s his ex wife, Lenore, putting his buddy Hank in a tough spot when Bill shows up at his work Christmas party in a dress. Hank’s very conservative peers don’t take to that very well. It has a positive outcome, but watching Bill’s pathetic descent is where the real comedy lies. I will never forget the image of Bill eating his spaghetti dinner alone after he breaks his lone plate. He slaps the pasta on his counter, scoops it into his mouth, then takes a swig of sauce straight from the jar. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the Bill character.
57 – Bugs Bunny’s 24-Carrot Holiday Special
Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes have not had a great time when it comes to Christmas, but the most recent attempt is almost certainly the best. On its own, it’s plenty solid and quite entertaining, it just feels like a property as storied as Looney Tunes should have something truly monumental. This comes from the new Looney Tunes Cartoons which began life as an HBO Max exclusive, but have since jumped to Cartoon Network. This special is just a sequence of cartoons with one starring the duo of Porky and Daffy, another Sylvester and Tweety, and finally a Bugs and Elmer cartoon. In between are some segments of Taz attempting to go caroling and there is a wrap-around segment to set the mood. By far, the best of the bunch is the Porky and Daffy cartoon which sees the two perform as scabs in place of Santa’s striking elves with mostly disastrous results. The other two are solid, but if there’s one failing of this special it’s that the finale featuring Bugs and Elmer is barely a Christmas cartoon. It’s basically just a big snow fight, but there is a Christmas decoration on Elmer’s door. It’s silly, but if they just threw some lights on Elmer’s house and paid lip service to the holiday I’d probably elevate this one to at least the next day. Still, it’s funny and the animation is great so if you want Christmas with the Looney Tunes and only have time for one this might provide the most bang for your buck.
56 – Peace on Earth
The MGM short Peace on Earth is a favorite of those who like their Christmas specials to be preachy, but not about Jesus. In this classic short, an old squirrel tells a story to his grand kids on Christmas Eve about how humanity came to an end. Arriving at the cusp of the second world war, this anti-war cartoon makes the bold prediction that humanity will only destroy itself with more war. Obviously it didn’t, but the second world war certainly lead to many deaths and casualties as well as apocalyptic creations like the atom bomb so they weren’t entirely wrong. Plus, there’s still time! I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly profound in this one and its message is probably going to land more with children than adults. Not that adults are too cynical for the message, it’s just not subtle about anything nor does it offer any real solutions apart from an idealized version of how a new society could rise from the ashes if we only took the ten commandments more seriously. What is not in doubt though is that the animation is gorgeous and if all we saw was the squirrel walk through the snow it would still be worth watching this holiday season.
55 – SpongeBob Squarepants – SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas
SpongeBob Squarepants may have arrived well past my Nicktoons viewing era, but it’s a show I’ve been able to get in touch with via its Christmas specials. This is one of the most recent ones, if not the most recent (they did a clip show one the next year) and it’s kind of the most straight-forward. There’s no live-action stuff and the plot involves SpongeBob finding a gift he left for Santa that Santa apparently missed when he visited on Christmas. The problem is it’s now months later, but SpongeBob can’t wait until next Christmas to give Santa his present so he sets off on the road to the North Pole to deliver it in person. Along for the ride is Patrick, which makes sense, but also Plankton, which does not. He has nefarious intentions, but also he has the means to travel to Santa. There’s a brief detour, but the trio does eventually make it and we get to see what the North Pole looks like in the offseason. And since Santa is actually away on vacation when the trio get there we get to see elves behaving badly. At least as bad as they can be on Nickelodeon. The elves are in no mood to entertain the little fellas though so they basically shut the door in their face forcing SpongeBob and Patrick to sneak in. When they’re caught, the elves mistake them for thieves which sets off a huge confrontation until Santa is able to show up and set things right. It’s amusing and quite entertaining. Whenever I sit down to watch a new episode of SpongeBob Squarepants I expect to not like it, but I pretty much always am proven wrong so I don’t know why I don’t adjust my attitude going in. This is a great addition to the Christmas catalog, just not quite as good as the other two I’ve seen.
54 – Bob’s Burgers – Bob Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins
Bob’s Burgers is a pretty reliable source for Christmas each year and it’s also pretty good. Is it as good as American Dad? That’s a tough question as the only thing they really share in common is that they’re both, at their core, animated sitcoms. Bob is far more low key and in this first Christmas episode for the show the family winds up in a really odd situation where a homeless man moves into their restaurant’s basement and uses his talents to create elaborate window displays. The catch? He claims to be a mannequin turned human and he longs to be reunited with his estranged wife who is also a mannequin. That is presumably still a mannequin. The kids buy into this story because they want to and Bob’s agreeable wife Linda seems to eventually get onboard as well. Bob does not because it’s absurd and even though this is a cartoon, it’s not a fanciful one. There are no magic mannequins in the world of Bob’s Burgers just like there are none in our world. Still, the man is good for business so Bob is forced to tolerate it but when he insults the guy he goes dark and the only way for Bob to make amends is to track down his mannequin wife, which happens to be modeling fetish gear in a sex store. Bob’s Burgers isn’t the most subversive of animated shows, but it finds a way. This obviously is not my favorite Christmas episode from this show, but it is funny and includes one of the best Christmas songs of all-time, “Father Christmas” by The Kinks so that scores it some bonus points.
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
Dec. 18 – Pillow People Save Christmas
Yesterday, we took a look at an obscure Christmas special I had no familiarity with. Today, we’re looking at an obscure Christmas special that I do have some familiarity with. Pillow People were a line of pillows with faces created by Penny Ekstein-Lieberman (you can see a commercial here, if you’re curious). According to the…
Dec. 18 – Batman: The Brave and the Bold – “Invasion of the Secret Santas!”
Come 2008, the DC Animated Universe had been dead for 2 years. Justice League Unlimited aired its final episode in 2006 bringing an end to something that had been ongoing since 1992. As I touched on earlier in this year’s countdown, the DCAU wasn’t something I was particularly invested in so it’s end went unnoticed…
Dec. 18 – X-Men – “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas”
Today, The Christmas Spot temporarily alters it’s name to The X-Mas Spot. As a sort-of celebration for the animated series X-Men turning 30 this past Halloween we’re going to look at the show’s lone holiday special – “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas.” The show X-Men was a pretty serious affair as far as kid…
The Nostalgia Spot 
Leave a comment