Christmas Viewing Log 2009

[slave2moonlight]

Saw the bulk of Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas today when my mom was watching it on Hallmark. It's an old favorite of myself and my little sister's. I missed the very beginning and end though, but I have it recorded somewhere. I also bought The Legend of Frosty the Snowman and The Bishop's Wife, so I'll probably watch those soon.

[Barbossa]

The Muppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (2009 version with Jim Carrey)
The Star Wars Holiday Special

I subjected myself to a couple hours of torture, and you can too right here:
Happy life day!

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[Cordy_Biddle]

Saw the bulk of Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas today when my mom was watching it on Hallmark. It's an old favorite of myself and my little sister's. I missed the very beginning and end though, but I have it recorded somewhere. quote]

Ah, one of my childhood faves. Hadn't seen it in years until I found a bootleg DVD a couple of years ago. Brought back some lovely memories. Dolly's performance is lovely.

[Luke]

Saw <i>Prep & Landing</i> and partially absorbed <i>A Charlie Brown Christmas</i> and <i>Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too</i>.

[slave2moonlight]

Ah, the Star Wars Holiday Special! I forgot to mention that I watched that over Thanksgiving. I watch it at least once a year, ha. I rather enjoy its trippy, time-capsule quality.

Anyway, tonight I saw Prep and Landing. As expected, beautifully done, but nothing special storywise. Very formulaic. I didn't realize that they were going to show A Charlie Brown Christmas before it. I had it on throughout, but wasn't giving it my full attention. Not that I don't love it, but I have it on DVD and had other stuff I was doing, and I would be surprised if they didn't air it again closer to Christmas (but maybe not). I actually took a break from the Christmas stuff earlier today and watched Now You See Him, Now You Don't, which I finally got on DVD via the internet (it had become impossible to find in stores). I had forgotten just how GORGEOUS Dexter's female friend, Debbie, was in that film!

[Barbossa]

The Muppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (2009 version with Jim Carrey)
The Star Wars Holiday Special
A Charlie Brown Christmas

Good grief, I watched Charlie Brown tonight.

[Margos]

Prep and Landing - It wasn't as good as I was expecting necessarily, but it was still very cute. Nice premise, beautiful animation, all in all a very nice special!

[yakkofan725]

Animaniacs Christmas (Various episodes off DVD sets)

Interesting, so I'm not the only one on UD to like it.

The episodes/segments you're thinking of are

The 2 Christmas "specials"
The segment where the woodchuck forces Slappy to do a cartoon to the tune of Nutcracker Suite

[Luke]

Some holiday viewing, care of Comcast on Demand...

<b>The Night They Saved Christmas</b> (Paul Williams should get an special Emmy for best elf sideburns ever.)
<b>The 12 Men of Christmas</b> (Kind of a huge waste of time, with almost no Christmas in it. At least, lifetime movies are so unpredictable.)
<b>Santa with Muscles</b> (Finally! Been wanting to see this for years. Sadly, it wasn't quite as bad as I hoped. Still pretty awful though.)

Also saw a bit of the 1990s <b>Christmas in Connecticut</b>, but mostly just fast-forwarded through it to see Arnold's cameo. Didn't catch it.


And on the DVD front...

<b>Elf</b> - A modern classic. The end always feels like a bit of a hokey letdown, but I was surprised by how quick and relatively painless it was this time. And the first 75 minutes or so are hilarious and awesome.
<b>I'll Be Home for Christmas</b> - Stupid in many places, illogical in others, and instantly dated. But also oddly appealing. This is really like no other Walt Disney Pictures film.

[Ala ad-Din]

I just watched Mickey's Christmas Carol on CBC in HD! It looked beautiful, it was actually 16:9 as well! The Standard Definition broadcast was letterboxed. I think I read somewhere that this featurette was open-matte, but it was still a treat seeing it in 16:9.

[Cordy_Biddle]

My DVD of Eloise at Christmastime arrived this afternoon. Adorable movie.

[slave2moonlight]

I took a little break from the Christmas movies there for a while I guess, but a friend sent me the original Black Christmas on blu-ray, and that was pretty cool. Watched it Friday night. I don't remember if I've watched any other Christmas stuff, except that last night I watched my new DVD of "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman" followed by the entire "Christmas Television Classics" collection (Rudolph, Frosty, Frosty Returns, Cricket on the Hearth, Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Magoo's Christmas Carol). Of course, I love those Rankin/Bass classics, and I noticed something this time about the original Frosty. Perhaps the reason it is almost the only traditionally animated Rankin/Bass production I majorly love (well, and Frosty's Winter Wonderland), is that it is much higher quality animation, if I remember correctly, than the other R/B stuff. And I noticed that even the style looks a bit like the Kim Possible style at times. The lines and all. Interesting. Anyway, the recent Frosty sequels, terribe. At least Legend of Frosty tries to recapture the character design of Frosty himself, a bit, it may be worse than the other special.

Oh yeah, I also watched my newly acquired copy of Popeye's computer animated "Quest for Pappy", and that actually wasn't too bad. I was surprised to find that it is sort of a Christmas story, so it's amazing they didn't push it as one.

[Barbossa]

The Muppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (2009 version with Jim Carrey)
The Star Wars Holiday Special
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Polar Express

Watched The Polar Express this evening.

[Luke]

Hangin' with Mr. Cooper: Santa's Got a Brand New Bag
Mickey's Christmas Carol
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: Sabrina Claus
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: Christmas Amnesia
Scrubs: My Own Personal Jesus
Knowing Me, Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge
Boy Meets World: Santa's Little Helper
Saved by the Bell: The New Class: Christmas in July

[Margos]

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Didn't post this in the movies thread, because I didn't see the whole thing. But it is really funny! Although I find the whole cat-electrocution-thing more upsetting than funny, really.

[Barbossa]

The Muppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (2009 version with Jim Carrey)
The Star Wars Holiday Special
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Polar Express
Shrek The Halls
Disney's Silly Symphonies' Santa's Workshop
Disney's Silly Symphonies' The Night Before Christmas

[Luke]

Some less Christmasy sitcom episodes and one of the newest Christmas specials out there:

Boy Meets World: Turnaround
Shrek the Halls
Scrubs: My Monster

[David S.]

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Didn't post this in the movies thread, because I didn't see the whole thing. But it is really funny! Although I find the whole cat-electrocution-thing more upsetting than funny, really.

Interesting you mention that, because I agree totally about that scene - that is the scene that prompted me to finally turn off the tv and put the film out of it's misery Parts of the film were funny, but as a whole I found other parts of it (what I saw) to be a bit too crude for my taste.

Anyway, to answer the original thread question, here's some highlights of what I've watched so far this year (or will be watching before the end of Christmas season), on DVD, VHS, tv broadcast, and in one case, theatrically:

Animation

Rankin/Bass

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Raindeer
Cricket On the Hearth
Little Drummer Boy
Frosty, the Snowman
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
The Night Before Christmas
The Year Without A Santa Claus
The First Christmas Snow
Frosty's Winter Wonderland
Rudolph's Shiny New Year
Little Drummer Boy Book 2
Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
Stingiest Man In Town
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas In July
Jack Frost
Pinocchio's Christmas
Leprechaun's Christmas Gold
Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Disney

A Christmas Carol (2009, saw in theatre)
Mickey's Christmas Carol
The Small One
Pluto's Christmas Tree
Santa's Workshop
The Night Before Christmas
Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too
Once Upon A Christmas
Twice Upon A Christmas
Prep and Landing


Peanuts

A Charlie Brown Christmas
It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown
Charle Brown's Christmas Tales
I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown
Happy New Year, Charlie Brown

Other Animation (to name just a few)

Annabelle's Wish (an all-time favorite)
The Polar Express
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Santa and the Three Bears
Yogi's First Christmas
Flintstone Christmas
All Dog's Christmas Carol
Santa vs the Snowman
Frosty Returns
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol
Flintstone Christmas Carol
Yes Virginia
Olive, the Other Raindeer
Miser Brothers Christmas
Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys
2 DVD collections of public domain animation

Live Action

Muppet Christmas Carol
Scrooge (1970 Leslie Bricusse musical)
A Christmas Carol: The Musical (TV version of Alan Menken stage musical)
Santa Claus: The Movie
Prancer
Prancer Returns
One Magic Christmas
It's A Wonderful Life
Miracle On 34th Street
Benji's Very Own Christmas Story
Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa

I've watched various made-for-tv movies (usually on ABC Family, Hallmark, and Lifetime) too numerous to mention them all. But chances are, if it aired as a Christmas movie on basic cable, I've seen it.

My favorites of the NEW FOR 2009 class include:

A Dog Named Christmas (Hallmark Hall of Fame aired on CBS)
Christmas In Canaan (Hallmark Channel)
Dog Who Saved Christmas (ABC Family Channel)
A Golden Christmas (ION Television)

Returning favorites in the contemporary made-for-tv genre include

Snow
Snow 2
The Christmas Gift
The Night They Saved Christmas
A Smoky Mountain Christmas


DVD Only:

The Magic Of Christmas at Walt Disney World - souvenir DVD
Trail Of Lights - souvenir DVD from this AMAZING drive-thru light display in Branson, MO
Jingle Cats Christmas DVD

I also watched various documentary-style shows on Travel and TLC about Christmas light displays, and of course will watch the Walt Disney World/Disneyland Christmas parade telecast on Christmas morning, as per tradition!

[Luke]

Just can't get enough holiday TV on DVD over here...

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey Saves Santa
Scrubs: My Best Moment
The Simpsons Christmas Special (Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire)
Silver Spoons: The Best Christmas Ever
Family Ties: A Keaton Christmas Carol
The Tick: The Tick Loves Santa!
Growing Pains: A Christmas Story
Wings: A Terminal Christmas
TaleSpin: Jolly Molly Christmas
NewsRadio: Xmas Story
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
Perfect Strangers: A Christmas Story
Home Improvement: Yule Better Watch Out
A Muppet Family Christmas
Early Edition: Christmas
Saved by the Bell: Home for Christmas (Parts 1 & 2)

All that on one Christmas Adam!

[Barbossa]

The Muppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (2009 version with Jim Carrey)
The Star Wars Holiday Special
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Polar Express
Shrek The Halls
Disney's Silly Symphonies' Santa's Workshop
Disney's Silly Symphonies' The Night Before Christmas
Seinfeld: The Strike (Festivus episode)

Still watching Christmas stuff as it isn't over yet. We are in the 12 Days of Christmas which ends Jan 6.