Oh man, Twas the Night Before Christmas was one of my favorites when I was a kid. This was taped on the same cassette as Christmas Toy, so it got quite a fair share of replay growing up. The mice family that was a mirror of the clockmaker family? So great. Even more so when you realize it’s Gomez Addams doing the voice of the father mouse. EDIT: D’oh, I’m wrong, it’s a totally different actor. Childhood=ruined.

The best character is Albert, the nerdy Santa skeptic who puts his entire town on Santa’s naughty list. Apparently all it takes is one nasty letter to the Kringle before he scratches your city off his flight plan, regardless of species.

Remember kids, never teach mice to write.

A slight reinterpretation of the balmier Miser Brother.

Never did see The Year Without a Santa Claus when I was little. ‘Twas only a couple of years ago when they began rerunning entire back catalog of Rankin-Bass specials on cable that I first heard the infamous Snow Miser/Heat Miser song.  AND IT’S STILL. STUCK. IN. HEAD. OW.

It is kinda fun to watch the Rankin-Bass folks sink more and more into insanity the further they get away from Rudolph and Frosty.  By the time they got to this special, they were throwing in Mother Nature and Elvis music alongside Santa and the reindeer.  Wasn’t there also a special with Santa and leprechauns or something? I might have made that one up, not sure.

Now that we got Charlie Brown outta the way, we’ve got A Garfield Christmas airing Tuesday at 7 on ABC Family.

The comic strip version of Garfield gets a lot of flak, and rightfully so, but animated Garfield is actually kinda funny.  Either sarcasm works better when spoken, or it’s because of the increased supporting cast in the animated shows.  In the Christmas special, Garfield is totally upstaged by Jon’s Grandma, a woman who plays a mean rockabilly piano and dares people to punch her in the stomach. Man, that’s how I wanna live.

Mleh, this one didn’t turn out as good as I’d like. Oh well. Try again tomorrow.

Heads up: A Charlie Brown Christmas airs Monday night on ABC, and yes, it’s required viewing. If you haven’t seen it in a few years, you might be amazed about what it doesn’t have… no adults talking with muted trumpets, no football scene with Lucy, no Woodstock. Oh, and make sure to skip out on whatever new Peanuts cartoon they air after the show… they’re never as good.

You know what they should do one year? Instead of the big tree in Rockefeller Center, they should construct a giant replica of the Charlie Brown tree. Someone get on that.

Six days into the sketchblog and I finally did something breakfast-related. I know some of you were getting worried.

If you grew up around the time I did, you know what I’m talking about. It wasn’t Christmas until you heard the Fruity Pebbles commercial.

The Flintstones themselves are not inherently Christmassy, but their annual holiday commercial certainly was. It’s a classic based on pure repetition alone; they’ve been re-using the same ad every single year since the late eighties. Whether it’s because of tradition or because Post Cereal Corporation is a bunch of cheapskates, I dunno. But I’ve heard the irritating jingle so many times, I’m half convinced there’s a verse of Deck the Halls that goes “Yummy Fruity Pebbles in our bowls.”

Not sure if this is exclusive to Cleveland or not, but out of nowhere, Dominick the Donkey has become the most popular tune on the radio here. Every time I switch the dial I’ll inevitably hear Lou Monte singing about the hills of It-al-y.

I guess it beats hearing Frosty the Snowman for the umpteenth time, but there’s gotta be something more to it’s outta-the-blue popularity. I call conspiracy.

This one’s for you, Jen.

‘Twas shocked to learn The Christmas Toy was recently released on DVD. Didn’t think anyone remembered it anymore! I was three when it first came on the air, and it’s been such a permanent staple of my childhood that I practically wore the VHS tape down to tatters.

The show takes place in an enormous playroom belonging to ridiculously lucky kids Jamie and Jessie. Seriously, these kids must have the entire Toys-Я-Us catalog crammed into a single room. But the special isn’t about the kids… because when people aren’t looking, their toys suddenly spring to life!

Wait… where have I seen this before?

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Rudolph is the ultimate nerd redemption story. Social outcast, kicked out of sports, hanging around with someone elves won’t even be seen with. Rudolph would have been president of the computer club had there been one in Christmastown.