A few weeks ago I e-mailed the CliqueClack gang asking about their impressions on Charlie Brown’s holiday flicks, but the conversation devolved to what holiday cartoons meant to us individually. For me, Christmas cartoons represent celebration, childhood innocence, and fun. My mother made Christmas a magical experience. So, I started collecting vintage, lesser known holiday flicks in the hopes I could share them with my future, currently non-existent children.
At the moment, Jack Frost, Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas, The Year Without a Santa Claus, The Little Drummer Boy, Holiday Yule, Fireside Reflections, White Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Disney Christmas Gift, Miracle on 34th Street, The Small One, Disney Christmas Sing-Along, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town reside on my Christmas shelf. And, of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I never liked the Grinch, but some day I might add him.
Considering Community just came out with the most awesome, slightly melancholy, culturally aware stop-motion Christmas episode ever while CBS played the socially aware The Flight Before Christmas and NBC showed It’s a Wonderful Life last night, what do holiday cartoons mean to you? Share your favorites and your favorite holiday memories below.
As you can see, we’re pretty candid about our own holiday musings:
Julia: Do you guys know I’ve never seen a Charlie Brown movie? Or any of the holiday stop-animation classics, actually. Ah, the wonders of growing up Jewish with hippie parents who mostly kept us to PBS.
Jay: Better than growing up Catholic. We got to watch all the holiday specials but were forced to feel guilty about it. My mother was especially Roman Catholic in the sense that she was Italian and didn’t believe Christmas was Christmas until she was having a vodka- and Vicodin-fueled meltdown over some perceived slight.
Michael: I’m right there with you, Jay.…
Carissa: Ahhhh … such good memories. ;-) Grandma using the same wrapping paper from when I was two, washing and folding the foil from the turkey. No wonder everyone had to drink.
Deb: That’s not Catholic … that’s NJ! ;-)
Tara: As donkey says in Shrek the Halls …. “Mama always said Christmas ain’t Christmas ’til somebody cryin’!”
Jay: So apparently the comic relief always comes from unstable parents.
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Dec 13, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I love Charlie Brown and Rudolph a great deal, but Christmas ain’t Christmas until I’ve sat down with my whole family, my parents, brother, sister, their kids, my wife and kids and we all watch A Christmas Story. It’s a packed living room at my parents’ house with half of us sitting on the floor, but everybody’s happy; partly because of the flick, but mostly because we’re all together.
I’m Catholic, too, and watching that wonderful movie has become as much of a required tradition as Christmas Mass. Maybe even better because we can drink more than a sip of wine. A *lot* more. :o)