Ah, YouTube. What would we do without you? Probably read, play with our children, solve the current economic crisis. But, why would we want to take the time to do that now when we can watch cute puppy and kitten tricks, bad acting, and girl-on-girl kissing?
And television. Lots and lots of television. The good thing about YouTube is it thinks about its audience, which has the attention span of a small pea these days, and gives us our television clips in small doses. Thanks to that we can savor them, play them over and over, and pretty much blow a full day at the office. It also gives us a chance to compile a whole crapload of related clips in a short period of time.
This is precisely what I have done right on this very page. Because the holiday season is practically jumping down our throats, I thought it would be a good time to look at some new and classic Christmas-themed television clips. I think you’ll enjoy them all. So much that you’ll end up going to YouTube and blowing a full day at the office.
The first is possibly my most favorite holiday video. It features a number of talented voice-over artists reciting the classic poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Featured in the video are the late Don LaFontaine, Billy West, Nick Corday, Jim Cummings, Gary Owens, and Dennis Haysbert, among many others.
The next clip comes from the 1965 classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. Except, the voices you hear come from the cast of Scrubs, who dubbed the parts a few years ago. The two main characters, Charlie Brown and Linus, are voiced by Zach Braff and John C. McGinley respectively.
Going retro, the next clip is from the second season of The Monkees titled “The Christmas Show”. Fans of the show will remember how each episode contained one or two songs sung by the made-for-television band. The song in this clip is a 16th Century Spanish carol called “Riu Chiu”. While there are skeptics out there who think the members of Monkees didn’t sing or play their own instruments they are definitely singing live, without instruments, on this clip.
Switching from a live-action cartoon like The Monkees to the actual cartoon The Flintstones … this clip is from the original series’ one and only Christmas episode. Titled “Christmas Flintstone,” it’s the story of how Fred, currently working as a department store Santa to pick up some extra holiday cash, is recruited by the real Santa Claus to deliver presents to the children. Strangely, this was one of the rare occurrences that a character on The Flintstones wasn’t named with a ‘Stone’ or a ‘Flint’ or a ‘Rock.’
If you grew up in the ’70s, you may remember a little Jim Henson production titled Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. Based on a children’s story, Jug-Band told the story of the Otter family and how, in ‘The Gift of Magi’ fashion, they sacrifice for themselves to provide for others. It’s a special that, as far as I can tell, is rarely aired anymore. Yet, it still has a spot in many people’s memories.
Another special that holds a spot in people’s memories — though they’d like to remove that spot as quickly as possible — is the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. Perhaps the most embarrassing television show to air right after The Brady Bunch Hour, the special focused on Chewbacca’s quest to get home and see his family on Life Day. It featured music, comedy skits by Harvey Korman, and one of the first animated Star Wars cartoons ever made. By the way, George Lucas hides his head in shame whenever this special is mentioned. I mean, hides it even further than when JarJar Binks is talked about.
Now, you can’t have Christmas without Christmas commercials, and there are plenty that many of us still remember. The first one here is actually an ad that is in its second running on TV. It’s for the AT&T GoPhone and features the voices of Steve Buscemi and Norm MacDonald as stop-action gingerbread men. Norm’s gingerbread character wants a GoPhone. Steve’s character just wants people to literally stop eating him out of house and home.
From the world of sugary, carbonated beverages comes this ad from Coca-Cola. It’s the Christmas version of their “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” campaign from the early 1970s. It definitely has the holiday feel to it, complete with a bunch of young singers (who are probably grandparents now — *shudder*) dressed warmly and carrying lit candles signifying peace and love.
You want Santa flying through the snow on an electric razor? Well, no need to look any farther than this article. Here’s a Norelco commercial from either the late ’60s or early ’70s that features an animated Santa sledding through the white snows on a gigantic electric razor.
When you think of Christmas, I’m sure that beer is the first thing that comes to mind. Well, it probably does on Christmas day when you have 50 people inside your one-bedroom apartment. Budweiser thinks about beer and Christmas as well and that’s why it’s been producing holiday commercials since the 1970s that feature its famous Clydesdale horses. This one is from 1987.
Finally, two commercials for those of you who grew up in the Northeastern part of the United States. The first is from the now-defunct toy store Playworld. During the 1970s, this company really had some cheesy ads with a catchy tune: “Playworld, a world of toys. Great for girls, and great for boys…” In the ’80s they got a bit more sophisticated in their product capabilities. Here’s a holiday commercial from 1987.
Last, but definitely not least, is a spot from the former electronic-discount store Crazy Eddie. The spokesperson in this 1982 commercial (which is promoting Atari and Colecovision) is not Crazy Eddie but former DJ Jerry Carroll, who was the store’s spokesperson for more than a decade. Crazy Eddie was really Eddit Antar, who plead guilty to conspiracy and racketeering in 1996. Huh. I guess he was crazy after all.
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on Dec 23, 2008 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
Ah, but you missed the greatest Christmas duet ever – Bing Crosby with David Bowie. I know it sounds odd, but Bowie’s tenor mixes incredibly will with Crosby’s baritone.