Bob:
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and for crying out loud, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet! This is a TV site, so I’ll refrain from complaining about the decorations all over the stores or the music already sneaking onto the radio. Instead, I want to discuss the annual Christmas specials. I certainly don’t have a problem with any of them. Sure, I like some more than others, and I’m not exactly in the target age group for the new ones that keep popping up. I can’t help but notice, however, that NBC is advertising a bunch of Christmas specials that are going to air on “Thanksgiving Wednesday” (as if that’s a thing), which essentially means, before the greatest holiday of the year (yes, I said it, Christmas nuts, you can’t touch my Thanksgiving!).
It seems like these programs just keep popping up earlier and earlier on our schedule. I swear, in a few years some network is going to be showing It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas back to back in the middle of October. There is just no reason for this. None whatsoever! I certainly don’t need any reminder that I haven’t given my Christmas shopping a single thought at this point.
How do you feel about this disturbing trend?
Debbie:
The disturbing trend happened in the stores the moment they cleared out the Halloween paraphernalia. It’s frickin’ creepy. Then again, the fact that I have almost all of my Christmas shopping done is probably a little creepy to you.
It doesn’t necessarily bother me that the Christmas specials air early (I could watch The Grinch in July….), although I’m not quite sure what the networks have to gain by this. If my reasoning is correct, they would probably be a welcome programming choice for viewers when their other shows are on hiatus, so why not wait until mid-December?
The real question is: have you noticed how trippy Rudolph is? Watching it with Owen for the first time a couple of years ago made me cringe, and I don’t remember it being so child inappropriate when I was a kid. Santa is a big fat jerk, borderline abusive to Rudolph … he’s a red-nosed reindeer bigot! And those misfit toys are seriously unstable.
Bob:
Yeah, that Santa is a real bastard. I think he spends Christmas bribing everyone (who celebrates Christmas) just so we’ll look the other way to his reindeer bigotry. If I’m not mistaken, he was quite the anti-dentite as well.
I imagine that a lot of the Christmas specials come off as a bit odd in retrospect (though The Grinch is still a work of genius). I mean, look at Frosty, that’s all sorts of screwed up. He melts at the end? That’s horrifying!
Debbie:
Even at just three years old, the melting disturbed Owen, to the point of tears as big as Frosty’s former arms and legs….
But back to the original topic: I suppose it would be pretty weird watching the Christmas specials when it’s still soccer season!
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 18, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I’ve been seeing Christmas stuff in the stores since August before the Halloween stuff even appeared. Its more than a little ridiculous.
For Christmas specials it depends. I consider Die Hard a Christmas movie but I can still enjoy it all year. Same with Home Alone or that Christmas movie with the 500 Brit actors falling in love. The TV specials like The Grinch, Rudolph, or Its a Wonderful Life though don’t fell right to me unless the calender says December. I need to be in the Christmas mood for those and I just can’t replicate that any other time of the year.
The new Futurama Xmas special is this Sunday, but I forgive it for the homicidal Santabot. And Hanukkah Zombie.