X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

12/12/2006: Obscurely Awesome Garfield X-Mas Moments!

I’ve always wanted to review A Garfield Christmas Special, but for one reason or another, it’s never happened. I guess it’s because it’s a special I love so much that I wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than a mega long feature that took days to forge, but at the same time, it’s a really simplistic cartoon that doesn’t call for much yap. I’d end up going too long, and then I’d have to get all mean to cover myself, and the last thing I want to do is blast Odie’s back-scratcher, or worse, Grandma Hotlips Arbuckle, just because I’ve run out of things to say.

I still want to pay tribute to the special somehow, because it meant just as much to my personal holiday season growing up as did…well, pretty much anything else. This shit was right up there with Charlie Brown. We tend to romanticize how much we used to love certain things, and when I really think about it, as much as I enjoyed watching all of the Rankin/Bass stuff during the holidays, there probably were a few years that I knowingly skipped them. Not so with Charlie Brown, and no, not so with Garfield. This was one of the ones I had to watch.

With that, I respectfully borrow a title from something that I’m sure VH1 has already trademarked for future use, and proudly present, The Top TWO Most Awesomely Obscure Things About A Garfield Christmas Special. That’s right. The Top TWO. As something of an expert on A Garfield Christmas Special (and by that I just mean that I’ve seen it fourteen trillion times), I’ve picked up on a couple of Holy Shit Momentsâ„¢ that maybe some of the more “casual” viewers missed.

I hate that we live in a world where this is no longer a given, but we do, so here’s a quick summing-uppage of the special for those who’ve never seen it: Jon takes Garfield and Odie along for an old fashioned Christmas down at the farm. See, Jon used to live on a farm, and his parents and lame brother still live on a farm. Also on the invite list is Grandma Arbuckle, or maybe she wasn’t an Arbuckle…not really sure. A widowed, feisty little hellcat, Grandma punctuates the dichotomy of being a sweet old lady and a complete lunatic by wearing one of Billy Corgan’s old chilly weather concert sweaters. There’s no big storyline to the special; just a couple of threads that make everything feel negotiably cohesive, and enough song numbers to classify it as a “musical” if no other category would fit.

Obscurely Awesome Moment #1: After the gang arrives at the farm, there’s a big flashback scene, which isn’t too notable save for a glance of what Jon Arbuckle looked like as a child — a foil from a Far Side comic. Brother Dock Boy looks about the same as he does (did?) in the present, but all this talk is moving away from the Obscurely Awesome Moment: Look at those tree ornaments! They’re the size of the kids’ heads! Either Ma and Pa Arbuckle were raising wildly malformed children that had successful size-up head surgeries later in life, or they somehow found glass ball ornaments the size of soccer balls.

Obscurely Awesome Moment #2: Throughout the special, we find Odie sneaking around the barn, apparently building something with a ragtag bunch of ingredients. Turns out, he was building Garfield’s Christmas present — a back-scratcher, made from wood and a garden rake. Odie never questions why Garfield never gave him a gift in return, but then, Garfield’s reaction to getting the back-scratcher was present enough.

It’s obscurely awesome. After Odie demonstrates his gift’s purpose to Garfield, the cat lets loose with this totally nuts celebratory gesture — he slams his eyes shut, creeps into an orgasmic smirk, and ever so slowly lifts his pointer finger in the air. Factor in Garfield’s dramatic “WHOHOHOA HEYYY” as he’s making this gesture, and we’ve got unadulterated animated goHOHOAld. Tough to make sense of it in writing, but go watch the special. When you get to that scene, tell me you don’t freak.

And that’s that. As for why A Garfield Christmas Special is so rarely seen on television today, well, I used to think that the world had just become twisted and uncaring, but upon seeing just how many specials got their just desserts this year, I have to wonder if there’s more to it than that. Maybe some voice actor is demanding a fortune for the continued use of his sweet siren song, I don’t know. Luckily for us, it’s widely available on DVD, either singularly or as part of a Garfield holiday box set, both of which being pretty cheap.

I’d be lying if I said that the special means as much to me today as it did as a kid, but one of the benefits of owning this site is the unconquerable artistic license that comes with it, so, hell yeah, it still means just as much to me today. You can hear a couple of choice tunes from the special on X-E’s Christmas Jukebox, but don’t deny yourself a real, honest viewing. It ain’t Christmas till you see Grandma spike the gravy and shake her D-cuppers around like a singing strippergram.

I’ve always thought getting a post near the top would be a good way to go from lurker to non lurker.

I’ve only seen this special once… or maybe twice? But I’m pretty sure I could sing at least part of the chorus of that “Old Fashioned Christmas” song if asked. There’s yodeling, right?

Warx: No reference, but I had and loved that book. Actually, I loved most of the books back then. Shoot me.

How about the not obscure but still awesome moment when the tree lights up and everyone’s mouth turns into a straw?

Jessica, yes, I didn’t think that was obscure enough, but it was still amazing.

Another candidate was the collection of paranormal orbs spotted during the storytelling scene, but then we’re getting too obscure.

Shit, I thought I was the only one who loved this special to death(and then rebirth). I always found the intro, with the automatic wish giver, simply amazing. “Givin’, givin’, givin’ givin’…”

And I think the reason it isn’t played anymore is because it’s apparently cool to hate Garfierld now. No joke. People Garfield-hate all over The Internet.

My Christmas tree has balls on it that are bigger than a baby’s head. Don’t diss my comically large ornaments.

Oh, that’s good times indeed. I can’t believe there’s ANYONE who hasn’t seen this.

Ok,I’m coming from the shadows of “lurkdom” to say that not only was I griping tonight that this special is never shown anymore but that no one else probably even remembers it. And lo and behold,here is my saving grace. DAmn it CBS,bring back Garfield!!

Grandma Arbuckle does give a reminder of a cross between Sophia Petrillo’s feistiness and Dorothy Zbornac’s voice.

It’s a terrible world when “The Polar Express” is run three hundred times in a month, and there’s not one appearance of Garfield Christmas, which is still one of my all-time favorites. Thanks for posting these, because I never ever would have thought about how big those freakin’ ornaments are.

I watched the Garfeild christmas special every year, followed by the Claymation christmas. Does anyone remember that one? With the dinosaurs and the California Rasins? I loved it.

I always loved Grannie Arbuckle. And, although this special kicks serious ass, I have to say that the Garfield Halloween special was a tad better. When the ghost pirates came in I’d just about shit myself.

This site gets me in the mood for Christmas more than I have been in a long time…
Does anyone know if “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” comes on TV any more?

The holiday celebrations DVD is the best 10 bucks you could ever spend at Target. I remember as a kid thinking they should make a Garfield Christmas Special, when lo and behold my father surprised me with the novelization. Come to think of it did they release those simultaneously?

Those orbs *are* obscure, but perhaps they’re a reference to that dark series of strips Jim Davis did in which Garfield was starving and John and Odie were only the products of his delusional mind. And thanks for the Ooo -it makes for a festive desktop! I still have this on VHS, and I would seriously never know that half the stuff you write about is out on DVD because I’ve never had the need. You’re a fount of good stuff.

For years as a child I would say “If I’m not back in x_minutes, send a banana cream pie after me.” I think the “…should be drug out into the street and shot” from Garfield in Paradise was high up on the quote list too. Garfield is a quotable cat.

Is anyone else really pleased at all the airtime How the Grinch Stole Christmas is getting? I even caught Rudolph the other night by accident. It’s a good year.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol…I haven’t seen that on TV in so long, but maybe it would air on one of Disney’s 86 specialized cable channels?

Oh and mpkalypso they have that one on DVD too (amazon rules). That is THE special I hae to watch every year. I swear if Matt somehow reviewed that one it would so make my holiday.

Yeah, this one should definitely still be in the rotation. I know I already said this a couple of threads back but the fact that 2 GARFIELD movies have been released in recent years should have provoked SOME interest in putting this special back on T.V. I mean, Rankin-Bass are tricking out their commodities like nobody’s business; Garfield deserves to be exploited too.
***SPOILERS**(
One funny/sad/inapporiately dumb thing I once did story regarding this special: I showed it to Mrs. Manimal (who had never seen it) when were dating. HOWEVER, IT WAS THE SAME YEAR HER GRANDFATHER DIED. For those who have seen it, you know why that was a dumb move.
END SPOILERS

That tree lighting “ooooooo” is pretty bad. I also like the loop lines over the Christmas morning present opening when their lips aren’t even trying to synch up.

MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL hasn’t been shown on T.V. for years but it too was released on DVD last year.

The Will Vinton CLAYMATION CHRISTMAS is also on DVD but it runs kinda pricey which is why I haven’t gotten it yet.
I do have a VHS of Garfield and Claymation Christmases back to back circa 1992. It contains a great ALPO Christmas commerical.

And good boy, and bad boy, and old boy, and atta boy…
Manimal - I completely forgot the non-synch/looped animation moment! And I’m glad Mrs. Manimal was forgiving of your showing her one of the best Christmas specials of all time.
Speaking of - does anyone know where I can get a VCR that is just a VCR? I’ve only seen them with DVD players, but I don’t want to pay extra for something I don’t need.

Yeah the grampa thing is kind of a downer, but the fact that they packed so much emotion in 22 minutes is a testament to the special itself.

Can someone explain the “wood burning cat” joke to me. I never got it. Did she imply that cats were used to start fires, cause that is kind of…wrong.

I’m fairly sure that L. Music’s untimely death is the reason you do not see this special on air anymore. And I believe it is Grandma Arbuckle as she seems competitive with Mrs. Arbuckle and knowing how my mother competes with my fiance I would say that she’s probably an Arbuckle. Nice work on the post. Short, sweet and a good tribute.

The Burro, I saw Mickys Christmas Carol last year during a special called, I think, Micky’s Once Upon a Christmas? It was on Toon Disney as memory serves. That’s another special I love.

I looove the Garfield Christmas special. My personal favorite moment is when Pa Arbuckle makes somee comment to Gramma about packing the food away and she pats her stomach and says “I’m eating for two now, dear.” The bug eyed look he does in response kills me everytime.

Now, I remeber there was a line in this special originally, uttered during the putting the star on top of the tree scene. Pa says “Why can’t we put the star on top THEN put the tree up?” His wife replies “Why it just wouldn’t be Christmas if we did that.” Then Pa says “Woman, one more comment like that and you’ll SEE stars.” I always cracked up at that line in the book, and I’m positive it was in the special, though obviously it’s been cut in recent years. Anyone else remember that in the animated special?

Well I know Mickeys Christmas Carol is on DVD, Cartoon Classics Volume 9 to be exact. Bought it last week along with K-Fed’s Playing With Fire album. The DVD was for me, but the CD was for our white elephant gift exchange. It was such a hit that it got traded in order to appear at someone elses exchange. That pleases me somehow.

Claymation Christmas is THE TV Christmas special that I MUST watch every year, usually several times. It is my all time favorite TV Christmas special. I watched it when I was a kid, and then was able to tape it one time when it was on the disney channel in the early 90s. I was ECSTATIC when it was FINALLY released on DVD (along with the awesome musical “Scrooge” starring Albert Finney).

Matt, thanks for doing the obvious and looking on Amazon for me!

$60 is kind of expensive, but the alternative of finding one in a thrift store and hoping it doesn’t suddenly eat my irreplaceable VHS tapes is really unappealing. The VHS/DVD players I’ve been looking at in Best Buy are something like $90-$150 though, so $60 is an improvement. I still feel like they should be $30/$40.

9Line - KFed for white elephant = best idea ever. Next year you should pick up Macho Man Randy Savage’s album! Every track is hilarious.

Thank you for the Mickey’s info. I will look for the DVD, though I prefer to DVR if at all possible.
On a “white elephant” note- I have the opportunity to get rid of a sealed copy of “Anger Management,” that I won out of a arcade machine last christmas. Sweet Jesus will I be happy to get that out of my apartment

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, but it was totally gravy. She added chili powder to the gravy.

And I think that’s one of my favorite Christmas specials, second only to Muppet Family Christmas. I love Charlie Brown, but I’m one of those people who has to be rebellious and have a different favorite from everyone else.

The part that always made me crack up the most was when Grandma was feeding Garfield under the table and when asked why she was putting away so much food, said “I’m eating for two now, dearie”. And then the looks on the family’s faces… that part still kills me.

Also - does anyone else get a little teary over the whole grandpa story, or am I just a total sap?

For all my fellow Canadians, The Garfield Christmas Special will be shown Dec. 17th at 7:30, and Dec 18th at 5:30, both on YTV.

And CBC will be showing Mickey’s Christmas Carol on the 17th, starting at 7:00. Since that’s an hour long, you may want to save Garfield for the 18th.

Gotta love being Canadian! (Or possibly an American close enough to the border to get some Canadian TV)

Jay, you guys are lucky. My husband’s family is from Maine and we always watch French music videos. Funny stuff!

jazzy - the grandpa thing is a total tearjerker, I agree. Though the special that always got me teary-eyed was the For Better or for Worse when April loses her bunny and it’s found by the lonely old man…anyone else remember that?

Can I just state the obvious and say that I LOVE AMAZON?! All this talk of Christmas cartoons got me thinking about one I loved when I was a kid (and thus far more religious than I am now) called Small One about the donkey Mary rode on to Bethlehem. I did a search for it about 3 years ago and all they had was a used VHS for $80. haha! I looked again just now… $8.99 on DVD with two other Disney classics (Pluto’s Christmas Tree and Mickey’s Christmas Carol)! It’s a good day. And everyone else probably already knew all of that, I just had to share how excited I am.

And did anyone else get kind of anxious when you saw Box wandering off? And I’m not even a parent. Silly Box.

Besides the specials, this is the time of year to stay glued to reruns. I’ve seen lots of holiday episodes of lots of shows.

I love today’s Advent, btw. Mista Snowman holding the “Rice-A-Roni song” over Kuse = awesome.

Amazon rules. Even though I prefer buying things from stores (I am too impatient to wait it out) Amazon totally helps me see if such a thing exists on DVD\CD\Etc. If only it could explain to me what a “wood burning cat” is. Even google has failed me. Any ideas out there?

You’ve really got Lipton down! Better than Will Ferrell. BTW Matt did you happen to check out the Google homepage today (yesterday)?
I haven’t seen this special in years. IMDB bears out my theory that it’s “Doc” Boy, not that that makes any more sense than “Dock” Boy. I don’t remember it well enough to recall the “wood burning cat” thing, but it sounds like it’s just a joke about a wood burning stove? No idea.

Oops, forgot you’re two hours ahead of me… Make that *yesterday* was Edvard Munch’s birthday.

Okay, in case you East Coasters can’t see the Google homepage b/c it’s past midnight: Munchie

“the bestest present”! i totally have that on vhs somewhere in my parent’s armoire of movies from when we were little. the old man always creeped me out, but then at the end i like him for returning the bunny.

my brothers and i love garfield’s christmas. and yes, every year when we first turn the lights on our tree, we stand around and make the “OOOoOoOO” sound. we haven’t perfected the perfect circle mouth, but we’ve got the pitch down to a science.

Am I gonna get slayed for loving The Best Christmas Pageant Ever? I just can’t get enough of a tiny Faruza Balk and really, REALLY bad acting.

The reason people hate Garfield is because he sucks now. Seriously,read a recent Garfield comic,half the time you can’t even understand what the punchline’s supposed to be. But the Christmas special is the Garf in his prime.

Yes, I’ve seen the special enough times to GET every obscure reference. “Ooooh”ing and all. I don’t think someone hogging the music rights are a problem anymore…both Lorenzo Music AND Lou Rawls are dead, so really no point to it. I’d kill to see this on tv again, even though I have the Holiday 3 Pack I got last Christmas.

Advent-wise…still so, so freaking awesome. I’ll say it again: “But Scrooged had nipples!”

And don’t bother clicking the Star Wars link in the last blog, Lucas’s Lawyer Droids found em.

you can buy all three Garfield specials on ONE DVD at Target for $10. i think I may do just that.

In any case, all produced Garfield animation is on DVD now, including the all-righteous Garfield and Friends TV series.

Possible explanation for Wood-burning Cat: there’s a joke in an old Garfield book about a “Wood-burning Dog,” one of Odie’s ancestors. It was a dog powered by burning wood inside it. So….I’m presuming there were some early mechanical things that were powered by raw fire, but you used wood instead of coal. And if you built a mechanical cat back then, it would be a Wood-burning Cat.

The last time that I recall “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” airing on network TV was 2003 on ABC. It was a horrible presentation, way too many commercials and with celebrity tributes from ABC sitcom stars every few minutes saying how much of an inspiration Mickey had been on their careers (seriously). You are better off buying the DVD.

As for Garfield, I have a recording from when the show originally aired and seem to recall them making some changes on later broadcasts. I recall the scene of Granny Arbuckle playing the piano wasn’t part of the original broadcast, but added later.

Love the Garfield Christmas Special. It’s just sad that they left out the deleted scene where Grandma Arbuckle kills Shaak-Ti with her own lightsaber.

Okay, pardon me, but I am a little freaked out right now. I’m watching season 4 of 24, too! Mare and I are magically, deliciously connected.

Mare: how do you feel about Tony’s drinking problem?
And I’m only 8 episodes in, so don’t ruin anything.

Old E and canoesforshoes, thank you for your help in the last post!! I can now rest easy, knowing the name of yet another strawberry flavored candy I ingested as a child…

On an unrelated note, was the Boss holding a wand a few days ago? Like the wands from Advent pasts? Because that’s old school. Makes me think that Claire Winningham was somehow unfrozen…

I love Garfield Christmas, in fact I watched it the other day! I’d rather have this play on cable than those stupid made-for-tv Christmas movies.

Good to see some Garfield love. There’s so many haters online, which I don’t quite get. I’ll admit, I haven’t read the comic strip in over a decade, but the cartoons were freaking amazing!

I’ve been watching the Garfield & Friends reruns on Boomerang with my son, and there are some legitimately funny gags. (My favorite being the gameshow “Press The Button Win A Cookie”. I think about that joke every time I watch 1 Vs. 100.)

I bought the holiday special DVD a little before Halloween, but haven’t watched the Christmas special yet. I’ll be sure to do that soon–I’ve forgotten about all of the moments listed, except for the mouth-straw thing.

As an aside, why do fruit snacks suck these days? Seriously, they’re all awful compared to Garfield fruit snacks.

I used to love going to the Scholastic Book Fair at school and hording around the table which had the dozens of new Garfield comic strip compilations. I would spend the entire first day of the fair reading the books, then on the much anticipated “second visit to the book fair to buy books” visit would be dissapointed that I had no money…oh the love/hate relationship with the annual Scholastic Book Fair.

I still love Garfield cartoons, even if the comic blows. Luckily when I bought season 1 of G&F’s my son found it equally enjoyable. Does anyone else have it?

Special K — I remember reading that book as a kid and loving the movie. We still call the family across the street from my folk’s house with their ten million wild children “The Herdmans”. I don’t even remember what their real name is.

I heart the Garfield special, and make it a point of singing as much of “Old Fashioned Christmas” as I can when ever we drive over to my folk’s house on X-mas eve. It drives my sister crazy.

I’m thinking I’ll set my old VCR up down in the den tonight so I can watch Emmitt Otter’s Jugband Christmas.

Did anyone catch the live action version of “The Year Without Santa Claus” on NBC Monday? I thought it was pretty entertaining. John Goodman as Santa…I was wishing for Roseanne to be Mrs. Claus, but, unfortunately got Delta Burke instead. Oh well. By the way, I too never missed Garfield’s Christmas. Ever.

Yes! Garfield Christmas is my second favorite Xmas special, after “A Muppet Family Christmas”- both of these STILL make me laugh out loud. We watched both at a recent gingerbread-house-making-party and when Grandma Arbuckle says “I remember when all we had were wood burning cats” my friend and I gave each other a ‘wtf?’ look and burst out laughing. Good stuff. I NEVER missed this one. The songs are great, too- thanks for putting them on the jukebox!:)

Special K- it made me a little nervous as well, but there was no loud thud (as of yet) so not toooo much to worry about. Although I am now dying to teach my daughter how to do the “muahaha” laugh.

The straw lips thing is something I always rememberd Gary Larson doing in the Far Side comics. Maybe Jim Davis and him were buds.

I’ve actually been working at work the last coupla days (can you believe it??) so forgive me if this has been said. Did anyone catch the new claymation “Holidaze: the Christmas that Almost Didn’t Happen” this past Saturday? I didn’t want to like it, I really didn’t. They even reference Wal-mart and Cambell’s soup. Total commercialism. But then I realized Rusty the Reindeer was none other than Fred Savage and I couldn’t help myself! I’m getting the DVD for Christmas (from my grandmother who was watching the special with me).

Recorded the original cartoon Grinch last night. I was intrigued that it was the anniversary and was for some reason an hour long. I hope it doesn’t include celebrities discussing how the Grinch changed their careers. Except maybe Jim Carrey…

Mike - Actually, I heard that Garfield’s voice actor died a few years ago. He probably isn’t asking for much in Royalties these days.

I think the Garfield comic strip has improved ever since they finally gave Jon a girlfriend in Liz this year. What sucks is that FoxTrot is becoming a Sunday only strip.

Grinch and Muppets are my two favorites, even though I haven’t watched either in years. Plus, the California Raisins give the BEST rendition of Rudolph ever.

Off but also on topic for the season. I tried the Egg Nog Jones Holiday Soda today. My review: It tastes like Mountain Dew mixed with some cream soda. It does have a slight aftertaste. My verdict: Not Bad, but not great either.

My must see holiday special every year was Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas. I never missed it and then one year it just up and disappeared. Thankfully I was able to procure a copy of it on DVD for my family a few years back but I still feel the cold chill of the void left in my heart from years of holiday tv specials without it. Jim Henson really outdid himself with this one but strangely enough very few people I have met in life have ever seen it.

Most known for playing Ray Romano’s dad & the Monster from Young Frankenstein. Click the name to watch the “Puttin’ on The Ritz” part

And while searching for it, I also found that only the FIRST part of the Star Wars Holiday Special was taken down…the rest are still there!

I think Garfield is suffering from the same syndrome as the Simpsons (try saying that five times fast!) - after a certain number of years, you just kinda run out of good jokes. I mean Garfield has been around for almost 30 years. Ol’ Jimmy can’t just get by on the same lasagna jokes and have them still be funny.

But I loooove old Garfield. And just like Scooter, I also went to the Scholastic book fairs and drooled over the Garfield books. I still have a few, including one where I started to color the first page. Some girl on the bus saw me doing it and was horrified: “Those books will be worth something someday! You can’t color in those!”. Considering my books are all torn up and you can pretty much buy them all on Amazon anyway, I don’t think it matters now. But I definitely didn’t color in them after that!

“Binky wouldn’t say it like that.”
“Yeah, do it in Binky’s voice.”
“HHHHEEEEEEYY, KIIIIDS!”

What sold Granny’s cat comment for me was Gar’s look of surprise and his comment, “Bizzarre….” You never knew if she was off her rocker or pulling everyone’s collective leg.

Jay P. - Thanks for the heads up about Mickey’s Christmas Carol on CBC! I haven’t seen it in years, so I guess that’s one good thing about living in MI.

Cricket - Your nails won’t break and your toes won’t stub, you never get a fever when there ain’t no hole in the washtub.
It’s great because it’s true.

I own the DVD, but it’s just not the same. Unless I’m mistaken, this would always get the 8:30 showing, and Charlie Brown was essentially the lead in, with the 8PM showing.

Alyssa - Glad to help. It’s been years and years since I’ve seen it, so I’m pretty stoked.

And Die Hard is on tonight (CityTV), which is *required* Christmas viewing each year.

Did anyone else notice how CBC butchered “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” on Sunday? They cut out some hilarious scenes!

Is it just more, or are this year’s Advent Calendars hilarity and awesome levels up a few hundred notches?

That Rice-A-Roni bit was great. I really wonder where Matt gets it from sometimes.

Work…..killing…..me…..must……have….new….advent…..calendar…..post….soooon!!!

I think that the Garfield Christmas Special has to be in my Top 3 Christmas Specials List. It’s just…well…perfect. It’s as funny as I remember it being as a kid, plus thanks to Grandma’s insights and memories it hits a perfect balance of fun and Christmas sentimentality.

“Workâ€¦..killingâ€¦..meâ€¦..mustâ€¦â€¦haveâ€¦.newâ€¦.adventâ€¦..calendarâ€¦..postâ€¦.soooon!!!”

Ugh, I posted this under the oatmeal swirlers blog post. Because I totally ate that stuff and have been trying to remember it for years. So I ruined my first post on the site by replying to the wrong post. Kill me. So, just imagine that this reply happened yesterday, and that my reply to the other post is right here. ‘Tis the season to have follied. Fa la la la crap.

Glad to see today’s calendar entry, but man- it sure was a downer! Now I’m bummed out.

I like today’s entry, not too much to read, yet still entertaining. I just love thinking of Matt setting all this up at home and taking the pics. Nothing better than seeing a grown man arrange Playmobil Figures, let alone agonizing over proper placement and photographing the results. Does your girlfriend help out with this, or does she just point at you and invite friends over to watch your antics. This image alone warrants a gift of at least $20 from the Amazon list.

“Webelos” is a word that has only entered my vocabulary in the past two months or so when my husband was explaining to me about Boy Scouts. Holy cow, Webelos? I thought it was some old Indian name, but instead its a pseudo-acronym. I’m so glad it made it into the calendar.

I still have my Boy Scout and Eagle Scout uniforms in my closet. There are so many badges and pins all over them. There were only two things that kept me in Scouts all the way through. Pinewood Derby Cars, and that cool ass Rambo knife with the compass hilt you got for graduating Eagle Scouts. The derby cars were so much fun to make. I remember the one that I made that looked like the Mach 5. It flew down the track so fast that it shot across the floor of the church and put a dent in the wall on the other side. The Rambo Scout knife is the centerpiece of my growing knife/sword collection asit is today. If anyone sees or hears about any cool cutlery, please post about it here so I can blow more money.

Bless you Matt. You are single handedly keeping my X-mas spirit alive right now. you do a great service to the country and the world!! you are a true patriot…etc. etc….

Jon, I was wondering if anyone else had noticed the changes made to the Garfield special in later years. My whole family noticed them while watching it a few years ago–not just because we’d seen it a million times and knew that some scenes hadn’t appeared before, but the animation of the new scenes looked, well, newer. I don’t remember now what any of the new scenes were, though.

Old E — The Boy Scouts were the way to go! I was in the Girl Scouts for a grand whopping total of something like 32 minutes. Just long enough to realize that we were going to wear hideous uniforms and sell calendars and cookies. No Derby Car races like my brother got, no Soap Box Car races like my brother got, in fact NOTHING LIKE MY STUPID FRIGGIN’ BROTHER GOT!!! Girls across America got totally gipped when it came to Scouts.

But again, at least there ain’t no hole in the wash tub. My other totally favorite song from that one is When the River Meets the Sea. I think that is the song I will have play at my funeral. God I miss Jim Henson…genius like his only comes around once, maybe twice in a lifetime. Thankfully we have Matt to help fill the creative void.

Garfield was one of the better Xmas specials, tho I haven’t seen it in many years. Hopefully I can hunt a copy down sometime. Regarding voice actors who’ve passed on, any royalties they may have coming to them as a result of rebroadcasts, etc, would go to their estate. Scatman Crothers died the month the Transformer movie came out, but his estate has been getting royalties from Jazz for years and giving them to charity, according to his biography.

I’m surprised we haven’t linked it yet. I can’t take the credit for finding this myself. I’m pretty sure Norbert linked it a couple weeks ago. So thank him.

Muchas gracias, K! Hopefully it won’t crash my dialup, but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait!

The first time the christmas special aired(i think it was the first time…) i was watching it about 2 or 3 days before christmas, on this television set that my grandfather had finally gotten to work…it was old as anything and i had no clue why we needed a tv in the living room and in the rec room, til christmas morning and me and my bro unwrapped a shiny new NES! woot! (straw lips) this was like 86 or 87

I’ve posted here a couple of non-memorable times, under my actual name (heather), so here is a handle I dont think anyone else will ever use…lol. Garfield Christmas was, and will forever be my FAVORITE Christmas special EVER!!! Matt thank you for finally doing up such a purty article about this wonderful cartoon special!!!! X-E is a huge part of my Christmas now each year! Thank you for keeping the Christmas spirit alive for us!!!

“Garfield Christmas Special” is an old favorite of mine, too. Jessica Marie, I frequently use the “Bana Cream Pie” line, too.

I LOVE “Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas,” especially that gorgeous song “When the River Meets the Sea”! Mom taped that off of HBO way back in 1988, and we’ve watched it ever since.

Also very fond of “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”; Goofy’s best role ever, though as a Donald Duck fan, I would have liked to seen more of his nephew Fred.

I actually managed to tape “Garfield Christmas Special” back-to-back with “Charlie Brown Christmas” my first semester of college in 1997. My mom and stepdad didn’t have cable at the time and I wanted to give them a video of all the popular holiday specials they were missing. I believe that was the last time I saw any “Garfield” special on network TV.

“A Garfield Christmas Special” is on DVD with the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials as “Garfield’s Holiday Celebrations.” “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” is most readily avalable as part of the “Holiday Celebrations with Mickey and the Gang!” DVD (which also features the touching, religion-based “The Small One” and the classic short “Pluto’s Christmas Tree”). “Emmett Otter” was recently re-released on DVD, though I believe some things may have been cut or altered.

As for the Advent Calender…yikes! It’s a Holly Abduction Christmas, and Mista Snowman had better watch his croonin’…cause Kuse ain’t in the mood for cups of cheer.

K-, sadly, I did NOT ever link to Garfield’s Christmas Special here. Sorry. I still claim the credit and cash prizes that await me, though.

Speaking of James Lipton, I saw him on Conan O’Brien the other day as part of the hornymanatee.com promotion. I wonder how Florida State feels about this!

Lorenzo Music died a few years ago, and I think it would be too difficult to find a good replacement for his voice. Not even Bill Murray (i am not a fan of those two unnecessary Garfield movies)

I always thought it was funny how Garfield changed over the years - in the earliest strips, his body was much larger than his head, and he just looked odd. Gradually he evolved into the familiar cat we all love.

I think one of the funniest lines was when Jon first met Liz and he said, “That’s a pretty name. Is it short for Elizabeth?”

P.S. For some reason, the exotic bird in the Advent Calendar looks like a ptarmigan to me. Or a puffin (?) - which is not a bird that spends his days getting loaded, btw.

I actually just watched this last weekend. We had a christmas party and had the toons going all night. We got through rudolph, frosty, heman/she ra, charlie, garfield, and finished with an eric forman christmas…i know its not a tune.
BTW the Christmas Tree lighting OHHHH is the best moment.

I love the garfield Christmas Special! Watch it every year! Some people inquired about the Claymation Christmas…I got my copy from netflix. You can get a free two week trial, if you want to see it.

I have 50+ VHS Tapes FULL of Christmas Episodes. Alf, Christmas Tree Train, Rankin Bass, The Bear WHo Slept Through Christmas, Saved by the Bell, Home Improvement…you name it, Ill probably have it.

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