Four year old Caroline was down in my office yesterday, and she came running up to me waving a DVD box. “Daddy…I found TREASURE!” she informed me and handed me her discovery: A set of Rankin-Bass Christmas specials, most prominently being “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer.” Caroline had become intrigued by Rudolph, you see, because the Build-A-Bear catalogue had arrived here the other day and she’d become enchanted by their Christmas offering of a plush version of the R-B Rudolph (not to mention Clarice.) She thrust the DVD box at me and said firmly, “See Rudolph, please?”
I shrugged and said, “Sure.” She hadn’t watched much TV that day and it would keep her entertained while I continued work on the “Iron Man” novelization.
She watched it. Then she watched it again. And a third time. She would have watched it a fourth time if we’d let her.
In the meantime last night Kath swung by our local DVD shop and picked up “Ratatouille,” a collection of all the Pixar shorts, and “Shrek III,” all DVDs we’d been planning to get for a while.
This morning Caroline came downstairs and announced she wanted to watch “Rudolph.” I pointed out all the new DVDs we’d acquired. “I want to see Rudolph” she said firmly. As of this writing she’s on her second (and I swear last) viewing for today.
And I have to say, it sure brings back memories. I still remember being utterly terrified as a kid of the Abominable Snowman, even though the character design is truly ludicrous. Hëll, I even remember the commercials with elves riding on electric shavers. Still, I have a feeling that I’m going to be well and truly sick of this special by Christmastime.
PAD
• 
We have that same set, and when our daughter Aisling was three, she had the very same obsession, which lingered on even after the holidays.
Here we are three years later, and she unearthed the set again, excitedly waving it in her two-year-old brother’s face. “Look Arlo, it’s Rudolph!” she said. “Puppy!” he delightedly replied.
So far, we have managed to delay the viewing of “Puppy!” but it’s only a matter of time.
I give it a week before Brian starts doing the same thing to me. But then, I’m a raving optimist. When I first got our DVD, have to admit I was surprised the shaver commercials weren’t on them. Personally, I love all the Christmas specials, but last year by the week before Thanksgiving I was cursing Dr. Seuss, Chuck Jones, Boris Karloff and the Grinch to hëll forever if I heard it one more time.
Don’t know if you know this, but I’m going to tell you anyway so, well, you’ll know. The CGI sequel to Rudolph is also out, and I THINK Rudolph’s Shiny New Year is, too. Maybe if Caroline’s got variety you won’t want to throw the DVD player off the nearest bridge.
Forgot to tell you, since Caroline’s got such a zoo, Toys R Us has the Rudoph PVC characters in a box set.
I remember some years back, my wife and I were in Chicago for Visions, a British media convention that you used to take place the weekend after Thanksgiving. On the Friday night, we went along with a group of friends on a pilgrimage to Ed’s Diner, which not surprisingly was packed. We went inside to give our names, and I noticed that ‘Rudolph’ was playing on one of the monitors inside. Anyway, since the lobby was stuffed full of people, we went outside to wait, shivering a bit in the late November Chicago cold. We had been standing there for about 10-15 minutes, when a voice came over the PA system, ‘Your attention please…’ and everybody quieted down. ‘The Abominable Snowman has just fallen off the mountain!’ the voice announced and we all cheered, with the exception of my wife who is British and couldn’t figure out what the hëll the excitement was all about.
There are also Rudolph action figures.
As well as, of all things, an AFLAC commercial where grownup Rudolph is sick. Done such that it looks like the same puppets were used.
Of course, Xmas seems to be starting ridiculously early this year. There were two radio stations in central North Carolina which were playing Xmas music non-stop as of last Sunday, malls were already decorated, and I’ve spotted several Xmas commercials on tv.
Don’t feel bad, my 5y/o daughter has been through Homeward Bound 1& 2, Lady and the Tramp 2, Scamps Adventure, Karate Dog, and has now moved to Transformers, the new live action and the 1988 animated movie. Her older brother is to blame for the most recent obsession. Of course she is only allowed to watch it when I am around,I edit out the parts she dosn’t need to see (most notably, the sceane whee Sam’s mother talks about masterbation.
Our 5-year old girl obsesses over a given DVD for a time and then moves on to the next obsession. Lately it’s been Wiggles Live. I’m gonna try and point her towards Year Without A Santa Claus for the holidays (i’ts all about the Heat Miser, baby!)
They do start Christmas commercials and displays way to early. Makes me sick of Christmas before Christmas day.
I believe I read that the Grinch is on TV this week already. Don’t recall exactly since even though it’s probably my favorite I won’t watch it until after Thanksgiving.
I’m still old school, Christmas shopping seasson does not start for me until after Santa brings up the rear of the Macy’s parade and I refuse to watch any Christmas DVD’s before then.
After Macy’s the whole pile will come out be watched endlessly until New Year’s and then put away til next year. 🙂
When I was in college, a friend of mine asked if he could come over to watch Rudolph on the TV my roommates and I had. He was feeling nostalgic for childhood. I said sure, and he watched it.
Afterwards, he said that the show was not as good as he recalled from childhood. After all, the moral of the show is that it’s OK to make fun of and ostracize people who are different from you until you find out that their differences are exploitable. Then it’s OK to explot them, and make them feel good about it in the process. Not quite the lesson he wanted to bring with him into the holidays.
By the way, Build A Bear Workshops are now selling Rudolph dolls for the holidays, for whatever that information is worth.
Tom Galloway said, “Of course, Xmas seems to be starting ridiculously early this year. There were two radio stations in central North Carolina which were playing Xmas music non-stop as of last Sunday, malls were already decorated, and I’ve spotted several Xmas commercials on tv.”
It’s not just in North Carolina. In Detroit, one radio station plays non stop Christmas music beginning in early November every year; and every year, I remove it from my car’s radio station pre-sets until after Thanksgiving.
I’ve let them know I think they should show more restraint in playing Christmas music; but I guess not enough people have expressed similar sentiments, because they keep doing it every year.
Another station, which has a similar format, and to which the first station’s morning team defected a few years ago, has not yet started playing Christmas music. In fact, they have a poll on their website asking when they should start playing it. The other day they were talking about the poll results so far, and apparently a lot of people (properly, in my opinion) want them to wait until after Thanksgiving.
This second station showed restraint last year, too; but two or three years ago, both stations were playing nothing but Christmas music starting Nov. 1.
I enjoy Christmas music, but I don’t want to hear it in non-stop, starting in early November.
It’s also ridiculous how soon the Christmas decorations go up in stores. I was at KMart in late October, and right next to the rows of Halloween paraphenalia they had… you guessed it, Christmas trees and other decorations. Those turkeys didn’t have anything on display related to Thanksgiving.
Some store employees don’t care for the early Christmas decorations earlier. One Walgreen’s employee told me he’d rather they didn’t jump straight to Christmas– that they have some acknowledgement of Thanksgiving.
If I ever own any sort of retail establishment, Christmas decorations will go up after Thanksgiving, not before. Once upon a time ago, the Christmas (shopping) season began after Santa arrived at Hudson’s in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Nowadays it seems stores would put the Christmas stuff out in early January if they could get away with it.
Rick
Well, if it gets too much, don’t forget the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer drinking game.
Every time his nose lights up, you have to take a drink.
If the nose is lit for a long time, you take a long drink. It really is self explanatory.
And don’t forget the How the Grinch Stole Christmas drinking game1.
Everytime they use the word “Who” take a drink.
“Some store employees don’t care for the early Christmas decorations earlier.“
Truer words have never been spoken. The last two years I worked at Best we put up trees in JULY. Dumbest idea, after hiring me, that place ever had. To get to the gas grills and bikes you had to walk through a Christmas tree forest. Setting it up DID get me away from my electronics counter, so I shouldn’t complain TOO much, but come on already!
The all Christmas all the time radio stations make me glad I work in TV, not radio. Even I would want to chop down the transmitter after a while. There’s a woman I work with who, every day for the last two years has been humming Sleigh Bells. I used to like that song.
That should have been “some store employees don’t care for the early Christmas decorations either.” Anyone got a TARDIS I can borrow so I can go back and fix that?
I promise I’ll bring it right back– in a regeneration or 12.
Rick
In terms of retail stores putting up Christmas stuff way too early…
I work part-time at a Sears Hardware store. I walked in to work in the evening on October 1. They had already starting putting out, for sale, strings of lights and hanging materials. They were also starting to set up the displays for the pre-lit Christmas trees and the yard decorations. I took about 6 steps into the store, saw all the crap, and said, quite outloud, “You have *GOT* to be kidding me!” The rest of the evening was then spent with the rest of my coworkers bìŧçhìņg about this stuff being out already.
So, it’s not just people shopping who hate having all this stuff out early.
Although, on the plus side, at least they haven’t started playing any Christmas songs yet.
Our Xavier just turned two…he’s got a pretty good rotation for videos now…Little Einstiens, a Nick Jr. Best Of where Wonderpets is often requested, and the Land Before Time. The very first one. He asks for that a lot. He also likes to watch Babe, one of the few live action (sort of) films he asks for. Or more often, will put in the DVR on his own, and then bring us the remote.
We don’t go into stores much, but any time before Thanksgiving is too early. We’ve “enjoyed” the after T day sales the past few years, but will miss them as we’re travelling this year. But we have noticed that the flood of toy commercials has started.
I think retailers are feeling desperate. Fuel, food, the price of everything except toys is up this year, and people are leery of toys because of concerns with China’s safety issues. We’re mostly getting DVDs and trying to avoid any made-in-China toys this year.
My sons also played their Rudolph, Grinch, and Frosty dvds to death when we picked up the set a few years ago. I remember, as a kid, that seeing these shows was such a huge event, it signalled that Christmas was coming like nothing else !! They were on once, and if you missed them, (and you did NOT miss them !!), you were out of luck until next year. No Tivo, VCR’s, Bit Torrents, or DVD’s ! My closest chance at a replay was seeing my Uncle Werner, who physically resembles the Grinch, although he chooses to reside in a house and not a mountaintop retreat. And how terrifying was that Abominable Snowman ! Right up there with the Wicked Witch from Wiz of Oz. I used to run behind my dad’s big upholstered wing chair every time they showed up. Luckily I outgrew this phobia when I was 13, supplanting it with another; after reading Jaws, I refused to enter an ocean until I was 18.
But it is fun, and funny, to watch the old Rudolph show, noting the horrible animation, and the lightbulb wires clearly visible in Rudolph’s nose, and the rampant taunting and teasing… and love every minute of it.
I am so sick to death of out-of season shopping – I have to guess what size swimsuit my kid will need in February, because in June it’s all fall clothes. If I’ll need a winter coat, I have to pick a size in July. I will fight back this year by NOT doing any shopping in a retail store. I will wait for free shipping and find gifts on line – and not from major retailers. Let the stores rot. The way toys are being recalled, I’m not sure I want to buy any anyway.
On the other hand, I miss that Norelco Santa!
Of course, Xmas seems to be starting ridiculously early this year.
I was at Disney World last week and they were putting up the Christmas trees on October 31st…
… before they could even get through the dámņ Halloween parade that night.
My sister used to be able to watch Titanic, rewind the tape and watch it through again. Thankfully she’s moved on to other things.
I can almost still do it with Serenity. Haven’t, yet, but when the movie ends, the DVD returns to the main menu and then restarts the movie after a few iterations, I’m tempted to just let it play again.
My sister used to be able to watch Titanic, rewind the tape and watch it through again. Thankfully she’s moved on to other things.
I can almost still do it with Serenity. Haven’t, yet, but when the movie ends, the DVD returns to the main menu and then restarts the movie after a few iterations, I’m tempted to just let it play again.
My sister used to be able to watch Titanic, rewind the tape and watch it through again. Thankfully she’s moved on to other things.
I can almost still do it with Serenity. Haven’t, yet, but when the movie ends, the DVD returns to the main menu and then restarts the movie after a few iterations, I’m tempted to just let it play again.
My sister used to be able to watch Titanic, rewind the tape and watch it through again. Thankfully she’s moved on to other things.
I can almost still do it with Serenity. Haven’t, yet, but when the movie ends, the DVD returns to the main menu and then restarts the movie after a few iterations, I’m tempted to just let it play again.
My sister used to be able to watch Titanic, rewind the tape and watch it through again. Thankfully she’s moved on to other things.
I can almost still do it with Serenity. Haven’t, yet, but when the movie ends, the DVD returns to the main menu and then restarts the movie after a few iterations, I’m tempted to just let it play again.
I have a love-hate relationship with Rankin-Bass
Sorry Peter, I forgot you mentioned the Build-A-Bear in your initial post, so apologies for mentioning the patently obvious (and redundant) earlier. That said, I’m more of a Mad Monster Party fan myself.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH memories!
I too remember the good ol’ days with all those classic stop motion animated Christmas Specials. So many good ones, but Rudolph is my all-time favorite.
I look back at it from time to time and I can’t help but laugh at some of the ridiculous moments and scenes. Like the scene with Comet the reindeer coach who says to the young reinder “I want to be your friend!” 🙂 I wonder if they still keep that in today’s versions.
PS: Bumble….it’s a Bubmle Peter. And rememeber, Bumbles bounce!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahaha… *breathe, breathe* …HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
You’re going to see that movie in front of your eyes when you die, Peter. If you’ve been really, really bad. 🙂
Stupid Christmas.
Quoth Rick Keating:
Well, actually, yes they did, seeing as they are themselves, y’know, “turkeys.” 😉
If it’s any consolation, starting Christmas as early as possible isn’t actually a recent trend. There’s a Peanuts strip on the subject (Charlie Brown couldn’t buy a Halloween costume because they were busy putting up Christmas decorations) from 1959, and it must have been a recognizable trope before then for Schulz to have done a strip about it.
I don’t think i *ever* managed to make it all the way through a showing of “Rudolph” – and that includes the first time it aired.
Now, if i could find a copy of the Muppet Xmas special where Art Carney played the Bad Guy who kidnapped Santa and replaced all the cute Muppet elves (except one) with monsters…
A few years ago in Austria, the main retail workers union tried to get nonstopo Xmas music declared abusive working conditions.
Craig J Ries wrote: I was at Disney World last week and they were putting up the Christmas trees on October 31st…
Me too! How’d you like all that rain?!? I think they were putting the trees up because they start the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this week. (The speed in which they got the Epcot tree up was scarier than the Halloween party!).
As for Rudolph, I can’t say I’ve had the “pleasure” of seeing it multiple times in a row, but my old boss loved the Heat/Cold Misers’ songs. He played them so often that I just about have them memorized. In fact, now that I’ve thought of them, they are stuck in my head. ARGH! LOL
Same set, 30+ viewings of Frosty, and Frosty returns. Sigh.
“On the other hand, I miss that Norelco Santa!”
Here you go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUQycfgCjr0
Me too! How’d you like all that rain?!?
Well, it was still warm out, so I couldn’t complain. 🙂
The only time it was a real problem was when we were at Universal, and got caught in a downpour while on our way to the Hard Rock, and had to wait there about 20 minutes for it to let up.
(The speed in which they got the Epcot tree up was scarier than the Halloween party!).
Yeah, the Epcot tree was what really stunned me. We spotted that the morning after they put it up and we literally stopped in our tracks with a “WTF?”.
I sometimes wonder how kids born in the last 20 years or so will ever grasp what it was like in the old days of the 1960s and 70s, when you could only watch Rudolph once a year (usually right between Thanksgiving and December 1) and if you missed it, well, it would be on again the next year…
…or having to wait for the summer rerun of a missed TV episode…
…or seeing a movie in the theater or waiting two to three years for it to come on TV…
…or waiting for a favorite Disney film to come around on its eight-year re-release rotation…
You get the idea.
You get the idea.
…or actually have to get up out of your seat to change the channel on the tv.
…or when there were only 7 or 8 channels to chose from.
Yeah, the Epcot tree was what really stunned me.
Same here. I had spent the morning in the Magic Kingdom which was still in full Halloween mode. They should have warned me on the monorail ride over!
Kids have an amazing capacity to watch the same thing over and over and over… At least it’s not Barney.
(Was the Rudolph special the one with the Abominable Snowman? Thanks to ROBOT CHICKEN, I can’t picture that big goofy monster without him freaking out as condoms filled with cocaine burst in his stomach. And that *is* on the ROBOT CHICKEN Christmas special!)
Alas, Christmas stuff does keep coming earlier and earlier. At the retail store where I work, they put away the Halloween-specific DVDS (Goosebumps, Spookley, the HILLS HAVE EYES 2 pack) on Sunday, while Halloween was the next Wednesday. I don’t know if they put in the XMas stuff that weekend too, but I’m sure they were up before the first week of November.
How did you get your hands on Shrek 3? That doesn’t come out until next week. Somebody broke street date! oooooooh!!!
It is weird what kids will get into; my niece, Lindsey, usually gets to watch a DVD before she goes to bed. They just put it in the player and let her fall asleep watching it.
One day, they bought ‘Talespin’ and put that in and hit ‘Play All’. She woke my sister up at three in the morning to ask her how to restart the DVD.
Is this the recent box set of 7 Christmas specials, with a bonus CD? If so, Caroline has very good taste. Five out of the seven are keepers.
(Was the Rudolph special the one with the Abominable Snowman? Thanks to ROBOT CHICKEN, I can’t picture that big goofy monster without him freaking out as condoms filled with cocaine burst in his stomach. And that *is* on the ROBOT CHICKEN Christmas special!)
I always thought that MadTV’s THE REINFATHER was pretty effed up.
And if she starts watching NESTOR THE LONG-EARED DONKEY, may I recommend RiffTrax? (http://shop.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/genre/seasonal)
I remember reading how some of the original dolls from RUDOLPH were being displayed at the Atlanta Museum of Puppetry. Ever see them?
Rudolph stays with you. I’m 28 years old and I still love watching those puppets. But yeah, the New Years Rudolph special may add some variety before you want to destroy the DVD player. Oh, and my other all-time favorite xmas special, Mickey’s Christmas Carol 🙂
The interesting part is how well those specials hold up. Part of it is that, whatever deficiencies Rankin/Bass had as animators, they were willing to hire good songwriters. And they also cared about what they were telling kids, providing embellishments to the old stories without breaking them.
Also, there are almost no new Christmas specials made, animated or not. Production companies tend not to do Christmas “special episodes” of sitcoms either, since they can’t be run like regular episodes. Such episodes would only rationally be run between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Although I have seen some companies throwing taste to the wind and running the Christmas episodes of The Parkers and Fresh Prince of Bel Air in July.)
And Christmas programming is rare on local stations as well. Nearly all advertising on TV is from national concerns; there are no “little stores” seeking Christmas shoppers, not since they were put out of business by Wal-Mart. Thus, there’s no reason to run Christmas programs, since no advertisers are there to support that kind of programming.
The absence of Christmas programming, in a way, is vengeance. Lots of people decried the “commercialization” of Christmas, Stan Freberg’s “Green Chri$tma$” being the most popular version of this. So, broadcasters have provided a simple solution: don’t do anything for Christmas at all. Problem solved!
you started Christmas so early.
you villain.
you’re villains.
Sasha-
Yep. We were down at the Center last year to see the Gumby exhibit and they still had Santa and Rudolph on display. It was really interesting to see how small the characters are.
Kath
Speaking of local business and holiday-themed commercials, the now-defunct Highland Appliance had this great Thanksgiving commercial. The Pilgrims arrive in the new world, and the ensuing dialogue, taken from memory, went like this:
Native American: “Hi, welcome to new world!”
Pilgrim: “Thanks, glad to be here.”
(something else here?)
Native American: “Say, why not come over to my place on Wednesday? We’ll have pizza, beer. Munchies?”
Pilgrim: “Thanks, but Wednesday is Highland Appliance’s pre-Thanksgiving sale, with (store-wide savings or words to that effect).”
(Cut to montage of appliances on sale and voice over announcer voice telling us how much we’d save)
Pilgrim: “How about dinner on Thursday?”
Native American: “Well, okay. But on Thursday, we usually just have turkey.”
Another Highland Appliance commercial I remember had no connection with a holiday. In this 1984-85 commercial, a Soviet submarine makes its way to American shores because the crew has somehow heard of a sale at Highland Appliance. In the store, a salesman tells them that something has “fifty watts per channel” (whatever that means). One of the crew tries to pick up a woman customer by saying, “fifty watts per channel, babycakes.”
What makes it memorable is that in the summer of 1984, some friends and I went to Cedar Point, and Jim, whenever he’s spot a pretty girl, would say, “fifty watts per channel, babycakes.” And we’d keep saying, “Jim, you say it to her, not about her.”
But he never approached any of the girls he appraised that day.
But anyway, I have fond memories of that Thanksgiving commercial from back when people still remembered Thanksgiving.
Rick
Well, Rick, we remember Thanksgiving. From the ubiquitous turnip jokes(it’s not a food, it’s spackel) to the kid asking if the turkey wanted us to eat it, to me looking around the house and realizing that I don’t have it too bad, and wondering if Norman Rockwell would have a heart attack from the picture of us sitting down in our dining room surrounded by castles, swords, phasers, dragons(and that’s just MY stuff!) and more books than you can shake a stick at. A drumstick, that is. And we can’t forget Charlie Brown’s inabitity to make anything but cold cereal and maybe toast!!
I really need to get out more, methinks.
I am an avid, if accidental, fan of both your Sir Appropos of Nothing books as well as the Knight series about Kind Arthur. They are a hilarious new way to look at fantasy, and I nearly wet myself during “Tong Lashing” with the reference to LARP and Dnd. The series should really be put to film, and I know I’d buy every single one as they became available! Keep writing please, you’re an inspiration and a brilliant man!!!
When I first met my step-daughter she was two years old, and “The Secret of Nimh” was her dvd obsesion. She’s five now, and she shows absolutely no sign of tiring of last year’s live – action / CGI “Charlotte’s Web”.
I was the assistant manager of a WaldenBooks back in ’99, and I spent Hallowe’en designing and installing a window diplay. A *Christmas* window display.
I don’t remember “the commercials with elves riding on electric shavers”. But I *do* recall them changing GE light bulbs at Santa’s Workshop.
And doesn’t that one elf with the glasses look like Dennis the Menace’s dad (or at the very least, Phil Silvers)? And the one blonde girl elf, the Smurfette of the elves, didn’t she look like Dennis’s mom?
Speaking of jumping the holidays early, what’s up with showing “Rudolph Shiny New Year” before it’s even Christmas? Why not air that particular special in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve?
I wish someone would broadcast again the “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” of Muppet specials, “A Muppet Family Christmas”! The Sesame Street, Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock muppets all literally under one roof!!
And as much as we’ve been mentioning Rudolph, for me, it just isn’t Christmas until I see “A Charlie Brown Christmas”…on network TV!
Ditto the Grinch.
Hooper