Five Forgotten Christmas Specials - TV Obscura Vol 3 - Christmas Week 1981

[@Undrave]

"Even Orko learned about the Baby Jesus" he did! This was the most hilarious part of the He-Man and She-Ra special.

[@Scotfre]

A new upload from one of my favorite KZbinrs? And it’s a Christmas special? On Christmas Day? Best gift I could have asked for!

[@Metlhd313]

I'm a huge fan of TV Obscura, great to discover obscurities and facts about them, cant wait for the next one.

[@meltdownremix1996]

A real treat to see this on my subscriptions immediately after ending a 9 hour work shift, I hope you have good holidays where you are

[@AJ-xc4qe]

Seymour Hicks sounds like it’s one letter away from being a Bart Simpson phone prank.

[@Supermatt4818]

I skipped past TV Obscura episodes, but this was really good and makes me want to go back and watch the first two.

[@ninashewchuk8976]

As a Canadian I've made it my personal mission to introduce as many non-Canadians to A Cosmic Christmas as I can. My grade 2 teacher showed it to my class and something about it just wormed its way into my brain and has stayed there almost 30 years later. It's one of the first Christmas specials I watch every year, and I'm glad it's gradually getting a bit more recognition south of the border. Vera from Council of Geeks included it in an obscure Christmas list of her own last year.

[@christopherb501]

I first learned of it from Chad Rocco.

[@aestroai8012]

Happy Christmas Pop Arena! You've given me more goodies to look up!

[@radd1865]

Happy christmas, Gregiffer. As always, love a TV Obscura.

[@disbez]

I think as we grow older we can all relate to the New England Christmas. Visiting your old hometown, driving through the streets and rekindling memories of places and people that may not exist anymore. I’m surprised that someone made a special out of it though, I can appreciate what they made but I can’t imagine many TV viewers were interested in one man’s nostalgic journey.

[@thomasstone3480]

yeah i don't know if i can relate to to that hairpiece he's sporting though

[@Undrave]

A lot of the testinmonies felt like something I'd hear in a museum exhibit.

[@wraithgames]

As an ExMo, I feel like I was just punched in a long-unused part of my brain seeing Mr. Krueger's Christmas up there :D

[@BaWitda]

When I was a kid, my favorite holiday special was Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Which happened to be the one that started the trend of animated Christmas specials.

[@Undrave]

The Christmas Raccoon! From back before they decided the Raccoons would be people :p the one where they play against Cyril Sneer's hockey team is another one of those. Cyril Sneer has a GREAT arc throughout the actual TV show, one of the best villain-to-anti-hero journey ever. Another fun forgotten Canadian Christmas special is 'The True Meaning of Crumbfest'. It was popular enough to lead to a TV show starring its main protagonist, Eckhart the mouse. It has a rare Prince-Edward Island setting. A winter themed special I really love is the stop motion animated 'The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship', by Cosgrove-Hall in 1990! It's really pretty.

[@avremirine8986]

I'm happy you brought up A Cosmic Christmas. Ever since CR's first Forgotten Animated Christmas Specials video I've been a fan of it.

[@darktetsuya]

wow glad this one made it up on christmas! I gotta say 'a cosmic christmas' sounded like the most interesting of the bunch, although that last one defintely oozes of sentimental nostaglia. (and speaking of ooze, had to laugh at the 'emmett otter's jugband christmas to the tune of the TMNT theme' too funny! another great episode.

[@thomasstone3480]

calling roger miller a 'novelty legend' feels like a brutal case of damnation with faint praise lol

[@aronpol1]

For that one voice we hear in A Cosmic Christmas, all I kept thinking was "it was him!"

[@roristevens2810]

A Cosmic Christmas has just received a RiffTrax too!

[@mightyfilm]

I used to have A Cosmic Christmas on VHS. It was a VERY low quality tape, public domain cartoon quality, and it wasn't even the headlining cartoon. It was something about an angel that wasn't too interesting and I'd always fast forward past or just tolerate for the 6 minutes it was on. But what an underrated indie animated should be classic. You can just see the basis of the studio's animation in the special. You can tell there's that soon to be Rock N' Rule style. Only thing that's for sure missing for a Nelvana cartoon is that they didn't develop their signature sound effect yet. What I call the "stretched piano wire gritting teeth" effect. If you've seen Eek! The Cat, Dog City, or Beetlejuice you know the sound I'm referring to. It's a shame that Nelvana never released a compilation of older indie animations on DVD.

[@ninashewchuk8976]

The Devil and Daniel Mouse and Easter Fever are two other early Nelvana short films that definitely exemplify that kinda grimy-in-a-good-way, vaguely adult animation style the studio would carry over into Rock and Rule.

[@DKrules9]

I think I’ve seen that Snow Queen movie in the mid 90’s at my uncle’s house. Since he lived in a neighboring city his cable channels were different than mine and he had channels I wouldn’t be able to watch at home. Segments in the special I can vaguely remember and it caught my attention.

[@edatthegovernance]

G: (mentions A Cosmic Christmas) Me, a Saskatchewan boy at just past 40: You... quote the old texts... better than some born here...

[@KaseyWynne]

oooh, a new tv obscura. Neat! Also, looking forward to the route 66 vid. The cosmic christmas special's animation kind of reminds me of Spartakus.

[@tecpaocelotl]

Snow queen, I swear I saw it on pbs.

[@vgtrp]

There’s no wrong way to celebrate Christmas, unless you hurt someone, so if people want to open presents on Christmas Eve, I don’t see the problem. Also, I”m sure that Big Bird special will pop up somewhere at some point, after all stranger things have happened.

[@willmistretta]

Cosmic Christmas is a staple for me every December 24th, and I'm not even Canadian. I just happened on it one year in a KZbin search for old holiday specials. Right up there with Ziggy's Gift, A Wish For Wings That Work, and Wil Vinton's Claymation Christmas for me.

[@roristevens2810]

The BBC Snow Queen seems to have been part of a run of blue-screened fairy tale adaptations, though I think their adaptation of George MacDonald's The Light Princess is the best known (Playhouse Video, the CBS/FOX subsidiary, released a VHS of that in the '80s in North America).

[@cantrip7]

Cosmic Christmas I watch every single year. People love that one whenever I show it off-it's this wonderful combination of sentimental and eerie. I was so sad that Troll special stunk when I watched it last year vetting xmas specials for a watch party. I need to get to that snow queen adaptation. My preferred as a kid is the so-so British cartoon movie musical. It's not great as a whole but it's got so many bits that really burrow into your brain as a kid, like the thieves becoming these gnarly looking rats, with the main guy having this wonderfully horrid, bratty voice.

[@Undrave]

You could try the Christmas Raccoons then :p or their hockey themed special that followed not long after. 'The Raccoons and the Lost Star' despite the name isn't about the Star of Christmas or something like that, it is MUCH wilder so still worth watching despite the lack of seasonality.

[@MadWritter]

Merry Christmas, P.A.

[@47Cartoonguy]

I remember watching a Cosmic Christmas in 4th grade

[@EmperorSeth]

The Snow Queen's a bit of a wild fairy tale already, but it's really hard to think about as an unbiased source of media after knowing Frozen was originally a faithful retelling of it that veered wildly from it, and especially after reading the completely bizarre webcomic based on it that adds demons, cyborgs, and an apocalyptic shonen anime-style final battle to it.

[@animefan25]

I remember The Trolls and the Christmas Express. I haven't watched before, but i recall the HBO promo for it.

[@DaemonCorps]

I vaguely remember my kindergarten class being dragged to the principal's office to watch that Mr. Kreuger special on the principal's exorbitantly big cube TV. I guess my Catholic school was fine playing it even though it’s a Mormon production 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@meghanlands2247]

If you like Cosmic Christmas you really gotta check out Nelvana's Easter special from 1980, Easter Fever. I was crazy about it as a kid. It's floating around on KZbin last I checked.

[@loganmackenzie5294]

If you want a Christmas special by the bbc (that isn’t any of the doctor who special) then you should watch the box of delights. A six episode tv show from the 80s that about a boy called Kay Harker who meets a mysterious puppeteer who gifts him a very strange box witch gives him different abilities But Kay must keep it away from people who want the box for their own gain. It’s great but be warned its 1980s bbc so expect some doggy effects some more better than others. Also the puppeteer is played by Patrick troutton.

[@christopherb501]

7:55 Always appreciated.

[@tylerferguson3193]

Hope you had a good day

[@Furore2323]

Merry Christmas, Greggifer.

[@marcomacias3960]

the Cosmic Christmas animation look as if its made by Ralph Bakshi

[@MSP10julia]

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2025

[@Karmy.]

31:29 I have a channel where I've uploaded some obscure music that isn't anywhere online because I absolutely am a believer of everything needs to be available online

[@bendonatier]

The whole "we're Christin to" sentiment among Mormons has always bothered me, because it's such a tempting line of thought. After all Christianity is famously a very fragmented religion, one that has Eastern Orthadox, Catholic, and the mess that is all the different sects of Protestant. That said the Nicene Creed is also kind of a big deal, and if you can get all sects across the span of what is traditionally considered Christian to agree to it, forsaking it should get you kicked out of the label of "Christian" and stick you back under the umbrella of "Abrahamic".