Last night my family had the misfortune to catch Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer on television. You know how this goes—it’s Sunday night, the tree is twinkling and the busy weekend is drawing to a close, and the kids ask if they can see if anything good is on TV, and you say okay… and before you know it, you’re watching a holiday special of dubious merit.

It’s happened to everyone. Right? Right. Don’t leave me all alone in this.

Anyway, I am a fool for holiday specials on television, so I have no idea how I managed to never see this one before, but it was terrible. It was so terrible it was hilarious in its terribleness, because we all know the song, right? And yet, here it is, fully animated, with Grandma actually all flattened in the snow after drinking too much eggnog. And then she just disappears! For, like, an entire year. Which isn’t funny in the slightest, except that it sort of is, because no one seems to find this overly odd, not even when Grandpa starts singing a song about how Grandma is hanging out in heaven with Elvis. I sent the kids to bed about halfway through, because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

(Seriously, I don’t know what the creators were thinking, but I suspect them of drinking too much of something much stronger than eggnog. Just sayin’.)

This got me to thinking. (That’s never good, I know.) It’s been a really long time since there was a new holiday special that I felt was a must-see. All of my favorites are movies I watched as a kid. Am I being a nostalgic snob, or are there just no specials worthy of the “classic” title being made these days?

I mean, my all-time favorite is probably the newest one of the bunch I consider necessary viewing—A Christmas Story came out in 1983. (Do not even try to argue with me about its importance to the Christmas season. I will not hear of it. It’s not Christmas until I say “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid” to one of my children.)

I know a lot of folks consider The Polar Express a “new classic,” but I disagree for two reasons. First, it was a big-screen release and is feature-length, which makes it unsuitable as a television holiday classic. Second, say what you will about the film, but you have to admit that the conductor is kind of creepy. I mean, really.

So are there any new contenders? Or should I go back to Charlie Brown and the Grinch and the Heat Miser and just be quiet?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 6:21 am and is filed under Kid Stuff, Movies, Random acts of television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.