A Charlie Brown Christmas vs. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

This child of the '80s is all about this three-year run:

1986: The Christmas Toy
1987: A Muppet Family Christmas + A Claymation Christmas + A Garfield Christmas
1988: Christmas at Pee-wee's Playhouse

Technically, I guess this run was extended in 1989 with the first Simpsons episode, which was a Xmas one-off

This is definitely a generational thing. As a child of the 70s, I look at that list and have absolutely no interest in watching any of those.

Ditto me and anything connected with Rankin-Bass

Whereas those, and especially Rudolph, are beloved and inextricably linked with Christmas for me.

the message ends up being that the meaning of Christmas is dependent on which consumer products you buy, the "right" or "wrong" kinds of decorations

This is exactly the opposite of what I took from it.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 21 December 2023 4:55 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah this is not at all what the movie is saying, explicitly or implicitly.

Charlie Brown Christmas so great for being heartfelt without being overtly sentimental. It treats these cartoon kids with respect, making these cartoon people far more real than most other depictions of children or adults in christmas media. And there’s so much silence in it! I think the silence is really what makes it unpalatable to a more modern audience.

Some absolutely killer line reads in it too. I use Sally Brown’s “all i want is what’s coming to me all i want is my fair share” line a lot. And yeah Linus soliloquy on point

TENS AND TWENTIES?!?!?!?!?!?!

I did an informal poll of this among my coworkers last night and it was 6-3 Grinch.

Little Drummer Boy is obviously the best one, followed by Charlie Brown Christmas

Little Drummer Boy is profound, especially because I associate it with my two-year-old brother playing an oatmeal canister "drum" in the church pageant.

xxxp i love the quiet tone of the charlie brown special, but i never liked that the essential conflict is between buying the "authentic" tree vs the "commercial" tree, its a false choice! grinch is the true revolutionary, charlie brown is a mouthpiece of the oppressor

Grinch steals all basic resources from his constituents and then trumpets his returning to them what they already owned, getting the head seat at the table in the bargain

Tbf they drove him to it by ignoring basic noise ordinances with their raucous celebrations. Law and order needed to be restored.

as much as I like both of these, I too am a child of the late 70s/early 80s and therefore believe Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas is the superior Christmas special

A mediated settlement would have been preferable to large-scale burglary.

Mostly a child of the '80s, but this late '70s entry (Looney Christmas Tales) got rerun a few times in my era:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8plg4s

people voting grinch on this are deranged

My sister makes everyone watch Emmet Otter on Christmas Eve. Got me a River Bottom Nightmare Band tshirt for Xmas a few years back.

The Charlie Brown Christmas Special (like a lot of Peanuts) is so central to my core of being Ivethought about getting a tattoo of the christmas “tree” with “Christmas Tree Hugger” written around it in Schultz’s script font.

watching muppet christmas carol recently made me realize i prefer christmas fare that doesn’t have anything to do with jesus (sorry jesus, i do watch jesus christ superstar every easter to make up for it) so grinch >>>>

we did muppet christmas carol last night. generally speaking yes I agree with you but I charlie brown is my exception.

the more recent muppets holiday special(s? I think there were two more) really suck!

watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special from 1992 last night, and it's quite bad! the only good ones are those that look like Paul Klee paintings and have almost no discernable plot

yeah that 92 one is terrible.

i don't think anyone has done an adequate new christmas special in many years. nothing that lasts and feels iconic. (I'm talking TV specials, not movies, though there aren't that many of those either; Elf and Bad Santa are the last great ones. There have been a succession of made-for-streaming ones in recent years and they all fucking suck. I haven't seen Klaus yet though).

Dashing Through the Snow wasn't bad

thanks I'll check that out! my wife loves watching christmas movies and we burn through a million terrible ones every year. WE did Four Christmases last night (reese witherspoon and vince vaughn..this movie is from 2008 and somehow looks like it's from 1995), the first 1/3 of which is legitimately funny and the rest is a chore. I'll take what I can get at this point.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is canon.

The style and tone of that promo is a million miles from how it's done today.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, December 19, 2023 1:19 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Trying to imagine a contemporary film trailer—let alone one designed for children—using the word “impudent”

I think it's used in the trailer for Asteroid City

The anticonsumerist pose of Charlie Brown is fraudulent - the message ends up being that the meaning of Christmas is dependent on which consumer products you buy, the "right" or "wrong" kinds of decorations.

good grief