I’ve written about Christmas specials before, but thought it’d be worth presenting a list of 10 of my favorite animated Christmas TV specials.
I’ve chosen at least one special from each decade between the 1960s and the 2020s. Again, I didn’t want this list to just be “stuff I liked when I was 12,” even if Christmas favorites tend to be particularly nostalgia-driven. I also admit the list isn’t the most diverse, given the nature of older Christmas specials; thus, why I threw in a few TV shows’ Christmas episodes to make up for such (see here and here for more examples).
Streaming and DVD/Blu-ray info is as of this writing (December 2024), and can change anytime given streaming’s mercurial nature.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
“Rudolph” is of the most popular holiday specials of all time, and influenced many holiday specials and movies for decades. See: the design of the elves’ clothes in the movie “Elf.” My favorite part: the “Island of Misfit Toys” scene and song number.
On video: “Rudolph” is available on numerous DVD and Blu-ray releases, but isn’t on streaming.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
The original “Peanuts” special is also the best one (or at least tied with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”). It’s also a mainstream special that acknowledges the religious portion of the holiday, versus being purely secular.
On video: “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is available to watch on Apple TV+ or DVD/Blu-ray.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Along with “Rudolph” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “Grinch” rounds out the top three biggest animated Christmas specials of all time. The Grinch also saw a few remakes (that live-action Jim Carrey film, and the Illumination-animated feature film), but it’s the original half-hour TV special that’s the best one.
On video: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” can be seen on Peacock, as well as on DVD/Blu-ray.
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970)
Rankin-Bass’ origin story for Kris Kringle himself, including why he’s called “Kris Kringle.” Some elements are taken from the L. Frank Baum book “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus,” though Rankin-Bass would make a direct adaptation of that story in the 80s.
On video: “Santa Claus” can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. It’s also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
An adventure centering around Mrs. Claus trying to rouse Santa out of his depressive state and resume delivering toys. Noted mainly for the best part: the dueling weather demigods Snow Miser and Heat Miser (and their classic song).
On video: “Year” isn’t available on streaming, but can be seen on DVD and Blu-ray.
A Garfield Christmas (1987)
Garfield, Jon, and Odie visit Jon’s family at the farm for the holidays. Nice music, plus a nice scene with Jon’s grandmother reminiscing about her late husband.
On video: “A Garfield Christmas” can be seen on Peacock, as well as a few DVD releases. It’s also available to stream for free on the official Garfield YouTube channel.
A Flintstone Christmas Carol (1994)
One of the multiple Flintstone Christmas specials (despite being set in the Stone Age), this one sees the gang put on a community theater production of ‘A Christmas Carol,” with Fred playing Scrooge. An adult version of Philo Quartz (the Black kid genius from 80s spin-off “The Flintstone Kids”) appears as a police officer (which was his dad’s job on “Flintstone Kids”).
On video: “A Flintstone Christmas Carol” isn’t available on streaming, but is available on DVD.
The Powerpuff Girls: Twas the Fight Before Christmas (2003)
This “Powerpuff Girls” Christmas special sees Princess switch Santa’s “naughty” and “nice” lists, creating global chaos the girls must resolve before Christmas morning arrives.
On video: “Fight Before Christmas” can be seen on Netflix, as well as the original series’ DVD set.
It’s a SpongeBob Christmas (2012)
This stop-motion animated Christmas special sees Plankton trick SpongeBob into feeding the entire town fruitcake contaminated with “jerktonium,” which turns anyone who ingests it into a jerk. (The jerktonium-influenced version of Sandy calls out SpongeBob on this.) There’s also an evil robot version of SpongeBob. Pretty hilarious special. We also get an appropriate song, “Don’t Be a Jerk (It’s Christmas).”
On video: “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas” is available on Paramount+, as well as DVD and Blu-ray.
Molly of Denali: By Sled or Snowshoe/The Shortest Birthday and Spring Carnival/Tooey’s Hole-i-day Sweater (2020)
“Molly of Denali” has had two holiday themed episodes to date, but I’ll count them as one entry for this list. “The Shortest Birthday” sees the gang celebrate Trini’s first birthday in Qyah. Said birthday also happens to fall on the Winter Solstice. In “Tooey’s Hole-i-day Sweater,” one of Tooey’s dogs tears a hole in the Christmas sweater his grandmother made, forcing Tooey and Molly to find a way to repair it.
On video: Both episodes are available to watch on the PBS Kids app. “Birthday” and “Sweater” are also available to stream for free on the YouTube page for Canada’s CBC network.
Honorable mentions:
- Frosty the Snowman (1969)
- Yogi’s First Christmas (1980)
- Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
- “Rocko’s Modern Life”: “Rocko’s Modern Christmas” (1994)
- A Scooby-Doo Christmas (2002)
- “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron”: “Holly Jolly Jimmy” (2003)
- Bah, Humduck!: A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006)
- Prep & Landing (2009) and Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011)
Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay
