Do They Know It’s Christmas?
I’m a big fan of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, even if I agree that the lyrics get a little boneheaded and would never fly today.
The 1984 charity single featured everyone from Bono to Boy George, and while I obviously must’ve heard it as a kid, I didn’t pay any music much mind until I was in high school. The song was more a part of my older siblings’ generation, and through talking to them I’ve learned that it was even more divisive in its heyday.
Whatever. I’m a sucker for any supergroup charity song, and the fact that this one is all synthy and Christmassy makes it doubly great. Here’s a “Making Of” special that was released on video back in ’84:
Enjoy!
The Star Wars Holiday Special!
If you’ve never seen The Star Wars Holiday Special, yes, its infamy is deserved. The 1978 TV special was an absolute fiasco in so many ways, but if all you’ve ever heard is BAD BAD BAD, know that it does have some highlights. Sorry, but you’re never gonna convince me that Bea Arthur singing in the Mos Eisley Cantina was a bad idea.
The truth is that there was a serviceable-if-cheesy special hiding in there, but the thing is just so long and so full of meandering bits that it’s hard to see anything but the… well, the BAD BAD BAD.
I wasn’t alive when the special aired, and never even heard of the thing until I had AOL almost two decades later. Homebrew VHS copies were commonly traded on ancient action figure newsgroups, and when I finally got mine, just seeing any “new” Star Wars footage blew my mind.
I won’t tell you not to make fun of it, because I guess making fun of it is part of the fun. But if you’re even a minor Star Wars fan, you really gotta see it once. It’s… it’s something.
The Smurfs Christmas Special!
The Smurfs Christmas Special is an old favorite of mine:
The special debuted back in ’82, and eventually found a second life on cable channels, with Cartoon Network in particular treating it with great reverence even decades after its premiere.
Weird note: The special has some surprisingly vicious moments!
The Snow Creature!
I’ve been feeding you guys a lot of cheesy cartoons lately, so I thought we’d dip back into horror to mix things up.
Here’s The Snow Creature, because abominable snowmen are so much better during Christmastime:
It’s from 1954, and boy does it ever look like it’s from 1954.
