One of the most fun parts of the holidays is revisiting Christmas specials and movies that have proven to be classic films that you and the ones you love enjoy watching each and every year. Nothing helps get a family in the Christmas spirit like beloved holiday movies. From funny and jolly to heartfelt and serious, there is something for anyone’s taste in Christmas specials.
We wanted to round up the best holiday films that tell stories of hope, family, charity, and even disaster that spread cheer and joy. Take a look at these Christmas movies that you can buy and keep in your family’s own holiday collection!
Released in 2016, The Snow Day is an animated retelling of the beloved picture book of the same name by Ezra Jack Keats. The slice-of-life story gets a Christmas makeover in this short from Amazon. Fans of Boyz II Men will be delighted!
Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special (Streaming on Apple TV+)
The Queen of Christmas herself is the star of this robustly charming Christmas special released in 2020. Mariah Carey is the star of the show but you will also be treated to cameos from the likes of Snoop Dogg and Ariana Grande. If you’re looking for something lighthearted, funny, and sweet give this Christmas special a try.
A true classic that has been delighting children since 1968, The Little Drummer Boy is a Christmas special worth handing down to the next generation. It’s the tale of a young orphaned boy who loves to play his drums for his four-legged friends. A chance encounter with the Three Wise Men changes his life forever.
Give Netflix’s A Christmas Prince a whirl for a surprisingly delightful Christmas rom-com. This paint-by-numbers film is cheesy and light and at times laughably cliche. But, it does not take itself too seriously which is part of the reason it is so successful.
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (Streaming on Amazon Prime)
A poor otter family risks everything for the chance to win the cash prize of a talent contest for Christmas. These bluegrass-loving furry creatures first delighted audiences in 1977. It has that Jim Henson touch of magic that makes it so appealing.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Streaming on Apple TV+)
This timeless and beloved Christmas special is the best-known Peanuts cartoon and has been a hit with audiences since 1965. Charlie Brown struggles to find the real meaning of Christmas in this spirited, animated film. Also, don’t forget how amazing the music in this one is. It’s reason enough to give it a watch.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Streaming on Peacock)
One of the most cherished Christmas specials ever, How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been wowing audiences since 1966. It tells the tale of how The Grinch concocts a plan to steal Christmas from the citizens of Whoville. Eventually, he has a change of heart (a growing of heart?) and is invited to join the fun. It doesn’t get any better than this.
One of the oldest Christmas specials on this list was released in 1945, Christmas in Connecticut tells the story of a food writer who has fibbed about being the ideal housewife and must try to cover her untruthfulness when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas. Somehow this hilarious movie will make you chuckle as hard today as it did decades ago!
The Muppet characters you know and love tell their version of the classic tale of an old and bitter miser’s redemption on Christmas Eve. For those of us who grew up watching this after its release in 1992, it’s a tradition to watch this Christmas special each year.
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (Streaming on HBO Max)
If you’re in the mood for a screwball comedy complete with slapstick humor, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is the Christmas special for you. It tells the story of the Griswald family’s disastrous holiday season. Chances are someone in your family can quote this movie word for word. It’s a gem!
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Streaming on Disney+)
Halloween and Christmas collide in The Nightmare Before Christmas. The stop-motion animated movie follows Jack Skellington who discovers the delights of Christmas and tries to bring them to his Halloween Town. This confuses and confounds the residents who do their best to play their parts. Beautiful imagery and fantastic music make this one a must-watch Christmas special each year.
The movie musical that forever changed the sound of Christmas, White Christmas stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. The characters come together to put on a production to save a failing inn in Vermont. This is one of the classic Christmas movies that never gets old with music that’s equally iconic.
One of the most offbeat Christmas specials that has become a certified classic is 1984’s supernatural thriller, Gremlins. In the movie, a young man breaks three of the rules of caring for his new, exotic pet only to unleash a horde of mischievous monsters. If you like your Christmas movies with a dark side, consider watching this thriller.
Yes, Miracle on 34th St is almost 75 years old, but this holiday classic has real staying power. The film follows a divorced mom who hires a Santa to work at Macy’s. She believes she is hiring an actor but when the man claims he’s the real deal, things get shaken up. It’s one of the most beloved Christmas movies of all time for a reason! If you prefer the 1994 remake of this one, it’s also streaming on Disney+.
One of the best Christmas specials that is laugh-out-loud funny for all ages is the hysterical, Elf. Will Ferrell plays an infectious human elf who travels from the North Pole to meet his biological father. In desperate need of the Christmas spirit, he embarks on an adventure of a lifetime.
There you go! We hope you found some streaming Christmas specials to enjoy this holiday season. If you would like even more Christmas special content, read the wild story of how Bing Crosby and David Bowie came together for their famous Christmas collaboration.
In 1977, “The Little Drummer Boy” was a traditional Christmas carol performed and recorded by countless musicians. Despite its popularity, the song’s structure and sound went largely unchanged until Bing Crosby‘s Merrie Olde Christmas and David Bowie came along. The pair took the song to new heights by incorporating another dusty Christmas song, “Peace On Earth,” that resulted in a carol that sounded both traditional and new at the same time. “The Little Drummer Boy” would never be the same again!
We’ve all heard this charming Christmas carol but what most do not know is the behind-the-scenes account of how the song came to be. Thankfully, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) has unearthed details about how the song’s creation, and they are actually rather shocking. From Bowie showing up to meet Crosby in full makeup to Crosby’s untimely death following the recording of “The Little Drummer Boy,” you are going to want to learn all about the history of this beloved carol.
See the Clip from Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas Below:
Above, you will find the clip from Crosby’s aforementioned Christmas special that found a truly unlikely pair performing “The Little Drummer Boy” together. The scripted story from the special is that Crosby is invited by a long-lost relative to spend Christmas in England. His relative’s neighbor happens to be David Bowie, who enjoys popping in to play the piano. They make small talk about music and then sing their duet.
There’s Much More To the Song and Its Lasting Legacy
After watching the warm, inviting, and charming duet from 1977, you might be wondering how the song came together. It has definitely lived on as one of the most beloved Christmas carols and there is no denying its lasting legacy.
Let’s rewind to 1941 when the song was first composed. It was originally called “Carol of the Drum” and it was written by an American educator named Katherine Kennicott Davis. According to CBC, the song was actually based on an unidentified Czech Christmas carol that was intended to be performed by a choir.
The Trapp Family Singers put their spin on the song and in 1951 they recorded the carol and pa-rump-pa-pum-pummed all the way into the pop culture Christmas canon. The rest is history or is it?
Bowie Got Involved with the Project as a Way to ‘Normalize’ His Public Image
Bowie had cultivated a glam rock “Space Oddity” persona that had made him one of the most enigmatic and fascinating performers to watch in the late 1960s through the early 1970s. Despite his offbeat antics that made him visually iconic, he was looking for a change and Bowie insiders believe that’s why he agreed to perform with Cosby for the Christmas duet.
David Buckley in Strange Fascination — David Bowie: the Definitive Story, claims that Bowie was “actively trying to normalize” his career. But in his McSweeney’s essay, cited by CBC, Golden Years and Young Americans: Bing Meets Bowie, Scott D. Elingburg expands on why Bowie needed to rescue his reputation, writing:
“Fresh off a debilitating drug addiction and accusations of Nazi sympathizing, David Bowie was ready to capitalize on the non-chart success of his latest record, Low, by appearing on Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. On paper, it made sense to no one. But when these two icons met to record a television segment, it made even less sense. It must have been quite chilly on that mocked English castle set; warmer performances occur at Apple board meetings.”
Bowie Deeply Disliked ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ Christmas Carol
According to Annie Zaleski, writing for UltimateClassicRock.com, Bowie walked into the taping and asked if there was something else he could sing:
“Ian Fraser, who co-wrote the ‘Peace on Earth’ portion, told The Washington Post in 2006. ‘We didn’t know quite what to do.’ Instead of panicking, he and two other men working on the special — Buz Kohan and Larry Grossman — hunkered down at a piano in the studio basement and spent 75 minutes working up the tune. Ever professionals, Bowie and Crosby perfected the new song in less than an hour.”
It Was Not Love at First Sight for Bowie and Crosby
Crosby’s children, Nathaniel and Mary, recounted the first meeting between Bowie and their father for Billboard in 2014. Mary Crosby remembered Bowie arriving on set, saying, “The doors opened and David walked in with his wife. They were both wearing full-length mink coats, they have matching full makeup and their hair was bright red,” she told the summer TV critics’ tour. “We were thinking, ‘Oh my god.'”
Nathaniel Crosby added, “It almost didn’t happen. I think the producers told him to take the lipstick off and take the earring out. It was just incredible to see the contrast.”
Watching in the wings, the Crosby kids noticed a positive transformation between the pair.
“They sat at the piano and David was a little nervous,” Mary remembered. “Dad realized David was this amazing musician, and David realized Dad was an amazing musician. You could see them both collectively relax and then magic was made.”
Just Weeks After Recording with Bowie, Crosby Died
Five weeks after recording with Bowie, Crosby died of a massive heart attack after spending the day playing golf. It impacted the release of the Christmas special as the Christmas special aired posthumously in the US at the end of November, and on Christmas Eve in England, CBC notes.
Music journalist John Tobler mentioned Crosby’s death in a conversation with Bowie for ZigZag in January 1978. The line of questioning is unconventional, but it also leads to Bowie’s admission that he was working with an unrecorded American band called Devo…
Tobler:I’m glad to hear that. You did do a Bing Crosby TV show, didn’t you?
Bowie: Yes, I did.
Tobler: Which could be very interesting to see… Do you have any plans to work with anybody else, like the Astronettes or anybody?
Bowie: No, there’s one band that I can mention. I like them very much indeed. They’re an unrecorded band in America called Devo. I’ve been listening to them for a long time since they sent me their tapes and I hope if I have the time at the end of this year to record them. It’s sort of like three Enos and a couple of Edgar Froeses in one band. Most peculiar. That’s very nut-shelling of what they’re like.
Bowie Revealed That the Duet Was ‘His Most Bizarre Experience’
Bowie opened up about his duet with Crosby in an interview with Q’s David Quantick in October 1999:
Quantick: What’s it like being the only person ever to work with both Lou Reed and Lulu?
Bowie: Now I am not sure if that’s — opprobrium, or if it’s my apotheosis. I like it. I believe… I’m not sure, but I believe that working with Bing (Crosby, on the unnatural “Little Drummer Boy”) led to Bono working with Frank (Sinatra). I set a precedent there… I think the thing with Bing is the most ludicrous… it’s wonderful to watch. We were so totally out of touch with each other.
Quantick: Can you remember what you were thinking when you did it?
Bowie: Yes. I was wondering if he was still alive. He was just… not there. He was not there at all. He had the words in front of him. (Deep Bing voice) “Hi, Dave, nice to see ya here…” And he looked like a little old orange sitting on a stool. ‘Cos he’d been made up very heavily and his skin was a bit pitted, and there was just nobody home at all, you know? It was the most bizarre experience. I didn’t know anything about him. I just knew my mother liked him. Maybe I would have known (sings) “When the mooooon…” No… (hums) “Da da da, da da da, someone waits for me…” That’s about the only song of his I would have actually known.
Quantick: What about ‘White Christmas?’
Bowie: Oh yeah, of course. I forgot about that. (Kenneth Williams voice) That was his big one, wasn’t it?
The Superstars Behind the Scenes
Shutterstock
The Christmas special’s producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, were powerhouses behind the camera. According to CBC, the pair produced countless award-winning television programs and specials before Crosby’s Christmas special and would go on to produce countless more.
By 1977 though, their successes included taped concerts for Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, as well as Elvis Presley‘s final special, Elvis in Concert.
Bowie Was Sought for the Duet Because of Demographics
In an interview with Billboard in 1978, the two producers admitted that the pairing of Crosby and Bowie was more about looking for demographics than anything else, as was the decision to randomly inject Bowie’s solo performance of his new single, “Heroes,” CBC notes.
“Most people, I’m afraid, felt it really stuck out,” Smith explained to Billboard. “All of a sudden David Bowie’s number in the middle of this Christmas show. But you don’t book somebody for what they do and then not let them do what they do. You can’t manipulate talent that much.”
We Have MTV to Thank for Making ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ Duet Such a Massive Hit
MTV.com
CBC cites Roger Catlin writing for Songfacts.com about the song’s rise on MTV:
“When MTV launched in 1981, without a wealth of seasonal material come Christmastime, it started playing the duet, leading RCA to issue an official release in 1982 with the arbitrary B-side of “Fantastic Voyage” from The Lodger album. Bowie was annoyed with that move, according to Nicholas Pegg’s 2000 The Complete David Bowie, contributing to his departure from the label soon after. Still, it was a high-charting single for Bowie in the post-Scary Monsters era, reaching No. 3 on both U.K. and German charts (his Let’s Dance juggernaut for EMI would start three months later). And of course, it’s been a seasonal pop staple ever since.“
After the taping, Crosby applauded Bowie as a “clean-cut kid.” RebeatMag.com describes Crosby as speaking highly of Bowie, calling him a “clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice, and reads lines well.”
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly paid tribute to Crosby and Bowie’s duet in a dazzlingly faithful Funny or Die video in 2010. If you think about it, the original recording is rather odd, and Ferrell and Reilly reproducing the performance shot-for-shot really highlights how uncanny the whole thing is. Oh, and it’s hilarious!
If you have somehow missed the special that spawned the song, you can give it a watch above. It really is an enthralling and enchanting artifact of pop culture. We hope that what you learned about what went into the duet will inform how you see Crosby and Bowie’s performance together. What a wild ride!
Andrew is an Assistant Editor for Mamas Uncut with over ten years of experience as a writer in the creative, marketing, and blogging spaces. After studying Film and Art History, he developed a passion for telling stories in a variety of mediums. Obsessively making lists, reporting celebrity news, and diving into emerging pop cultural topics are a few of his interests.
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