My three favorite animated Christmas specials are — in no particular order — Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Chuck Jones version, natch) and A Charlie Brown Christmas. They're in no particular order because I don't have a favorite among them. Each year, I try to peek in on all of them.
It's not a necessity. Christmas is still Christmas without any or all of them but I like to re-watch them from time to time and this time of year seems like the appropriate time. My fondness for them probably has as much to do with when I first saw them as it does with their actual content. I know I watched each one the first time it ever ran on network television and many years thereafter.
This year, I see a lot of folks online complaining that they were hard to find on TV. They weren't on CBS, NBC or ABC. One or two were on Peacock, one or two were on Apple TV, one or two were on TBS, one or two were on Amazon Prime and I think Charlie Brown was also on some PBS stations. You had to look around but if you did, they weren't hard to find. So here's what I don't get…
If they're that important to you, why don't you own them? I have DVDs of all three. Why don't you?
They aren't expensive. Right this minute, a DVD of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol is $7.99 and a Blu-ray is $19.39. A DVD of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is $13.99 and a Blu-ray is $8.99. And a DVD of A Charlie Brown Christmas is $12.81 and a Blu-ray is $11.99. So you can pick them all up on DVD for $35 or on Blu-ray for a bit over $40. You can probably find them for less without using my Amazon links…and more power to you if you can. I can live without the commissions.
Now, you might be saying, "Why should I pay that much when I can stream them for a couple of bucks or occasionally watch them for free?" Easy answer: So you have them. I'm assuming you still have a DVD player or a Blu-ray machine. You probably have lots of movies you love on discs that play on them. Just because streaming is the future doesn't mean it has to be your future.
I mean, streaming's great when you want to watch something once and be done with it but you have things you want to watch again and again…films that are precious to you the way certain books are precious to you. Why not own them? This way, you'll never be at the mercy of what network is streaming what and how much they're charging and whether you need to sign up for an eleventh new service you won't watch very often to see something you want to see again.
Owning things. It could catch on big some day. Why not consider it?