Time for Christmas TV

Within the next couple of weeks, we will all get tuned up for Christmas(yes, I said it). Along with the normal festivities of this time of year, come the annual Christmas specials on television. You know the ones that I am talking about. The classic stop animation series from the 1960's such as: Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and of course Frosty the Snowman and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I will probably try to gather the kids up and put them in front of the tv and re-create the excitement that I had as a kid. But with most events in our house, they will usually start fighting, and someone will end up crying. They just don't "get it" like I do because even though I am 42 years old, when those shows come on, I travel back in time to when I was 6 years old all over again.

That year would have been 1973. It was back in the day, as a youngster, when you spent 11 months out of the year dreaming about Christmas, and one month thinking that time was just standing still. Christmas would just never, ever get here.

I think about our old house on Cedar Creek, and how my mother would have called me in from playing in the front yard with friends on the street. I would have eaten dinner, taken a bath, and then sat down in front of the television in anticipation of the big event. In just a few mere moments, Santa and Rudolph were going to be right in front of me. This was excitement!

Our old tv was sitting on four wooden legs, and was probably I would imagine about 19" or less in screen size. Also, if you wanted color on the set, you would have to turn it on let it warm up for about twenty minutes. The programs would be in black and white until the "tube" warmed up, and then pop, there goes your color.
For the next twenty minutes, I would be wrapped up in all of the goings on at the North Pole.

The next day at school, the "buzz" that would have filled the classroom was about how Rudolph got away from the Abomimable Snowman or how Charlie Brown saved the Christmas pageant. I also remember that Charlie Brown was "sponsored in part by your friends at Dolly Madison."
I didn't even know what Dolly Madison was back then, but it must have worked since I remember it to this day.

These were the days before VCR's, video tapes, DVD's, etc.
There was no way to save a program. If you missed it, then you had to wait a whole year for the show to come back on. These programs were set in the calender way ahead of time. Once they advertised it on the network, plans were set in stone to work around the special show.

I remember once, that my mother and I were shopping the Galleria, and I was going to have to miss one of the Christmas specials. While we were in Joske's, we passed by the tv department. She let me sit in front of one of the sets, and watch Frosty. She even asked the salesman if that was alright. She then continued on across the store to finish up.
At that time, no one thought twice about leaving me in the store alone. I could not imagine letting one of my kids do that today, but it was ok. back then.

It's funny that these same shows that we used to watch when we were kids, are now the ones that our kids are watching. New Christmas shows come on every year, but they don't seem to have the staying power that the old classics do. I'm sorry, but I don't recall seeing shows like "The New Kids on the Block save Santa," or the "Duran Duran Holiday spectacular" showing up in my tv guide.

What is it, about these shows that keeps them on the air? I think that they are timeless. For most of us, we have very fond memories of Christmas when we were kids. Unique traditions, friends and family, cold weather, etc.
Somehow these shows, at least when I watch them, transport me back to a magical time when I was just a little boy siting Indian style on the floor, with my loyal dog Jet by my side, thinking about what that fat man in the red suit was going to bring down the chimney.