Thank you for joining us this year for our “Winter Wishes” Gift Guide! We have some great gift ideas to share with you and some awesome prizes to give away! Make sure to check back often because this event will run through the New Year! Looking for gift ideas for a specific recipient? You can easily search for categorized gift ideas by clicking the image above and checking out our “Winter Wishes” page.
The Christmas Classics have been a part of families traditions since December 6th, 1964 when Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer aired as a television special on NBC. It had been telecast every year since it’s debut and is the longest running Christmas TV special, although now it is aired multiple times during the Holiday Season.
I first saw Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer when I was a little girl at my grandmother’s house. She has a recorded VHS tape of the actual original debut. It’s pretty fascinating! We watched it every year, huddled on a hand woven afghan my great, great grandmother made next to my Grandmother who would rock slowly in her beat in lazy boy. It was a special time, to watch Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer at Grandma’s was the beginning of the season for us. No matter where we were growing up we would always stop on the day Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer aired for the first time that season and watch it as a family, later I would take this tradition with my own family as many of you have.
Four years later, on December 7th, 1969 CBS would air Frosty the Snowman, created by the same company that had made Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, and it has aired on CBS every year since.
Frosty the Snowman is my youngest son’s absolute favorite movie. Last year, when he had just turned 2, he had picked up on us watching it on television. All he wanted since then was Frosty so we purchased a DVD and had many Frosty characters around the house. He watched it so much that the DVD actually burned out and whenever he wanted to watch Frosty from that point on we’d play the musical video on Youtube. When I was given the chance to review The Christmas Classics on Blu-ray I knew Judah would be enthralled and he was. In his words, “Frosty come back!” Anytime that was T.V. time was Frosty’s time and we still count all the Frosty’s when we go shopping.
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was another stop motion television special created by Rankin-Bass in 1970, the same creators of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. The only difference with Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was that it was made from all wood and plastic and animated one frame at a time, an amazing feat! Because of it’s length and the desire of more commercials it is generally dropped from being aired or cut for more room, so it’s wonderful to have a restored Blu-ray version of this incredible movie centered around the birth of Santa Claus.
Lastly there was Frosty Returns, airing on December 1st, 1992 and runs back to back with Frosty the Snowman; however was not created by the same animators as the others. Frosty Returns was actually a pretty political movie in it’s time, having elements of global warming and political stigma; although nothing any family in this age would really recognize. It is a beautifully created animation with more singing than the original Frosty, which I notice many little ones love.
The Christmas Classics have been with us for almost half a century, spanning generations of families and never once failing to put a smile on the face of hopeful children everywhere; even the child in our own hearts. I can look back and see my Grandmother’s house, but my Mother can remember the day it first aired on NBC and how magical it appeared to her then. We all have our memories of the Holidays, most of us with memories of these movies, and there is nothing more magical than sharing them with our children so that they may one day share their own with theirs.
Make sure to have your Classics at hand and ready for the coming season, Thanksgiving is right around the corner which means it is only weeks away before the anniversary of the first airing of these amazing animated movies. I plan to have cocoa and egg nog spiced with cinnamon and sweets and although we’ve already watched Frosty the Snowman roughly 47 times since we received these, we will all snuggle up together on the couch and watch the magic of Christmas come alive again.
Gift It: You can purchase The Original Christmas Classics Blu-ray Box Set for $30.99 on Amazon.
The second Youtube Video is not mine and is not the Blu-ray version of this classic. I had shared it from a Youtube Channel that specializes in oldtime favorites.
