Last night we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special, and I reflected back for a bit on how much things have changed since the times when I used to watch that as a kid. Not just the fact that it’s one of the few overtly religious kids Christmas specials out there, but how back in the day, you had very little in the way of options when it came to Christmas on television.
Christmas specials came on once. If you missed it, it was gone until next year, when they’d come on again. And even then, the options you had for Christmas specials were very limited. There was Charlie Brown, the claymation Rudolph (and a few related to it), Frosty, and then at some point Garfield got a special, and . . . that was it. Catching one of those on television felt like a real accomplishment. I used to actually plan ahead to make sure I saw what I wanted to watch.
These days? Everything’s on demand, and there are soooooo many different options out there. Practically every franchise in existence has come out with a Christmas episode or short or something. In fact, it feels like these days, it’s more a practice of looking to see what’s new to watch instead of revisiting something you’ve seen before.
On the one hand, yay for options. On the other hand, with so many different choices and ways to watch, things definitely feel much less special when it comes to Christmas specials. And with such a wider range of things people can watch, the chances to connect with others over what you’ve watched seem less as well. Specials really tapped into the cultural Zeitgeist, and I don’t know if that happens anymore.
Anyway. Those are my thoughts at the moment. What are you favorite Christmas specials? Do you still watch them?