I miss the way Christmas used to be

[CatWoman]

Last edited Sat Dec 24, 2022, 01:18 AM - Edit history (1)

the networks used to broadcast wall to wall Christmas specials

No more Charlie Brown Christmas -- unless you pay Apple.

No more classic "Scrooge" or "A Christmas Carol". They have been replaced by a very dark "FX Christmas Carol"

[3Hotdogs]

1. NYC. WPIX used to broadcast the "Christmas Yule Log." It was a loop of a fireplace without logs.

I don't know what kind of wood they used but the flames burned for hours.

[LeftInTX]

5. You can watch Nick Offerman for 10 hours!

&ab_channel=JaredAlderman

[3Hotdogs]

29. I was not into it. But my father-in-law had it on every Xmas eve. I miss the poor bugger.

-got his head fucked up during WW II. He was driving a jeep, somewhere in France. A bomb went off at the side of the road and destroyed the guy in the passenger seat. Herb was unharmed.

On the lighter side, he was a radio technician. His unit captured a German base. Inside was a LARGE transmitter and Herb really wanted it.
As they were leaving the base to continue towards Berlin, he wrote his address on the transmitter and left that morning with his unit.


Weeks later, comes a knock on his wife's door in New Jersey, "Where do you want this, Mam?" Marie was pissed.

[SYFROYH]

49. I didn't how much that was embedded in my Christmas psyche until...

...my wife found it on cable and we watched/listened.

Now there are many yule logs with various musical tastes to choose from.

[Pathwalker]

50. Currently on "Great American Family Channel" until 9pm.

I'm recording it for later. Enjoy!

[UTUSN]

2. Whatever, CW, lovya forever then/now

[CatWoman]

3. ....

[UTUSN]

6. Well, I'm sorta secular, but

[CatWoman]

7. the song i replied with is from the movie "The Odessa File"

starring Jon Voight.

That movie made him a fan of mine --but now he's gone completely crazy.

The Odessa was a secret group of Nazis who fled Germany after WW2 ended and fanned out among the world -- most notably in South America.

[UTUSN]

8. I always miss the point, but my love is eternal

[CatWoman]

10. as is mine

[cilla4progress]

4. So much "entertainment" is dark any more.

Gratuitous violence.

Who is amused seeing people terrorized in their homes??

[Peacetrain]

40. This!!!

[cilla4progress]

41. Right?

In people's darkest, most terrified moments, which we all hope none would have to go through...and it's monetized??!!

[Peacetrain]

42. We were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago

That so much is blood spilled and guts running.. I just turn it off.. and there is such a joylessness in so many media offerings..

[twodogsbarking]

9. Bad Santa. Billy Bob was great.

[Skittles]

11. the only Christmas movie I like

[twodogsbarking]

28. Halloween movies are better.

[TheBlackAdder]

12. Here ya go. Warning: A B&W movie

.

Crotchety Victorian businessman Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) has no use for festivity, even at Christmas. After resentfully allowing timid clerk Bob Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) to have the holiday to spend with his loving wife (Hermione Baddeley) and family, Scrooge is swept into a nightmare. The ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley (Michael Hordern), appears, warning that Ebenezer will be visited by three more spirits who will show the coldhearted man the error of his parsimonious behavior.

And perhaps the best parody version ever:

https://dai.ly/x5t4g30

.

[CatWoman]

13. i love that movie

the essence of Dickens.

i have to watch the classics via YouTube, etc.

[electric_blue68]

25. Oh! Ty! My favorite "A Christmas Carol". (I don't have a TV at the moment) Second fav is the Bill

Murry one. 👍

I'll save it for tommorow night Christmas Eve. 🙂👍

[TheBlackAdder]

34. Firefox with the "Enhancer for YouTube" plug-in. No more ads, ever again.

.

Watch YouTube movies without any interruptions.

.

[electric_blue68]

51. Cool. Ty.

[scipan]

54. Thank you. I was able to watch it without commercials because of your post.

[GReedDiamond]

14. You mean stuff like this? The Andy Williams Christmas Show (1966)

I haven't watched it, unless I forgot about watching it 56 years ago.

My dad was a big Andy Williams fan.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. IIRC, CBS sold the cartoons specials I loved

My favorite was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," we had all the Dr. Seuss books as kids. BTW, I was once in the play "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at school which we performed at other schools - and I played Charlie Brown! I went to an all-girls school!

[Disaffected]

16. And practically none of the traditional Christmas carols.

Just crappy, jazzed up versions if at all.

On CBC radio this morning they actually played a R&R version of Deck the Halls. The worst I've ever heard though was a Stevie Wonder (IIRC) version of Silent Night.

[CatWoman]

39. ever hear Temptations' Silent Night?

[Disaffected]

43. A whole lot better than the version I heard

but still, I much prefer the original melody and lyrics - they don't need "enhancement" in any way IMO.

I guess this may be because that's the way I remember Christmas carols as a kid and I don't get the same wonderful nostalgic feeling with the modern "interpretations". It's just a personal preference....

[CatWoman]

44. that recording is at least 30 years old, if not older

[Disaffected]

47. And I'm a lot older than that, if not older.

[Initech]

17. Also too you could walk into a store and not give a shit about what the greeter said.

[JI7]

18. Probably because people don't watch TV like they use to

People still watch these things but they decide when to watch it .

Before there was a certain "unity" nationally with most people watching the same thing .

[czarjak]

19. In 1966 you watched what the parents wanted to. ABC, NBC, CBS. PERIOD...

Although cable options first started to be available.

[Trueblue1968]

20. I HATE THE .... you must pay cable companies especially Apple. I would NEVER watch apple

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. I don't own a regular TV, so I'm totally insulated from whatever Christmas specials

are out there.

I don't happen to turn on radio stations that play Christmas music.

So I'm pretty much immune/insulated from such things,

Honestly, I'll suggest you turn off the radio, or at least only tune in to NPR stations that only broadcast informational stuff, turn off your broadcast TV, open a book or start watching some CD that strikes you as interesting.

I'm honestly astonished at times at how out of touch I am. No TV. So I'm not watching broadcast stuff. In the car, which I'm not in more than ten minutes per day, means there really isn't much time, I'm either listening to NPR or have it off when I can't find a program I want to listen to.

I read A LOT. Well over one hundred books a year. About half of what I read is non fiction, the other half various types of fiction. I happen to be a writer (very obscure, trust me) who had been published a handful of times. When I write, it always is something science-fictional, even though s-f is a very small percentage of what I read. Huh. Go figure.

[ItsjustMe]

22. You can stream anything on the web these days.

You just need to know where to look.

[Buns_of_Fire]

23. Amahl and the Night Visitors, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol,

good ol' Charlie Brown. All gone.

I've been told that this year's hot ticket is Spiderman's Christmas Universe: Wreck the Halls. (In this universe, Spiderman is an elf, you see? Lots of CGI and hot reindeer action. You'll love it, they said. I think they were pulling my mistletoe.)

[John1956PA]

24. Mr. Magoo (1962)

Thanks for mentioning this great cartoon version of "A Christmas Carol."

[CatWoman]

35. you can stream Magoo's Christmas Carol on Peacock

[John1956PA]

37. Thanks. Peacock probably presents the original "play-within-a-play" version.

At the beginning, Mr. Magoo has trouble locating the theater while traveling in his car. At the end of the play, the cast takes its bow.

[CatWoman]

45. and Magoo knocks down everything and the director gets whacked in the head

Oh, Magoo

[John1956PA]

46. Thank you for refreshing my pleasant 1960s memory.

The vivid colors and elegantly simply artistry of the animation cause the images of his animated classic to remain with me

[Raine]

26. I agree, the networks hardly have any holidays shows left.

Last edited Sat Dec 24, 2022, 08:29 AM - Edit history (1)

They sold most of them off like Charlie Brown etc, then the few they still have they repeat a few days after the first showing.

[brewens]

27. I watch old Christmas specials on YouTube. Those are fun. Much more of the money used

to stay right in our towns too. That's a problem year around but Christmas made the year for family owned and operated businesses when I was a kid.

I went to school with a lot of guys that fully expected to be retiring from the family business about now. They were lucky if they weren't shut down by the 90s.

Now all the profit is sucked out of town and into the pockets of corporate officers and shareholders.

[tavernier]

30. I guess I'm the opposite

I can now watch whatever Christmas show or film whenever I want, listen to all my favorite music at the touch of a button. And I’m really old.
I don’t miss the days when I had to stay up till midnight to catch A Christmas Carol, and if the tv antenna was acting up, I might miss half of it. Or wait half the day for the radio to play a nice Christmas song after listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks over and over. A lot to love about the 50’s, but the chipmunks, not so much.

[llmart]

33. I like YouTube for that reason.

I can watch whatever I want to watch whenever I want. I do understand though that it's usually the anticipation that makes something special.

[dembotoz]

31. go to any goodwill or salvation army store and check the dvd section

generally enough xmas sugary crap to make any viewer diabetic

[HAB911]

32. In Rod Serling's update of Charles Dickens,

industrial tycoon Daniel Grudge (Sterling Hayden) has never recovered from the loss of his 22-year-old son Marley (Peter Fonda), killed in action during Christmas Eve of 1944. The embittered Grudge has only scorn for any American involvement in international affairs. But then the Ghost of Christmas Past (Steve Lawrence) takes him back through time to a World War I troopship. Grudge also is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present (Pat Hingle), and the Ghost of Christmas Future (Robert Shaw) gives him a tour across a desolate landscape where he sees the ruins of a once-great civilization.

[ProfessorGAC]

36. The Alistair Sim Scrooge...

...was on last night, and on another channel today. Both local Chicago channels though, not network.
We're watching Fred Claus later this afternoon.

[Elessar Zappa]

38. Bad Santa was playing today on one of the channels.

I consider that a classic.

[Celerity]

48. network TV is no longer that relevant at all, has not been for ages

[GoodRaisin]

52. Because nothing good is on it.

A while back in time someone said, “wouldn’t entertainment be so much better if someone had a tv show with multiple contestants, and let’s have one go home each week until there is only one left!”.

[Celerity]

53. No, it's because there are a vast multiplicity of other options out there via the internet, cable, &

satellite systems. This has been the case for decades.

THe OP seems to yearn for 'good old days' homogeneity, which is an utterly stifling template for me to live in.

I adore late 1970's to mid 1980's punk, post-punk, new wave, no wave, industrial, electro, etc etc genres of music, but I sure as hell have ZERO desire to go back and live then, let alone even further back in the past, where we quickly reach a time period in the US where I could be jailed or killed just for living my life as an interracially married, mixed-race black open lesbian. Unfortunately there are now again tens up tens of millions of RW christofash bellends who OPENLY want to return to those dark ages via a political (and kinetic if need be) revolution. They yearn for a return to to their dystopian and warped version of the 'good old days'.