The Most Beloved Christmas Specials Are (Almost) All Terrible
This article originally appeared in Tom Nichols’ newsletter, Peacefield, available with an Atlantic subscription. Sign up here.
I just turned 61 years old, and people my age know what that means at Christmas.
No, it’s not about remembering to double up on our statins before chugging the eggnog. Very funny. Ha ha.
I mean, of course, that my age makes me a member of Generation Jones, a child of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Unlike the earlier Boomers raised on insipid 1950s television that provided no real Christmas specials, I grew up with a torrent of holiday programming that included Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown, and many others. These Christmas specials are now beloved by multiple generations and they have ruled cable and network television for a half century or more.
And so I thought I would spread my own curmudgeonly version of holiday cheer by slagging most of them and reminding you that only a few are truly worth watching, because I suspect they make people happy and I cannot allow that to continue.
(I am going to leave and of anyway.)
