Premiered December 3, 1978.
It’s Christmas Eve and the residents of Sesame Street are feeling the spirit of the season. After a trip to the local ice skating rink, they pick out Christmas trees, sing holiday songs and shop for gifts.
Big Bird (Carroll Spinney) and his friend Patty (Debbie Chen) are excited about the impending arrival of Santa Claus. However, he still has lots of questions about how the “Jolly Old Elf” can get down a chimney, let alone all of the chimneys. Oscar the grouch (Spinney) has doubts about this and expresses these doubts rather rudely.
He says that if Santa can’t fit down chimneys, kids won’t get presents. Big Bird asks his friends Kermit (Jim Henson) and Grover (Frank Oz) to get children’s theories of how Santa delivers toys.
Later, Ernie (Henson) spots a box in Mr. Hooper’s (Will Lee) store and thinks it would be a perfect place for his friend Bert (Oz) to keep his beloved collection of paper clips. He has no money to pay for the box, so he offers Hooper his treasured rubber ducky as barter, which Hooper accepts.
When Bert visits Hooper’s store, he sees a pink soap dish that would make the perfect home for Ernie’s rubber ducky. He gives up his paper clips in exchange for the soap dish!
As evening approaches, Big Bird is determined to stay up and watch Santa make his way the chimney. He goes to the roof of the Sesame Street apartment building so he can see what happens. The heavy snow and frigid temperatures put Big Bird in jeopardy of freezing.
Patty gets worried when Big Bird isn’t in his nest. She goes to Gordon (Roscoe Orman), Susan (Loretta Long) and Maria (Sonia Monzano) for help locating their feathered friend.
Plus, Cookie Monster (Oz) tries to write a letter to Santa Claus!
J.A. Morris says:
I rarely say this of anything we review, but this special is just about perfect. I was born two years after Sesame Street debuted, so it was a big part of my childhood. While the cast changed a bit while I was watching, this is more or less “my” Sesame cast. So Christmas Eve On Sesame Street is a wonderful way to visit my old TV friends every December.
The whole cast, puppets and humans is great, but Carroll Spinney is the real standout. It probably wasn’t easy for Spinney to provide voice for Big Bird’s excitement about Santa and Oscar’s nastiness, but Spinney excels here.
Frank Oz and Jim Henson's scenes as Bert and Ernie are among their best work. Their performance of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” brings me tears of joy every time I watch it. Their story line is one of the best versions of "The Gift Of The Magi."
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| Big Bird asks Mr. Snuffleupagus (Jerry Nelson) to help him solve the Santa/Chimney conundrum. |
Christmas Eve On Sesame Street features three new songs and they’re all great, with “Keep Christmas With You” being the best. When I was a little boy who loved the holiday season, I tried to take the song’s message to heart. I remember grabbing a notepad and writing down the lyrics so I’d remember them “all through the year!”
This special is highly recommended and especially recommended to everyone who loved this particular Sesame Street cast when they were kids.
J.A. Morris’ rating:
4 candy canes!
RigbyMel says:
As I am a few years younger than J.A. Morris, this 1978 special DEFINITELY features the Sesame Street cast I remember. The special was appreciated when it first aired - it won the 1979 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program - and it holds up wonderfully well.
Impressively, Christmas Eve On Sesame Street manages to present the "spirit of the season" in a sweet, but not sappy way and does so in a completely secular context.
There is even a nod to the fact that not everyone is crazy about the holidays with Oscar The Grouch's "I Hate Christmas" song and he is the primary antagonist for the episode. Fortunately, he does reform a la Rankin-Bass a little bit -- he's grouchy, but not a monster, for pete's sake!
The songs are great -- full disclosure, my first ever live concert was seeing Bob McGrath on stage! As J.A. Morris says, "Keep Christmas With You" is a standout. However, I find that "True Blue Miracle" has been really sticking with me in recent years as well. There's something really charming about the Caribbean tinged tune.
The original Muppet performers always make me smile, wonderful touches abound, like Oscar being helped over the turnstiles in the subway and Kermit and Grover's interviews with kids regarding how Santa does his job.
Plus, the human cast all gets moments to shine. I particularly love Bob's interactions with Linda Bove. Linda teaches the kids how to sign "Keep Christmas With You" in ASL as a present to Bob.
Mr. Hooper's intervention into Bert & Ernie's "Gift of the Magi" tale is a delight also. It's a nice touch that the Jewish character (Mr. Hooper) wants to make sure his friends have a merry Christmas!
Christmas Eve On Sesame Street is an absolute classic and worth sharing with your family each year if you don't already do so! Cannot recommend this one highly enough!
RigbyMel's rating:
4 candy canes!!!
I agree this still holds up today. I watched this when it first aired and thankfully my dad taped it for us to watch many times throughout the month. It was one that came to DVD when my first daughter was born so it was something we watched together and when my second came we would watch it once again and for many years after. It is also something we still pull out from time to time even tho they are much older!
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read and comment, Bob!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of our favorites and we look forward to sharing it with small nieces and nephews in the not too distant future. :-)
I remember watching this with my family like it was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read & comment, mrtnllisra!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you remember most about the first time you saw Christmas Eve on Sesame Street?