I’m a fan of tradition. I don’t particularly care what the tradition is, how long it’s existed, or what it represents, I just like things you can look forward to every year because I’m an anxious person who craves stability. I’m also a fan of Secular Christmas, because I don’t believe in god but I look great in red. Because of those two, let me present one of my favorite Christmas Traditions, the annual viewing of “The Great Toy Robbery.”
For years I was convinced my grandparents invented this film, which was actually produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 1963, so I assume the Canadian readers may have some familiarity with this. But for me, every year at their Christmas party my grandparents would pull out the reel and set up a huge projector for everyone to watch, and any time I’d try to talk to friends about it no one had a clue what I was talking about. But now there’s YouTube so I’ll never be alone again!
This movie has everything. A beautiful idiot who inadvertently saves the day. Toughened gangsters whose hearts are melted by teeny bears. A horse who listens to nobody. Funny sound effects. If you are in search of a Christmas tradition, I highly recommend this one.
I am always on the lookout for fantastically bizarre Christmas specials I have not seen yet, so thanks Jaya!
I offer up in exchange the B.C. Christmas special. Yes, based on the comic strip. Cavemen invent Christmas. It is FANTASTIC. You can find it very easily on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6ZaSi5RvI
I also recommend the He-Man Christmas special wherein Skeletor learns to love Christmas and also robot dog creature things!
Oh man, the hula hooping outlaw! I am moving to tucson this summer and I really hope this is what next christmas looks like.
You may enjoy this gem, also from the National Film Board of Canada! Cactus Swing
My favorite childhood holiday tradition was The Snowman, a half-hour, mostly wordless Christmas special about a boy and a snowman who comes to life. Up until very recently, I thought it was just a random (but very beautiful) video my parents had picked out of the Wal-Mart bargain bin; I had no idea it was one of the 100 Greatest British Television Program(me)s. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube, either with the original intro or one by David Bowie.
Oh man, I didn’t know that was a Beloved Holiday Classic(tm). It was a tradition in my family, too, but I found the wordlessness and the disembodied children’s choir really really creepy. Maybe it’s better watching as an adult?
It is such a Beloved Holiday Classic! It is on TV every year here (including this one). I am particularly fond of it because they fly over the South Downs and Brighton, very close to my home.
(I am even more fond, though, of the same author’s Father Christmas; we had a video of it when I was little and watched it a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Christmas_%2…
I had no idea that The Snowman was considered niche! I’m UK-born, US-raised, and it was always around. The (similarly wordless) book, by Raymond Briggs, is excellent, though not as good as Fungus the Bogeyman (very few things in life are as good as Fungus the Bogeyman).
I used to watch this every year on PBS. IT IS HEARTBREAKING.
As a Canadian, an animator and a lover of the NFB, I salute this post! I love this film. To anyone interested I would also suggest looking up ‘The Log Driver’s Waltz’, another classic NFB film.
For he goes birling down and down white water
That’s where the log driver learns to step lightly
Yes, birling down and down white water
The log driver’s waltz pleases girls completely
I loved that one, I used to sit in front of the TV and sing it. My grandfather was a log driver, incidentally, because we are Canadian stereotypes.
So late to reply but DAMMIT I love the NFB, it’s animation and The Log Driver’s Waltz”. Yes, yes, yes, so many yesses!
And The Cat Came Back!
Also, or even more importantly:
The Big Snit (not xmas themed, just essential to your life) https://youtu.be/p1S5pAF1YYA
My favorite is still The Sweater, which I’m 90% sure I saw on Pinwheel back in the early days of the Nickelodeon channel.
I probably didn’t understand a word of it at the time, considering the narrator’s incredibly thick Quebecois accent.
Our tradition is to play three holiday specials: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (with great songs!), A Wish for Wings that Work (Berkeley Breathed’s Opus the Penguin) and Franz Kafka’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”, which was directed by the current Doctor Who (he won the Oscar for Best Short Film that year.)
I remember this one! Also from the NFB and worthy of note: The Hockey Sweater.
I remember this one! Channel 13 in NYC is a PBS station and they used to play an animation block back in the day. His mom ordered a hockey sweater for him and he expected it to be a sweater with the number of his hero who played for a particular team on it, but the catalog company accidentally sent him a sweater with the number of a player everyone hated from the opposing team. He was humiliated. His mother refused to send it back for replacement because to her, a sweater is a sweater is a sweater. Mothers!!! They just don’t get it! It’s not exactly an uplifting or humorous message, more bitter-sweet nostalgia.
It’s also a metaphor for French/English relations in Canada 🙂 The sweater he wants is the one that Rocket Richard of the Canadiens wore… instead he receives a dreaded Toronto Maple Leafs sweater. He prays for moths to come eat it up but they don’t.
Canadians are intense about hockey.
How perfect and inevitable is it that this Canadian film is sly and affectionate dig at American culture?
Also, I loved that the Saloon had a painting of Venus reading a book. ‘Cuz it gets boring on that couch, no doubt.
Every year for the past twenty-odd years, I have forced some poor schmuck to watch Blackadder’s Christmas Carol with me. (It’s on Netflix now!) One of the best things about getting married was the addition of a whole new gaggle of schmuck-in-laws who weren’t completely sick of Blackadder’s Christmas Carol yet, though I fear they are getting there by now.
Suggested pairing: spaghettios on toast, my family’s traditional Christmas celebratory cuisine.
THERE’S A GIANT OLYMPIA IN THE SALOON.
Fabulous
I’m loving the cowpoke-meets-Bond opening music. Actually I was hooked in the first five seconds; I’m very into moseying.
Was the saloon girl’s top completely sheer? I ask because it was exactly the same color as her thigh-highs. Seems like an odd choice. Make it solid or show her topless, but make a choice, by golly!
I was a bit concerned about her too, and the lascivious pianist’s opportunistic joy at hiding in a piano with her.
Much bosoms. Many cleavage.
I too was confused, with that uncanny feeling that of course she’s topless – no wait where are the nipples???
So much Canadian affection for you, Jaya.
Old NFB animations are fantastic. I’m partial to The Big Snit: https://www.nfb.ca/film/big_snit Sawing for Teens! “You’re always shakin’ your eyes left, and shakin’ your eyes right!”
I had a VHS tape from the late eighties or so with A Wish for Wings that Work, and I watched the heck out of it every year until the tape wore out.
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, from the NFB, was a staple of my childhood, usually shown at school, or community centre events, to a roomful of laughing children.
Always here for the Canadian content on The Toast.
Thank you!
And The Cat Came Back!
Canadian folks! Do you also remember from TV short episodes of Tales of the Wizard of Oz, a cartoon based on the Oz characters where the characters had names – the scarecrow was named Socrates, I remember!
Canadian folks! Do you also remember from TV short episodes of Tales of the Wizard of Oz, a cartoon based on the Oz characters where the characters had names – the scarecrow was named Socrates, I remember!
This…this was beautiful. I have to show this to my sister when I go home for Christmas.
In our house, the ongoing tradition, for as long as I can remember, is that every Christmas Eve we watch A Garfield Christmas. Even my brothers who can sometimes be all eye-rolley about traditions affirm that we have to watch this on Christmas Eve. Every year.
It looks like the whole thing isn’t on YouTube (except for pay version), but here’s one of the opening songs that I love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdjmR8Smzhg
This…this was beautiful. I have to show this to my sister when I go home for Christmas.
In our house, the ongoing tradition, for as long as I can remember, is that every Christmas Eve we watch A Garfield Christmas. Even my brothers who can sometimes be all eye-rolley about traditions affirm that we have to watch this on Christmas Eve. Every year.
It looks like the whole thing isn't on YouTube (except for pay version), but here's one of the opening songs that I love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdjmR8Smzhg
Also, or even more importantly:
The Big Snit (not xmas themed, just essential to your life) https://youtu.be/p1S5pAF1YYA