The 30 Best Christmas TV Specials of All Time
Long before streaming queues and on-demand playlists, families planned their December evenings around the TV listings. Missing the one night a network aired Rudolph or the Grinch meant waiting a full year for the next chance.
Many of those specials are still on the air more than half a century later. A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman have played every holiday season since the 1960s, and newer favorites from Disney, Aardman and Netflix have joined them.
This list covers specials made for television only: animated and stop-motion half-hours, puppet shows, variety hours and TV movies. Theatrical films and regular episodes of weekly series are left out (the big-screen classics have their own list, the 30 best Christmas movies of all time).
The ranking weighs how well each special has aged, its music and performances, its awards and how often it still airs. Here are the 30 best Christmas TV specials of all time.
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered on CBS on December 9, 1965, sponsored by Coca-Cola. Charles M. Schulz wrote it, Bill Melendez directed and Lee Mendelson produced, and the team made it in about six months on a small budget. CBS executives reportedly expected a flop: the pace was slow, there was no laugh track, real children voiced the characters and Linus recites a passage from the Gospel of Luke.
Viewers disagreed. The first broadcast drew 45 percent of the TV audience, an estimated 15.5 million homes, second only to Bonanza that week, and the special went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program and a Peabody Award. The Vince Guaraldi Trio’s jazz score, with “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Linus and Lucy,” became one of the best-selling Christmas albums ever. The special aired on CBS and then ABC for decades and has streamed on Apple TV+ since 2020.
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! first aired on CBS on December 18, 1966. Chuck Jones, the Looney Tunes director, co-produced and directed it with Dr. Seuss, who adapted his 1957 book and wrote the song lyrics. Albert Hague composed the music.
Boris Karloff, famous as Frankenstein’s monster, narrated and voiced the Grinch, while Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger, sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Ravenscroft’s name was left off the credits, and Seuss later wrote to newspaper columnists to make sure he got the recognition. June Foray voiced Cindy Lou Who. Jones added color to the black-and-white book, gave the Grinch his green skin and expanded Max the dog’s role into a gag-filled sidekick. CBS paid $315,000 for the 26-minute special, and it has been rebroadcast every holiday season since. It now airs on NBC, and its title character remains one of the great Christmas villains.
3. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer premiered on NBC on December 6, 1964. It was the first holiday special from Rankin/Bass, which built it in stop-motion, a style the studio called “Animagic,” with the puppet work done in Tokyo. Burl Ives narrated as Sam the Snowman and sang “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Silver and Gold.”
Johnny Marks, who wrote the 1949 hit song, supplied the score, and Romeo Muller wrote a script that added Hermey, the elf who wants to be a dentist, the prospector Yukon Cornelius, the Abominable Snow Monster and the Island of Misfit Toys. Viewers wrote in upset that the misfits were never rescued, so a new final scene was added in 1965. About 55 percent of the TV audience watched the premiere. Rudolph moved to CBS in 1972, returned to NBC in 2024 and is the longest continuously running Christmas special in American TV history.
4. Frosty the Snowman (1969)
Frosty the Snowman premiered on CBS on December 7, 1969, right after a rerun of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and was the No. 1 program of the week. It aired on CBS for more than 50 years before moving to NBC in 2024. Unlike Rankin/Bass’s stop-motion hits, it was drawn in traditional cel animation, with character designs by Paul Coker Jr., a longtime artist for Mad magazine.
Jimmy Durante narrated and sang the 1950 title song by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, comedian Jackie Vernon voiced Frosty, and Billy De Wolfe played Professor Hinkle, the bumbling magician who wants his hat back. Romeo Muller wrote the story, in which a schoolgirl named Karen helps Frosty ride a freight train north before he can melt. Frosty’s first words on coming to life, “Happy Birthday!”, became the special’s signature line. The 25-minute special is one of the most rewatched on this list.
5. The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
The Year Without a Santa Claus premiered on ABC on December 10, 1974. Rankin/Bass based the stop-motion special on Phyllis McGinley’s 1956 book, with Mickey Rooney voicing a tired, sniffling Santa who decides to skip Christmas because nobody seems to care anymore.
Shirley Booth, the Oscar winner from Come Back, Little Sheba, voiced Mrs. Claus in her final role. She sends two elves, Jingle and Jangle, and a young reindeer named Vixen to find proof that the world still believes. The trip leads to the feuding weather brothers Snow Miser and Heat Miser, voiced by Dick Shawn and George S. Irving, whose song duel became the special’s best-known scene and a long-running pop culture joke. Maury Laws and Jules Bass wrote the songs, including “I Believe in Santa Claus.” A live-action remake aired on NBC in 2006.
6. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970)
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town premiered on ABC on December 13, 1970. The Rankin/Bass stop-motion special tells an origin story for Santa, from an orphan baby left on a doorstep to the toymaker who first slid down chimneys and filled stockings.
Fred Astaire narrated as S.D. Kluger, a mailman answering children’s questions, and Mickey Rooney voiced the young Kris Kringle. Keenan Wynn played the Winter Warlock, whose heart thaws after Kris gives him a toy train, and Paul Frees voiced the toy-hating Burgermeister Meisterburger of Sombertown. Romeo Muller wrote the script, and Maury Laws and Jules Bass wrote the songs, led by the hopeful “Put One Foot in Front of the Other.” The special uses the 1934 title song by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie as its theme. It still airs every year on ABC and Freeform.
7. Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977)
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, directed by Jim Henson, adapted Russell Hoban’s 1971 picture book, illustrated by Lillian Hoban. The hour-long special premiered on Canada’s CBC on December 4, 1977, and reached American viewers on HBO on December 17, 1978.
The story borrows from O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” Emmet and his widowed mother, Alice, are poor river otters who each want to buy the other a gift. To enter a talent contest with a $50 prize, Emmet turns his mother’s washtub into a bass, and Alice pawns Emmet’s tool chest to buy fabric for a dress. Paul Williams wrote the songs, including “Brothers” and “When the River Meets the Sea.” The rowdy Riverbottom Nightmare Band crashes the contest with a rock number, and the ending finds a happy way out for everyone. The special earned Emmy nominations after its 1980 ABC airing and now streams on Peacock.
8. Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special (1988)
Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special aired on CBS in prime time on December 21, 1988, between the second and third seasons of Paul Reubens’s Saturday-morning hit. The regular cast was all there, from Miss Yvonne and Cowboy Curtis to Chairry, Conky and Globey, but the real draw was a guest list unlike any other holiday special.
Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, Grace Jones, Little Richard, Cher, Charo, Magic Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, k.d. lang, Joan Rivers, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dinah Shore and the singing Del Rubio triplets all turned up at the Playhouse. Grace Jones performed a memorably strange “Little Drummer Boy.” The secret word of the day was “year,” which set off the usual screaming every time someone said it, and the King of Cartoons screened the 1936 Fleischer short Christmas Comes But Once a Year. The result is loud, colorful and one of a kind.
9. Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas (1977)
Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas aired on CBS on November 30, 1977, about seven weeks after Crosby died of a heart attack on a golf course in Spain. He had taped it on September 11 at ATV’s Elstree Studios near London, making it the last of the many Christmas shows he hosted. His widow, Kathryn, introduced the broadcast.
The hour followed Crosby and his family on a visit to an English country house, with guests including Twiggy, Ron Moody, Stanley Baxter and David Bowie. Bowie’s scene became the special’s legacy. The two singers met that morning, rehearsed for about an hour and recorded “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy,” a counter-melody arrangement written for the show, in three takes. The unlikely duet between the 74-year-old crooner and the 30-year-old rock star became a holiday standard and reached No. 3 on the UK singles chart when it was released in 1982.
10. Prep & Landing (2009)
Prep & Landing premiered on ABC on December 8, 2009, as the first television special made by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton directed the half-hour, which imagines an elite team of elves who sneak into homes before Santa’s arrival to make sure everything is ready.
Dave Foley voiced Wayne, a veteran elf bitter about being passed over for a promotion, and Derek Richardson voiced Lanny, his eager new partner. Sarah Chalke played Magee, the communications officer at the North Pole. The spy-movie gadgets and Christmas Eve mission won over critics, and the special won four Emmys, including Outstanding Animated Program. Disney followed it with the short Operation: Secret Santa (2010), featuring Betty White, the sequel Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011) and The Snowball Protocol (2025).
11. The Snowman (1982)
The Snowman premiered on Britain’s Channel 4 on December 26, 1982, during the new channel’s first Christmas on the air. Dianne Jackson directed the 26-minute film and John Coates produced it, adapting Raymond Briggs’s 1978 picture book, which has no words at all. The film keeps that silence: there is no dialogue, only Howard Blake’s orchestral score.
A boy builds a snowman that comes to life at midnight, and the pair fly over the English countryside to a party at the North Pole. The song “Walking in the Air,” sung by St Paul’s Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty, became a British Christmas standard. The Snowman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, won the BAFTA for Best Children’s Programme, and placed 71st in the British Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest British TV programmes. Channel 4 still airs it every Christmas.
12. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978)
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street premiered on PBS on December 3, 1978. Jon Stone, one of the creators of Sesame Street, conceived, directed and executive-produced the hour, and it won the 1979 Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program.
The story starts with a simple worry. Oscar the Grouch tells Big Bird that Santa could never fit down a narrow chimney, and Big Bird spends the night on a rooftop trying to see how Santa does it. Meanwhile Bert and Ernie act out their own version of “The Gift of the Magi”: Ernie trades his beloved Rubber Duckie for a cigar box to hold Bert’s paper clips, and Bert trades his paper clips for a soap dish for the duckie. Caroll Spinney, Jim Henson and Frank Oz led the puppeteers, and José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” plays over a skating scene. It now streams on Max.
13. A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)
A Muppet Family Christmas aired on ABC on December 16, 1987, and pulled off one of the rarest crossovers in puppet history. Characters from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies all appear together in one story, which Jerry Juhl wrote and Peter Harris directed in Toronto.
Fozzie Bear brings the whole Muppet gang to his mother Emily’s farmhouse for Christmas, not knowing she has rented it out and planned a trip to Malibu. Snow, unexpected guests and a stranded Miss Piggy follow, along with Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, and Doc from Fraggle Rock, played by Gerry Parkes. Jim Henson himself makes a cameo at the end, washing dishes in the kitchen. The premiere drew about 19.3 million viewers. Because of song licensing, several scenes have been cut from home video releases, which makes the full broadcast version a prized find for fans.
14. A Christmas Carol (1984)
A Christmas Carol premiered on CBS on December 17, 1984, as a two-hour TV movie, with IBM buying all of the commercial time. Clive Donner, who had edited the famous 1951 Scrooge, directed it on location in the old market town of Shrewsbury, England.
George C. Scott played Ebenezer Scrooge as a sharp, intimidating businessman rather than a cartoonish miser, which makes his change of heart hit harder. The cast was packed with British stage veterans: Frank Finlay as Marley’s ghost, Edward Woodward as the Ghost of Christmas Present, David Warner as Bob Cratchit and Susannah York as Mrs. Cratchit, with Roger Rees as Scrooge’s nephew Fred. The premiere drew a 20.7 rating, won its time slot and finished among the ten most-watched programs of the week. AMC has aired the film every December since 2007, making it one of the best-known versions of the story.
15. Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)
Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol aired on NBC on December 18, 1962, and is widely credited as the first animated Christmas special made for television. UPA produced the hour, Abe Levitow directed, and Jim Backus voiced the nearsighted Quincy Magoo, who stars as Scrooge in a Broadway production of the Dickens story.
The songs came from Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, the team that would write Funny Girl for Broadway two years later. Their score includes “Alone in the World,” “Winter Was Warm,” “We’re Despicable” and “The Lord’s Bright Blessing,” and it is often praised as the best set of songs in any Christmas Carol adaptation. Jack Cassidy voiced Bob Cratchit, Morey Amsterdam and Paul Frees played several roles, and Royal Dano voiced Marley. The special also shuffles the ghosts, with the Ghost of Christmas Present arriving before the Ghost of Christmas Past.
16. A Christmas Carol (1971)
A Christmas Carol aired on ABC on December 21, 1971, before it was shown in theaters. Richard Williams, who later directed the animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, made the 25-minute film, with Looney Tunes great Chuck Jones as executive producer and veteran animator Ken Harris on his team.
Williams based the look on John Leech’s engravings from the original 1843 book, which gives the film the feel of a moving Victorian illustration. Alastair Sim and Michael Hordern repeated their roles as Scrooge and Marley from the 1951 film Scrooge, and Michael Redgrave narrated. Williams’s four-year-old son, Alexander, voiced Tiny Tim. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and because it had premiered on television, the Academy changed its rules afterward to bar works first shown on TV. Its ghosts, especially Marley’s, remain some of the most unsettling images in holiday animation.
17. A Claymation Christmas Celebration (1987)
Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration aired on CBS on December 21, 1987, the same night as A Garfield Christmas. Will Vinton, the Portland, Oregon, animator who trademarked the word “Claymation,” produced and directed it with producer David Altschul and writer Ralph Liddle.
Two dinosaur hosts, Herb and Rex, guide viewers through a string of classic carols, each staged as its own clay-animated short. Camels sing “We Three Kings,” walruses perform “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and a cathedral full of bells comes to life for “Carol of the Bells.” The California Raisins, Vinton’s hit characters from a series of commercials, also appear, singing “Here We Come A-Wassailing.” The special won the 1988 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, beating A Garfield Christmas, and Atlantic Records released a soundtrack album the following year. Its fast, inventive style still holds up well.
18. A Garfield Christmas (1987)
A Garfield Christmas aired on CBS on December 21, 1987. Garfield creator Jim Davis wrote it, Phil Roman directed, and the story borrows from Davis’s own childhood Christmases on an Indiana farm. Even Jon’s brother, Doc Boy, is named after Davis’s own brother.
Garfield, Jon and Odie spend the holiday at the Arbuckle family farm, where Garfield bonds with Jon’s feisty Grandma, voiced by Pat Carroll. Grandma was the one character Davis invented for the special, and her quiet scene with Garfield about her late husband gives the half-hour its emotional heart. Lorenzo Music voiced Garfield with his usual deadpan, and Lou Rawls sang “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” and “You Can Never Find an Elf When You Need One” with Desirée Goyette. The special was nominated for the 1988 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, losing to the Claymation special that aired the same night.
19. John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together (1979)
John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together aired on ABC on December 5, 1979. The hour of songs and gentle comedy was directed by Tony Charmoli and produced by Bob Finkel, with Jerry Weintraub as executive producer.
Its best-known number is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which Fozzie keeps forgetting his lines and Miss Piggy belts out “five gold rings” every time it comes around. Denver also leads carols and his own holiday songs, with Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt and Dave Goelz performing the Muppets. RCA released the soundtrack album in October 1979, ahead of the broadcast, and it has stayed a holiday favorite for decades. The special itself has never been released on home video, so the album is how most fans know it today.
20. The Christmas Toy (1986)
The Christmas Toy aired on ABC on December 6, 1986, sponsored by Kraft Foods. The Jim Henson Company produced it, Eric Till directed, Laura Phillips wrote it, and Kermit the Frog introduced the original broadcast.
The special imagines what toys do when the people leave the room, nearly a decade before Toy Story. Rugby the Tiger was last year’s favorite present and is sure he will be opened again on Christmas morning. When a new toy, the space heroine Meteora, arrives, Rugby’s jealousy puts the whole playroom at risk, because in this world any toy caught out of place by a human freezes forever. Jeff Moss, the longtime Sesame Street songwriter, wrote the music with Dick Lieb. The special later inspired the TV series The Secret Life of Toys (1994), and it still stands as one of Henson’s sweetest holiday stories.
21. Shrek the Halls (2007)
Shrek the Halls premiered on ABC on November 28, 2007, and drew about 21 million viewers, the most-watched program of the night. DreamWorks Animation made the 21-minute special, with Gary Trousdale, co-director of Beauty and the Beast, directing and co-writing.
Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas all returned to voice Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and Puss in Boots. The story finds Shrek trying to plan the perfect first Christmas for his family after admitting he knows nothing about the holiday. His quiet evening falls apart when Donkey, Puss, Gingy and the rest of the fairy-tale crew show up uninvited, each telling a Christmas story of his own. The special’s ratings success was so big that ABC wanted another hit like it, which helped lead to Disney’s Prep & Landing two years later. It now airs on NBC.
22. The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
The Little Drummer Boy was first shown on Canada’s CTV on December 19, 1968, and aired in the United States on NBC four days later. Rankin/Bass made it in the same stop-motion style as Rudolph, building a story around the popular carol, which the Vienna Boys’ Choir sings over the opening.
Aaron, a young drummer, loses his parents to bandits and comes to hate all people, trusting only his animal friends, a lamb named Baba, a donkey and a camel. After he is forced to perform with a traveling showman, played by José Ferrer, Aaron ends up in Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’ birth. Greer Garson narrated, and Teddy Eccles voiced Aaron. The serious, faith-based tone sets it apart from the studio’s lighter specials. A sequel, The Little Drummer Boy, Book II, followed in 1976.
23. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas aired on CBS on December 8, 1974, and ran on the network every year until 1994. Rankin/Bass built a new story around Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem and used traditional hand-drawn animation from Topcraft, the Japanese studio whose staff later formed part of Studio Ghibli.
In the town of Junctionville, Santa returns every letter after a know-it-all mouse named Albert writes to the newspaper claiming Santa is a myth. Clockmaker Joshua Trundle, voiced by Joel Grey, builds a clock that plays a song for Santa on Christmas Eve, but Albert breaks it. George Gobel voiced Father Mouse, and Tammy Grimes voiced Albert. The song “Even a Miracle Needs a Hand” became the special’s best-known number. The half-hour closes with the full poem, and it now airs on AMC every December.
24. Robin Robin (2021)
Robin Robin premiered on Netflix on November 24, 2021, and brought the makers of Wallace & Gromit into the Christmas special business. Aardman Animations made the 32-minute musical, with Dan Ojari and Mikey Please directing. Instead of Aardman’s usual clay, the characters are made from needle-felted wool, which gives them a soft, handmade look.
Robin, a young bird voiced by Bronte Carmichael, hatches out of her egg into a family of mice and grows up believing she is one. To prove herself, she tries to pull off a holiday raid on a human house. Richard E. Grant voiced a magpie with dreams of his own, Gillian Anderson voiced a menacing cat, and Adeel Akhtar played Dad Mouse. The Bookshop Band wrote the score. Robin Robin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and scored a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
25. Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999)
Olive, the Other Reindeer premiered on Fox on December 17, 1999, exactly ten years after The Simpsons debuted on the same network. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s company produced it with Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films, adapting the 1997 book by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold.
Barrymore voiced Olive, a Jack Russell terrier who mishears the “Rudolph” lyric “all of the other reindeer” as “Olive, the other reindeer.” When a blizzard injures Blitzen, she decides she must be the replacement and heads for the North Pole. The computer animation by DNA Productions imitates the flat, angular style of the book. Dan Castellaneta voiced several roles, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe sang “We’re Not So Bad,” and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy performed “Merry Christmas After All.” The premiere drew about 6 million viewers, and the special was nominated for the 2000 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
26. The Snowman and the Snowdog (2012)
The Snowman and the Snowdog premiered on Channel 4 on December 24, 2012, marking the 30th anniversary of The Snowman. Raymond Briggs later said it took a lot of persuasion before he agreed to a sequel, and the film was dedicated to original producer John Coates, who died that September.
The animators kept the hand-drawn look of the original, using more than 200,000 drawings over nearly two years at a cost of about 2 million pounds. A new boy moves into the house from the first film and finds an old photo and a box hidden under the floorboards. He builds a snowman and a snowdog, and the trio fly off to the North Pole, where the original Snowman is waiting. Andy Burrows, the former drummer of Razorlight, wrote and sang the theme song, “Light the Night.” The film was nominated for a BAFTA Children’s Award.
27. A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! (2008)
A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! aired on Comedy Central on November 23, 2008. Stephen Colbert, in character as the blowhard host of The Colbert Report, is trapped in a mountain cabin by a bear and stuck there on Christmas, but a stream of musical guests keeps dropping by.
Toby Keith sang “Have I Got a Present for You,” Willie Nelson played a wise man in “Little Dealer Boy,” Jon Stewart tried to win Colbert over with “Can I Interest You in Hannukah?” and John Legend crooned “Nutmeg.” Feist and Elvis Costello also performed, and the cast closed with “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” The soundtrack album won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. It was a rare modern take on the old celebrity variety special, both a parody of the format and a genuinely good example of it.
28. Jack Frost (1979)
Jack Frost aired on NBC on December 13, 1979, as one of the last Rankin/Bass stop-motion specials of the decade. Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass directed, Romeo Muller wrote the story, Paul Coker Jr. designed the characters, and Maury Laws and Jules Bass wrote the songs.
Buddy Hackett narrated as Pardon-Me-Pete, a groundhog who tells the story on Groundhog Day. Jack Frost, the invisible sprite who paints frost on windows, falls in love with a village girl named Elisa and asks Father Winter to make him human. To stay mortal, Jack must earn a house, a horse, a bag of gold and a wife by spring, all while the greedy Cossack king Kubla Kraus tries to take over the village. Robert Morse voiced Jack, and Paul Frees voiced both Father Winter and Kubla Kraus. AMC airs it every holiday season.
29. Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas (2014)
Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas premiered on NBC on December 16, 2014, and drew about 4.8 million viewers. The hour-long special adapted the Broadway musical version of the 2003 film Elf, and Screen Novelties made it in stop-motion as a deliberate tribute to the Rankin/Bass classics that the original movie also honored.
Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh directed, and the musical’s book writers, Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, wrote the script with Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. Jim Parsons voiced Buddy, the human raised by elves at the North Pole who heads to New York to find his father, voiced by Mark Hamill. Kate Micucci voiced Jovie, and Ed Asner returned as Santa, the only cast member from the film to come back. Gilbert Gottfried, Jay Leno and Fred Armisen also appear. Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+, and Metacritic scored it 74.
30. Alien Xmas (2020)
Alien Xmas premiered on Netflix on November 20, 2020. Stephen Chiodo directed the stop-motion special, based on his 2006 book with Jim Strain, and Jon Favreau served as an executive producer. Favreau had worked with the Chiodo Brothers before, when they animated the stop-motion North Pole scenes in his 2003 movie Elf.
The story follows X, a small alien from a planet of thieves who want to steal Earth’s gravity. X is sent to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, where a young elf named Holly shows him the difference between taking and giving, and he begins to doubt his mission. Dee Bradley Baker voiced X, and Kaliayh Rhambo voiced Holly. The Chiodos, best known for the cult horror comedy Killer Klowns from Outer Space, brought their handmade puppet style to the project, and the special earned a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
