Categories
10 Things TV

The Best Rankin/Bass TV Christmas Specials

Remember flipping through TV Guide each week as Christmas approached, looking for the replay of your beloved Christmas specials?

Today’s kids will never know what it’s like to be disappointed, as on-demand streaming and DVDs have turned today’s children into media devouring monsters.

Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection
Rankin/Bass Christmas Collection

But we all know that some of the Christmas specials were better than others, with SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN being the best of the best of the shows produced by Rankin/Bass.

But how were the other RANKIN/BASS PROGRAMS RANKED IN AWESOMENESS?

It wasn’t until we read this listing that we knew that Rankin/Bass produced 18 different holiday specials, each one slightly less awesome than the grand-master of them all about Kris Kringle putting one foot in front of another.

So out of those 18 programs (most of which, we’re positive, you haven’t seen), are in the TOP TEN BEST CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS?  Let’s take a look at the top of the Awesome Ranking list:

  1. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
  2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  3. The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow
  4. The Year Without a Santa Claus (many people would rank this one, with Heat Miser, way higher on the list)
  5. The Little Drummer Boy
  6. The Stingiest Man in Town
  7. Jack Frost (Rankin/Bass were still making these things in 1979?)
  8. Frosty the Snowman
  9. Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
  10. Rudolph’s Shiny New Year

Which one of these are required viewing in your home, and which ones have you never seen?  You’ll want to click the link to read the reviews that put them into this order, as well as to see the full 18-item list.