I'm trying
something different to get in the holiday spirit this year. Every
day, from now through Christmas, I will be watching a different
Christmas movie or television special. I have compiled the list of
features ahead of time and am drawing one, at random, from my
Christmas stocking everyday to determine what gets watched. Thank
you for joining me in this endeavor. Now let's find out what I'm
watching for day 4.
Christmas Eve on
Sesame Street (1978)
Now this is quite the change from yesterday. Christmas Eve
on Sesame Street is from a different, and in my opinion, better era
of the long running educational program. Specifically, this special
is from the time before Sesame Street was hit with the annoying red
blight know as Elmo. If you want some insight in to some of the
reasons Elmo is terrible you should check out this article. Moving
away from my seething Elmo hatred and back to the feature at hand,
this special was a Christmas staple. PBS ran it almost every holiday season
from its premiere until 1996 when it was finally retired and
replaced...with Elmo Saves Christmas. Ignoring how angry that makes
me, this special has it all. It is legitimately funny with jokes
that land for both kids and adults. It teaches tolerance for other
cultures with out being preachy. And it does a wonderful job of
capturing the spirit of giving and caring that under scores the whole
of the holiday season.
To say that I am a fan of this special would be an
understatement. I have loved it since I was a child and it is hard
to convey the excitement I felt when I found it on DVD at a random
grocery store during the 2006 holiday season. It has been a yearly
watch since that day and I am not even sure that this will be my only
viewing this year. Enough with my gushing, let's dig on in
Synopsis
While I could do a more scene by scene synopsis for this
special, like I did for both He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special
and Rare Exports. I don't think that is the right method to
encapsulate Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. Structure wise there are
three plot threads that interweave through the special and it will be
better if we look at them individually. The main plot starts
following a skating party featuring the whole Sesame Street crew.
Outside of the rink, before heading back to Sesame Street, Big Bird
and a girl named Patty are excitedly discussing Santa's impending
arrival later that night. Oscar the Grouch interrupts them and
chides them for believing in something so ridiculous. How can big,
fat Santa fit down all those skinny chimneys, he reasons. Big Bird
and Patty have no answers and the are soon very troubled. They talk
to Kermit about their concerns and he decides to rally some the other
Muppets to interview experts on Santa (other children) about how he
gets down the chimney.
 |
| Oscar proves the line between grouch and jerk is very thin. |
Later that evening, with no definitive answers, Big Bird is
despondent. After Patty leaves, Big Bird comes up with a final plan.
He will see first hand how Santa makes it down the chimneys by going
to the roof of the apartment building. Shorty after he goes up to the
roof, Patty has second thoughts about how Big Bird was acting and heads back to his nest to check on him and discovers that he is gone.
She lets Gordon know about her discovery and soon the whole of
Sesame Street, including Oscar, is out looking for Big Bird. Not having any luck, they decide to break off the search for a
bit to get warm when they run into Big Bird coming down from the roof
for the same reason. Everyone is relieved that Big Bird is okay, but
Big Bird himself is still stressed out about Santa. However, upon
entering Gordon's apartment they discover that it has it has been
decorated and presents have been left. Big Bird is calmed for, while
he is still not sure how Santa does it, Santa has clearly made it
into the building despite the narrow chimney.
The second storyline is focused on Bert and Ernie and takes
obvious inspiration from the short story The Gift of the Magi.
After going skating, Bert takes a bath and realizes that he still
needs to get Ernie a gift. While he is pondering what to get for the
gift, he finds that Rubber Ducky has fallen in the tub. This gives
Bert the perfect gift idea: a soap dish to hold Rubber Ducky. At the
same time, Ernie is in the living room trying to figure out Bert's
gift when he spots something on the floor. It is a paper clip from
Bert's paper clip collection. Ernie has an epiphany. He will get
Bert a cigar box to store his paper clip collection in.
Later, Ernie heads to Mr.
Hooper's store to procure a cigar box. However, Ernie doesn't have
any money so he offers Rubber Ducky in trade. Mr. Hooper seems
incredulous but accepts the offer. As Ernie is leaving, Bert enters
the store. He similarly has no extra money and puts forth his paper
clip collection. Mr. Hooper is again shocked but allows the trade.
Back at their apartment, Bert and Ernie can't wait to exchange gifts
and decide to open them right away. Both are touched by the gifts
they received but dismayed that both were bought with the items that
they traded in mind. It is here that they narrative diverges from
Gift of the Magi.
Before they can reveal to each other that they no longer have the
item that the gift was designed to compliment, Mr. Hooper arrives
with Christmas gifts for Bert and Ernie. Unsurprisingly, the gifts
he gives are the items he accepted in trade. Bert and Ernie realize
that they don't have any gift for Mr. Hooper, but he says that seeing
that everyone got what they wanted is gift enough.
 |
| Bert and Ernie know that the right way to do it is to open gifts on Christmas Eve. |
The final story line is the lightest and is mostly used as
humorous vignettes as the special weaves between there other stories.
It focuses on Cookie Monster's attempts to contact Santa with what
he wants for Christmas. The gift Cookie Monster desires is, of course,
cookies. Unfortunately, every time he tries to contact Santa,
thinking about cookies activates his voracious appetite and he ends
up eating the means of communication, starting with a pencil, moving
to a typewriter, and finally a phone. Cookie Monster is concerned
that, since he failed to contact him, Santa will not know what he
wanted. However, when the gifts are found in Gordon's apartment at
the end of the special there are indeed cookies for Cookie Monster.
 |
| An intervention may be in order. |
Final Thoughts
As stated in the beginning, this is absolutely one of my
favorite Christmas specials. There are many reasons for it.
Nostalgia is certainly one of them. I can remember watching this on
PBS while playing with a Duplo train set that I received from Santa.
Clearly it has been with me a long time, as I rarely play with Duplo
trains these days. However, nostalgia alone doesn't account for all
of my adoration. This special consistently amazes me with just how
smartly it is written. It is readily understandable by children but has
plenty of jokes that land for adults as well. Examples of this
include some of the questions that Grover asks while trying to figure
out how Santa gets down the chimney as well as one of my favorite
moments, Oscar clearly cursing out Big Bird but being drowned out by
a passing subway so that he is entirely unintelligible.
 |
| More children's television specials should have implied swearing |
Beyond that, the special is loaded with subtle teachable moments.
Bert and Ernie caring about each other enough that they are willing
to give up one of their most prized possessions to get something to
make the other happy speaks volumes and still gives me a level of
selflessness that I can aspire to. Further in another subtle and
impressive scene, Bob and Mr. Hooper pass on the street with Bob
wishing Mr. Hooper a Happy Hanukkah and Mr. Hooper returning a Merry
Christmas. I love this small scene as it simultaneously makes kids
and adults aware of one of the more discreet diversities in our midst
and shows two people respecting each other's culture by simply
returning good will. Bob doesn't insist that he should only have to
say Merry Christmas all season long. People could still learn something
from this today. I can not say enough good things about this
special. Suffice it to say that it won an Emmy for a reason. If I
actually went to holiday parties where younger kids were present, I
think that I would bring my DVD of this special and encourage/force
them to watch it. Simply a must for the holiday season. Watch it if
you can, I hear Amazon has copies. That is day 4. Check back
tomorrow to see what I'm watching for day 5.
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