Fan Poll: Favorite Muppet Christmas Production

[Muppet fan 123]

Muppet Family Christmas...
No question.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

John Denver and The Muppets - A Christmas together...This was such a huge part of my childhood!

In all honesty, I've never even seen that one. But I do have quite a few copies of the CD.

I voted for MFC. It's always been traditional for me to watch that with my mom during the holidays. Lol. I guess I said that a billion times already.

 

[dabauckham]

I'm not sure I've seen the Christmas John Denver special either. I do have the Rocky Mountain Holiday one, though.

Let me jump on the popular bandwagon here, I really LOVE LOVE LOVE MFC, and I hope that some day somewhere they rerelease it here in the U.S. , particularly if they can do it as originally aired. Like others have mentioned, I love the merging of the 3 worlds, but also there's something just so genuinely heartwarming about this special. Only the Muppets can do this, you know? In my opinion, a great many holiday specials are rubbish, often very cheesy, predictable or shallow, but the Muppets hit deep and straight to the heart.

Like Drtooth, I also love Christmas Eve on Sesame Street - another classic.

My other big love goes to Emmet Otter, but I see that is for another poll/discussion.
So my ranking order for this list is:

Muppet Family Christmas (far and above anything else on this list)
Muppet Christmas Carol
Letters to Santa
IVMMC
John Denver special (mainly because I'm not too familiar with it, though it probably still wouldn't outrank the others, except maybe IVMMC)

 

[CensoredAlso]

John Denver special (mainly because I'm not too familiar with it, though it probably still wouldn't outrank the others, except maybe IVMMC)

That's about right. It's sort of typical '70s special that meanders all over the place, lol. But again it's got a gorgeous soundtrack, some great Muppet moments and the Nativity scene is very touching. And yes, despite its flaws it's much better than IVMMC.

 

[HeyButtahfly]

I voted for Muppet Family Christmas. Muppet Christmas Carol would be #2. To be honest, I've never seen the other 3.
BTW, I'm glad someone else mentioned Rocky Mountain Holiday because I recently got that DVD at a pawn shop but then realized it wasn't the John Denver Christmas special everyone talks about. It was still worth getting, though.

 

[minor muppetz]

My ranking:
1. A Muppet Family Christmas
2. It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
3. The Muppet Christmas Carol
4. Letters to Santa

I have not seen A Christmas Together. I've watched a few clips on YouTube, listend to audio on The MuppetCast, and have the album (the release that's missing a few songs). If I were to see it I wouldn't expect to put it in the top two spots (but then again, I'd have to see the whole thing). I listen to the album every year, but don't consider it to be one of the best Muppet albums, though I've been listening to it alot this year and have been appreciating more of the songs this year than before (in the past I've gotten especially bored with the John Denver-heavy songs, but now I'm listening to them alot).

I enjoy some of the songs. The 12 Days of Christmas is a classic, and the one that seems to play on the radio the most (though I haven't heard it on the radio at all this year), with Deck the Halls a close second (I've even heard Silent Night on the radio this year). My favorite from the album is The Christmas Wish, though I prefer Kermit's solo version from the album. After watching the clip from the special, I feel the version from the special isn't as good. Maybe it's just the audio quality from the copy that was uploaded to YouTube, but the music and Kermit's vocals don't sound as sweet as in the album, though in the special John Denver's vocals sound better than Kermit's.

Hmmm, when it comes to the album, it's a shame John Denver didn't do more duets with Muppet characters. He and Kermit sing The Christmas Wish together in the special but in the album version it's primarily sung by just Kermit. The only duet in the album is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which is ommitted from certain releases. It should have included a duet between John Denver and Miss Piggy, or a song with Denver, Kermit, adn Piggy or Fozzie. Then again, I know that John Denver recorded his vocals seperately from the Muppets, leaving room for the Muppets. Maybe it would have been harder for there to be duets. Most of the tracks with both John Denver and the Muppets either don't have many vocals by Denver or don't have many vocals by the Muppets.

And one thing that makes me most feel like the special wouldn't be one of my favorites: I get the feeling that the special only has the major characters, with some significant (at the time) characters missing (Link, Strangepork, Sweetums). The lack of many minor characters is one of the problems I have with The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show and the other John Denver and the Muppets special, but then again, I've recently realised that just because a special doesn't have too many characters doesn't automatically make it bad (after all, I really like Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and Don't Eat the Pictures, both of which have a limited number of characters, and I like Miss Piggy's Hollywood better than The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show, which has more characters than MPH). But mayeb I'm spoiled by all the characters who appeared in MFC (though everything about that special is perfect, not just because it has so many characters).

Whoa, I focused a lot on a special I haven't seen (okay, so I did speak more about the album) without talking much about the ones I had seen.

 

[CensoredAlso]

And one thing that makes me most feel like the special wouldn't be one of my favorites: I get the feeling that the special only has the major characters, with some significant (at the time) characters missing (Link, Strangepork, Sweetums).

That's not so much the issue. It's more that the special goes a long time just showing John Denver's stuff. I mean if you're a fan of John Denver (which I am, and my family as well), that's great. But if you just want to see the Muppets, you'd probably be doing a lot of fast forwarding, lol.

But there are definitely some great John Denver moments with the Muppets, such as the first scene with all the Muppets together. And also John's conversation with Kermit just before "Christmas Wish."

 

[minor muppetz]

That's not so much the issue. It's more that the special goes a long time just showing John Denver's stuff. I mean if you're a fan of John Denver (which I am, and my family as well), that's great. But if you just want to see the Muppets, you'd probably be doing a lot of fast forwarding, lol.

Yeah, that's one of my main issues with Rocky Mountain Holiday (aside from a somewhat small cast... it should have at least had the whole Electric Mayhem on the trip... In fact why was Dr. Teeth missing from all of the early 1980s Muppet specials?). The scenes with John just singing over nature footage is boring. But that special does have a number of good scenes with just the Muppets so maybe they were trying to balance the non-John Denver content with the non-Muppet content.

 

[CensoredAlso]

The scenes with John just singing over nature footage is boring. But that special does have a number of good scenes with just the Muppets so maybe they were trying to balance the non-John Denver content with the non-Muppet content.

See I love the nature footage, lol. But again I guess it's partially because I grew up hearing John Denver music (including the Rocky Mountain Holiday record album, lol) so it's always something I feel comfortable with.

In fact why was Dr. Teeth missing from all of the early 1980s Muppet specials

Maybe because I know Jim said doing Dr. Teeth's voice was a bit taxing.

 

[ploobis]

My favorite Muppet Christmas specials & movies in no particular order.

- The Great Santa Claus Switch

- Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas

- Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

-John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together

- A Muppet Family Christmas

- The Muppet Christmas Carol

- A Muppets Christmas: Letters To Santa

I also love the Christmas based sketches the Muppets performed on Ed Sullivan with the Reindeers and the monsters with Santa (Arthur Godfrey) and King Ploobis' Christmas Party on SNL.