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My Christmas media project this year has been watching Muppet Christmas specials. I did some digging and there are more than I expected, as long as we’re willing to include a rather open definition of “muppet movie” which I am. Before this year, I can say I’ve seen four Muppet Christmas movies, There’s Muppet Family Christmas, Emmet tOtter’s Jug Band Christmas and, of course, the all time great Muppet Christmas Carol. I also watched John Denver and The Muppets: A Christmas Together for the first time last year. But there’s somewhere int he neighborhood of 30 Muppet-adjacent, Christmas-adjacent specials, and once I discovered that I knew I had some homework to do.

I haven’t watched all of them but I have added an even dozen to the list of Muppet Christmas specials which I have seen. So what do we do when we watch a bunch of stuff in a category? We rank them! Here’s the list, from best to worst, because you knew where aren’t going to be any surprises at the top.

The Muppet Christmas Carol - This is the movie I have watched more times than any other. That’s not hyperbole. Long time readers will remember I watched it 25 days in a row leading up to Christmas a few years ago. That’s on top of all the other times I have watched it in my life. A stone cold classic, and the best presentation of Dickens’ novel that I have ever seen. I even wrote a video essay about it because of How much I live this movie. Michael Cane is a perfect scrooge and he just happens to live in a world populated almost exclusively by muppets. This is also easily Gonzo’s best showing in a muppet movie, and since he’s my favorite muppet, I like it all the more.
Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas - Another holiday staple. No classic muppet characters in this (Unless you count the Kermit framing device they added in later releases) but just a delightful heartfelt story told with whimsy and love. And Muppets. I haven’t watched this one nearly as often, but it will usually get at least one annual viewing, if I have anything to say about it. It’s also the rare Holiday special that remembers that this time of year can be a little bit sad, and that’s OK too.
A Muppet Family Christmas - This one is newer to my rotation. but only because I didn’t know it existed until a few years ago. I wish I had discovered it earlier. It’s the only one of these specials to include all three branches of the Henson Puppet Family Tree. We’ve got the classic Muppets (original flavor?) with Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and the rest, but also the Sesame Street Muppets anthem Fraggles from Fraggle Rock all show up too. Truly a Muppet family reunion. They sing sweet songs, have good jokes and remind us that the most important part of the holidays is being around people you love.
Elmo and Mark Rober's Merry Giftmas - I’m frankly shocked the one ended up as high as it did. I though I was guy who couldn’t stand Elmo, so the though of pairing him up with a YouTube of all people seemed like recite for disaster. But it turns out this is great. Giftmas on sesame street is a holiday they celebrate before Christmas where you give a hand made gift to someone else. It’s all about the joy of giving, rather than receiving. And the majority of the special is different denizens of The Street working on their gifts, But they learn along the way that failure is an important part of any process. And that Failure shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing. There’s even a song calle Failure is Awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
The Bells of Fraggle Rock - I’m probably least familiar with Fraggle Rock, of the Muppet productions. I went into this having seen maybe a couple episodes, but not having a deep affection for the show. This is technically just another episode of Fraggle Rock, but it’s very clearly a Christmas Special, except the Fragged don’t celebrate Christmas. But they do have their own celebrations and this episode is about one of their most important traditions, that of ringing bells when the Rock gets coldest, so it will not stop moving. It’s all a little metaphorical, but one of the Fraggles doesn’t want to do tradition for traditions sake and tries to find the truth behind the tradition, rather than relying on the stories they have been told. He does learn the truth, but (Unsurpsiingly) it’s not quite what he expected. This one is a pretty simple story, but told with nuance and care. I really enjoyed it.
The Great Santa Claus Switch - Before the Muppets were The Muppets they were just any of the puppets that came out of Jim Henson’s company. This was originally presented as an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, but it’s an hour long story about an evil wizard taking the place of Santa Claus so he can break into everyone’s home and steal whatever he wants. Both Santa and the Wizard are played by Art Carney, which makes the switch a lot easier. This one is just simple fun. You know where most of the story is probably going to go, but along the way there are plenty of gags and that early Henson chaos that made the Original Muppet Show so much fun. Heartily recommended.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street - Before Elmo was the star of Sesame Street, that distinction probably went to Big Bird. After spending the opening watching the Muppets on Ice (Bert, Ernie, Oscar, The Count, Bg Bird and Cookie Monster all go ice skating) we get the heart of the story which is Big Bird being worried that Santa won’t be able to get down all those chimneys because how how small some of them are. There’s also a riff on The Gift of the Magi with Bert and Ernie, which ends the only way it can (happily). This is more of an ensemble piece than being any one thing, and it’s nice to spend some time on Sesame Street.
Sesame Street: Elmo Saves Christmas - I think I was dreading this one more than Elmo & Mark Rober even. But it turned out pretty good! Elmo wishes every day could be Christmas and then has to learn what that would really be like. It doesn’t do the time-loop thing, but rather the calendar moves forward ad it just happens that every day everyone has to celebrate Christmas. The saddest part is Big Bird waiting for Snuffy to come home, because he went to spend Christmas with his granny, but will come back the day after Christmas, which never comes. A little predictable, but the songs are fun. Plus there’s a very good gag when Bert and Ernie watch It’s a Wonderful Life
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa - I tried watching this when it originally came out, but I think I never finished it. Due to shennanigans, the Muppets have to deliver some letters directly to Santa at the North Pole, so the movie is their travel woes getting there. This one has songs by Paul Williams which are always welcome. The other celebrity cameos that happen are used sparingly, so we really get to focus on the story. This is probably the tipping point on the list. From here on, you can watch if you want, but I don’t think you’ll be missing much if you skip them.
John Denver and The Muppets: A Christmas Together - In this one Miss Piggy and John Denver have an affair.
Keep Christmas With you - This was the Annual Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with special guests Santino Fontana and The Muppet From Sesame Street. So it’s mostly a choral/orchestra performance but the muppets and Santino Fontana (Who I also enjoy) showing up for some bits and songs. The highlights are Big Bird conducting the orchestra (briefly) and Count Von Count singing the Twelve Days of Christmas with extreme gusto.
Mr Willowby's Christmas Tree - Robert Downy jr has had an interesting career. Before crashing out with drugs, and his eventual recovery, he starred in this as Mr. Willowby a man who loves Christmas trees. And the rest of Christmas too, but especially the Tree. He’s actually not the protagonist here, however, as we’re really following a family of mice as they attempt to get the perfect Christmas tree. Along the way we see other people getting their Christmas trees, including Stockard Channing and Leslie Nielsen (who fall a little it in love) and some bears and Owls too. The whole thing is a little slight, but at least it’s not actively bad. And I’m pretty sure RDJ was high while filming.
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie - This is the closest we get to The Muppets It’s a Wonderful Life. Kermit is sad because a greedy capitalist (Joan Cusack) bough the theater and is going to convert it to a nightclub and angel (David Arquette) convinces god (Whoopi Goldberg) to let him try to cheer Kermit up. He does this of course by that now classic trick of showing Kermit what the world would be like if he had never been born. This one feels little overstuffed. Too many famous faces, trying a little too hard to shoehorn the plot into the shape it needs to be, and the “Never been born” segment doesn’t work nearly as well as it should” We do get gonzo singing a mournful song, which I’m always here for.
Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular - This is a Lady Gaga performance first and a muppet special in a distant second. It’s all songs from Artpop, which was maybe Gaga’s first flop album. There’s a lot of padding between songs where the muppets just do direct addresses to the camera talking about the holidays. Kristen Bell is here, and only interacts with Muppets. Piggy gets mad when she thinks Kermit is cheating on her with Gaga (which might be happening) despite her earlier dalliances with John Denver. Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sing a gender swapped Baby its Cold Outside, but do it so fast it feels like they don’t want to sing it any more than you want to hear it. And we get Kermit singing a duet with Gaga where he gets to belt out a commonly accepted slur for Romani people. So that’s disappointing.
The First Snow of Fraggle Rock - Everything I loved about Bells of Fraggle Rock is absent in this special, made literally decades later. It feels like a lot of the care is missing; We also get our protagonist Fraggle singing a song with Lele Pons (who I’m bing told is famous) where she explains him the message of the movie, instead of letting him learn it naturally (which Bells did). just blah.
The Bob Hope All Star Christmas Comedy Special - Oof, this one is rough. Maybe if you’re a long time fan of Bob Hope you might enjoy this. It’s plays like the worst version of all the classic late night comedy tropes. I’d mostly bob Hope telling baffling jokes. They’re baffling because they’re full of hyper-topical references that need a book of explanations behind each one. Mark Hamill shows up for a couple of bits, neither one particularly funny, including the laziest, hackiest, Star Wars parody ever made up to that point (this came out in 1977). Olivia Newton-John and Perry Como are in it and I’m not sure any of them have even read a synopsis of what Star Wars is. Perry Como’s character is named Luke Sleepwalker, and he sleepwalks, so that’s the level of humor we’re at. The Muppets are in it for about 2 minutes and they’re not even that good. We do get am excruciatingly long sequence where the members of the College Football 1977 All-Star team come on one by one, state their name, college and position, before Bob Hope makes a hacky joke about them and we move on to the next one. It almost rises to the level of absurdist humor, but that’s not what they were going for.

So there's some moppet christmas movies for you to watch. Hope you enjoy!

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