The Guitar remained, the plaid suit did not.

The Original Christmas Classics Genius Entertainment **** Four out of five Christmas Television Favorites Warner Bros. Home Entertainment **** Four out of five      O Arthur Rankin! And you too Mr. Jules Bass! How you burrowed yourselves into my psyche; every one of your images indelibly etched into my mind's eye! My childhood years anxiously spent waiting for the appointed cold December night in which to languish in front of the television, receiving a good, old-fashioned dose of your Christmas cheer. For that one hour, the world was a pure, happy, perfect place filled with clunky, stop motion puppets and "so-corny-I-shouldn't-like-it-but-I-can't-stop-singing-it" musical numbers. 'Twas perfection wrapped in glitzy paper and topped with a bright, red bow.      Recently, I was at JR Music World, deciding which DVD would be my first choice in starting a Holiday film library of my very own. I had been kicking the proverbial tires long enough - this was going to be the beginning of an annual Christmas ritual. But on this chilly November day, I was rewarded by finding not one, but two fantastic DVD collections which gather every classic Christmas Special that I could have wanted with the exception of A Charlie Brown Christmas. This proves my theory that good things do come to those who are too lazy to make it happen sooner!      The Original Christmas Classics (Genius Entertainment) contains Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, Cricket on the Hearth and Frosty Returns. Not much needs to be said here as you know every one of these classic stories, with the exception of 1992's abysmal, Frosty Returns. One misstep is to be expected and forgiven. One surprising observation is the amount of scenes that have obviously been trimmed from Rudolph over the years. There are a few musical numbers presented here that I have no recollection of! I taped it on VHS when I got my first VCR in 1987 and these sequences were already absent. With that is mind, think of Original Christmas Classics as the box set that gives back a little extra! To entice its audience even further, the set also includes a seven-track CD containing three classics from Burl Ives: Holly Jolly Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Silver and Gold. The "holiday TV special" nerd in me chuckled with glee as the CD starts with the version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer that is played over the ending credits of the show! Oh, come now Popjunkie, how could you possibly know that? Easily actually, the tune begins with Mr. Ives chuckling, "well folks, as for the rest of the story, (singing) he went down in history…" before launching into the remainder of the song. I told you, ending credits.      But the inclusion of "Winter Wonderland" by Jewel certainly rattled my baubles. First off, why? Let's be real here, there are two reasons why any male would be interested in Jewel and they have nothing to do with winter or there being a wonderland! And did I mention that it is every bit as vomit-inducing as you might expect? Wow, that was pretty harsh assessment wasn't it? It is Christmas and all; you know, good will towards men and Jewel and stuff like that. Then again, I'm probably getting coal in my stocking this year so I guess I'm safe! Allow me to get back on track… actually, that sums the CD up.      Not wanting to be left out of the party, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment offers up Christmas Television Favorites which contains so much cheer spread across it's four DVD's that you'll never need (or may not want) to celebrate Christmas again! Ah, Blissful over-indulgence. But it's a requisite over-indulgence: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July! The remaining classics are here and every bit as joyous as they were during those childhood years. Rankin & Bass strike again! Yes, Christmas geeks I know, R&B had nothing to do with the Grinch.      The only clunker here is the overly long and annoyingly childish, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. At nearly two hours, this putrid little story signals the end of the Holiday powerhouse that was Rankin & Bass. Within minutes it becomes painfully obvious that they had completely run out of steam and what's worse, relevancy. If you've never seen this one, do yourself the favor and skip it! This set earns bonus points for providing 'special editions' of two features. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition, is packed with extras such as: two short but insightful documentaries, a corny, 'making of' featurette hosted by the late Phil Hartman, a pencil test showing the cartoon in various stages of animation and the non-holiday animated classic, Horton Hears a Who!. The Year Without a Santa Claus has two documentaries, We Are Santa's Elves and Stop Motion 101. The former deals with the legacy of Rankin & Bass and their monopoly on all things Christmas from roughly 1965 to 1979 while the latter gives you the scoop on stop motion technology and is actually quite interesting. To fill out the release, we also get two full-length classics, Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Nestor, The Long Eared Christmas Donkey.      There is no need for me to go into detail about each individual show, you've seen them all as a child and know how great they are. These sets are fantastic examples of Holiday entertainment that is cheerful without being trite. For those of us who grew up with these specials, taking this walk down memory lane will truly warm your hearts and bring you back to the days where you actually had to wait an entire year to see Rudolph again! Now you really can have Christmas in July! Just make sure you avoid Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. I'm telling ya. Think I'm kidding? Go ahead, make Frosty's day.