If you have a cruel boss who is still keeping you in the office today, Art Attack is here to help you pass the time with a collection of random Christmas videos you can find free and in full on YouTube.
Maybe you never seen the Star Wars Christmas special. Maybe you want to finally see It’s A Wonderful Life, or you just can’t enough of Frosty and Rudolph and those once-a-year showings on broadcast TV aren’t cutting it.
I also threw in a few Christmas episodes from some of your favorite sitcoms. Trust me, YouTube is an endless time-suck of holiday episodes. Did you know that there was even a Mr. Bean Christmas special?
The Star Wars Holiday Special
We lead off with the holy mother of all Christmas — er, Life Day — holiday specials. I never understood the opening credits, after the Han and Chewie bit. Who else would R2 be playing in this special? Luke?
Ernest Saves Christmas
Helper Elves.
Vincent Price: Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol
Vincent Price and Christmas go together like….no, they really don’t.
Scrooge
The good Albert Finney version. Side note: Sadly, Scrooged with Bill Murray is only seen on YouTube in fragments.
It’s A Wonderful Life
Just get this one out of the way while you’re cleaning house for relatives.
Bob Hope’s 1967 USO Christmas Special
Mmmmmm, Raquel Welch for Christmas, right before you get greased by the man in the black pajamas.
Frosty The Snowman
It seems like every year they play all these classics way early in the season, when you don’t want to see them yet.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
In which a handicapped kid saves the day.
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
An underrated classic in the Rankin-Bass canon.
All I Want For Christmas
Ethan Embry, Thora Birch, and Lauren Bacall star in this seldom-seen holiday tale. Bonus points for Leslie Nielsen as Santa.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
A simpler time, when puppeteers didn’t have sex with underage boys.
The Golden Girls “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Betty White and the crew celebrate Christmas in Miami. Fun fact: Betty White was just 63 when GG premiered in 1985. Somehow Bruce Springsteen and Gene Simmons are also 63 right now.
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2012.