Zack Rippy

Christmas has begun a little early this year. Due to an event right after we return from Thanksgiving, Marie began decorating our house this week. I must admit that it looks very nice.

My brother recently posted one of his favorite Christmas memories. I’m with him on the cherry candy canes, by the way.

Yesterday, I was reminded of one of the staples of our home growing up - The Christmas Tape.

The Christmas Tape was a VHS tape our mother made in 1984-1985 consisting of numerous Christmas specials. Many of them would not be considered “classics” by most people, but they were around our house. This tape is in BAD shape. It is no exaggeration to say that it has been viewed thousands of times over the years. Taylor even loves it now. At one point in the late 80’s, the tape itself actually broke inside the casing and my dad had it spliced and re-spun. That should tell you a little something about its condition and how much it was enjoyed when we were growing up. I feel quite confident in stating that it was (and still is) the greatest VHS tape ever compiled.

So, when I got married and moved out, I was determined to one day recreate “the tape.”

Last year, I succeeded…for the most part. Due to the length of time that a VHS could hold (albeit at low quality), all the specials will not really fit on one DVD. That will change once I can get a high-definition burner of some sort in the future. Anyways, I created a DVD-image of ALL the content on the old tape. I am sure most of you won’t care, but I’m documenting the show and the sources here - mainly for my own benefit so I don’t forget.

• The Bear who Slept Through Christmas - This was only commercially available on VHS and is very out-of-print. It was shown with an additional scene when it aired on television. I obtained a sealed copy of the VHS from an Amazon seller, since it is out of print and spent quite a bit of time acquiring home-recorded copies until I got one that had the “extra” scene in the best quality I could find. It was a lot of work, but that scene was one of the best and I wanted to re-create the original tape…exactly. I transferred both sources to DVD and spliced in the missing scene.
• Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer - This is the 1964 classic. I owned the DVD so that was the source for this. However, after the initial airings, from 1965 up until 1997, the version that aired on television had a song titled “Fame and Fortune” that replaced a reprise of a song from earlier in the movie. Fortunately, that “Fame and Fortune” was included as a supplement on the DVD. There were a few other minor changes. I edited that clip back in and made a couple other tweaks to the DVD version to re-create a pristine version that is almost identical to the television version that was taped so long ago!
• Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales - This 1979 special was only available on a long-ago out-of-print VHS tape. I tracked down a sealed copy on Ebay, and transferred it to DVD.
• A Charlie Brown Christmas - This 1965 essential may be the best animated Christmas special. Ever. I transferred this from the official DVD.
• How The Grinch Stole Christmas! - Last year’s special edition of this 1966 classic looks better than ever. I used it as the source.
• Cabbage Patch Kids: First Christmas - This 1984 television special was transferred from a “like new” VHS tape that I purchased via Ebay. It is not available on DVD.
• Mickey’s Christmas Carol - Released theatrically in 1983, it has been available on a couple different DVDs. The catch was that when it aired on television, it was part of a Disney Christmas special that included three Disney animated shorts, bumpered with some specific introductions, etc. Those introductions were only available on my mom’s original VHS, so I used it as the source for those brief clips. For the main feature, I used “Mickey Mouse In Living Color, Volume 2.” This DVD set is out of print, but you can still get “Mickey’s Christmas Carol as part of Mickey’s Magical Christmas or Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 9. I had the three shorts on DVD already: Pluto’s Christmas Tree is on “Mickey Mouse In Living Color, Vol. 2″; Donald’s Snow Fight is on “The Chronological Donald, Vol. 2 and The Art of Skiing is available on “The Complete Goofy.” I cut together a recreation of the original special using all these sources.
• Frosty The Snowman - The 1969 classic was transferred from the official DVD.
• ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas - This is a little-known one from 1974. It is available as a bonus on the “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland” DVD.
• The Fat Albert Christmas Special - This is from 1977 and is available on DVD. It’s a great story.
• The Little Rascals Christmas Special - This 1979 special is really endearing and well worth watching if you ever catch on TV, though I haven’t seen it aired in years. It has only ever been available on an out-of-print VHS tape. I got a decent copy from an Amazon seller and transferred it to DVD.
• The Little Drummer Boy - This is the 1968 classic. I transferred it from the official DVD. This really should be re-released, because the DVD is beyond bad.

Finally, there are two others that were not part of “the tape” but were staples around our house as kids. When we were really young, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978) was in constant rotation. Taylor really likes this one. The other was a made-for-TV movie called The Night They Saved Christmas (1984). I really love this movie. It is available on VHS in the USA, but is available in a PAL/Region 2 DVD in the UK. I ordered a copy from Amazon.co.uk and converted it to Region Free / NTSC.

That about sums it up. Sorry for the insanely long post. I wanted to document all that was on that original tape, plus the sources I used to recreate it.

**Note, if you happen to be very obsessive about copyrights and all that, I own every single DVD and VHS listed above.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under In My Life, Movies/TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.