''A Garfield Christmas'' is a 1987 American animated

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

based on the ''

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

'' comic strip, created by Jim Davis. It is directed by

Phil Roman Philip Roman (born December 21, 1930) is an American animator and the director of the ''Peanuts'' and ''Garfield'' animated specials. He is the founder of the animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment. Early life Philip Roman w ...

and stars

Lorenzo Music Gerald David "Lorenzo" Music (May 2, 1937 – August 4, 2001) was an American actor, composer, musician, performer, writer and producer. Music began his career in the 1960s with his wife, Henrietta, forming the comedy duo Gerald and His Hen. He ...

as the voice of

the house cat, as well as Thom Huge,

Gregg Berger Gregory Alan Berger (born December 10, 1950) is an American voice actor. He is known for his roles as Jecht from ''Final Fantasy X'' and the ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'' games, Grimlock from ''The Transformers (TV series), The Transformers'', Myste ...

, Julie Payne,

Pat Harrington Jr. Daniel Patrick Harrington Jr. (August 13, 1929 – January 6, 2016) was an American Emmy Award–winning stage and television actor, best known for his role as building superintendent Dwayne Schneider on the sitcom '' One Day at a Time'' (1975 ...

, David L. Lander and

Pat Carroll Patricia Ann Carroll (May 5, 1927 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress and comedian. She is best known for providing the voice of Ursula in ''The Little Mermaid''. She made guest appearances in many popular television series including '' ...

. The special is about Garfield spending

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

with the Arbuckle family on their farm, and discovering the true meaning of Christmas. Davis, who wrote the teleplay, cited it as semi-autobiographical. The special was first broadcast on December 21, 1987, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and was often rebroadcast in subsequent years at Christmastime: until 2000 (December 14, 2000 was the final CBS broadcast). It was nominated for the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series. In the following list, the first titles listed in gold are the winners; those not in gold are nominees, which ...

and has been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. This was the seventh of twelve

Garfield television specials The Garfield television specials are a series of twelve half-hour long American animated television specials based on the ''Garfield'' comic strip of the same name created by Jim Davis. Most specials were directed by Phil Roman, written by Davi ...

made between 1982 and 1991.

Plot

Jon Arbuckle Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle is a fictional character from the ''Garfield'' comic strip by Jim Davis. He also appears in the animated television series ''Garfield and Friends'' and ''The Garfield Show'', two live-action/animated feature films, a ...

wakes up

on Christmas Eve morning, telling him that they're going to the countryside to celebrate Christmas with the Arbuckle family on their farm. Garfield is annoyed that they always go to the farm and the family never comes to Jon's house. During his drive to his family's farm, Jon talks about Christmases he had when he was a boy, with his parents, brother Doc Boy, and Grandma, while Garfield listens with great cynicism. Upon arriving, Grandma and Garfield quickly grow a special bond. While Jon, Garfield, and Odie take a walk, Grandma spikes Mom's sausage gravy with chili powder, bragging that her sausage gravy just won the Greene County Fair. Jon and Garfield return for dinner, while Odie works on something secretive and then sneaks back into the house. After dinner, they decorate the

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

. Jon asks Garfield to put the star on, as no one else can reach the top of the tree. As the family sings Christmas songs, Garfield finds Grandma sitting alone; she reminisces about her late husband, recalls how he used to provide for her and the family, and laments that Christmas is when she misses him most. Dad, with great reluctance, reads '' Binky, the Clown Who Saved Christmas'' to an eager Jon and Doc Boy. At night, Garfield notices Odie's suspicious activity and follows him to the barn, seeing Odie making something out of seemingly random implements. While there, Garfield stumbles upon a cache of letters that he concludes must be at least 50 years old. On Christmas morning, just when it seems like all the presents have been opened, Garfield gives Grandma the letters he found in the barn. These letters were love notes written to Grandma by her husband from when they first met each other and married. Garfield also finds out that Odie has been busy making his ultimate Christmas gift: a homemade back scratcher. Garfield gladly thanks and embraces Odie for the gift he made. This is a rare glimpse at Garfield's softer side, as Garfield learns one of the true meanings of Christmas: "It's not the giving, it's not the getting, it's the loving! There, I said it. Now get outta here."

Voice cast

Songs

* "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" performed by

Lou Rawls Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song " You'll Never Find Another Love like Min ...

* "Can't Wait Till Christmas" performed by Thom Huge,

, and

* "

O Christmas Tree "" (; "O fir tree"), known in English as "O Christmas Tree", is a German Christmas song. Based on a traditional folk song that was unrelated to the holiday, it became associated with the traditional Christmas tree. History The modern lyrics were ...

" performed by

* "Christmas in Your Heart" performed by ensemble and

Desirée Goyette Desirée Goyette-Bogas (''née'' Goyette) is an American singer, composer, lyricist and voice-over artist. She has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and has voiced such characters as Betty Boop, Barbie, Nermal, Petunia Pig, Honey Bunny a ...

* "You Can Never Find an Elf When You Need One" performed by

and

* "A Good Old-Fashioned Christmas" (ending song) performed by ensemble "Here Comes Garfield" from the special of the same name can be heard instrumentally when Jon wakes up Garfield from his dream.

Production

In writing the teleplay, Davis based it on experiences he had celebrating Christmas with his family on their farm in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, with many Arbuckles modeled after Davis family members. Davis' real-life brother was known as Doc Boy. Davis referred to the story as "very autobiographical", adding "That was ''my'' Christmas on the farm". However, he noted Grandma was an entirely fictional character, added for the emotional subplot of having time with loved ones at Christmas.

, Thom Huge and

reprise their respective roles from past films as Garfield, Jon Arbuckle, and Odie. Julie Payne and

voice Jon's mother and father, while David L. Lander voices Jon's brother, Doc Boy. Grandma was voiced by

, who at the time was becoming increasingly popular in voice work. After the 1970s, she was working on ''

Legends of the Superheroes ''Legends of the Superheroes'' is an umbrella title for two 60-minute live-action television specials produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired on NBC on January 18 and 25, 1979. The series was loosely based on Hanna-Barbera's ''Super Fri ...

'' and ''

Pound Puppies Pound Puppies is a toy line that was created by Tonka in the 1980s. It later inspired an animated TV special, two animated TV series, and a feature film. Shipments of the toys over five years generated sales of $300 million in 35 countries. The ...

''.

Broadcast and release

The episode first aired on December 21, 1987. According to ''

Bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skir ...

'', the special was rebroadcast every year until 2000. It often played along with the 1965 ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' (briefly subtitled ''featuring Good ol' Charlie Brown'') is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run ext ...

'' special ''

A Charlie Brown Christmas ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' is a 1965 animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip ''Peanuts'', by Charles M. Schulz, and features the voices of Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Tracy Str ...

.'' The home video version reanimates some scenes, including the part where Grandma talks to Garfield about her late husband. In addition to using a different animation style, the altered scene shows a picture of the husband, which was not present in the broadcast. In 2004, ''A Garfield Christmas'' was released on the DVD '' Garfield Holiday Celebrations'', along with '' Garfield's Halloween Adventure'' and '' Garfield's Thanksgiving''. It appeared 23rd in TV DVD sales for the week of November 10, 2007. In 2014, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' reported copies of the DVD "were selling on

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

like rare collector's items". ''Garfield'' holiday-themed specials, including ''A Garfield Christmas'', were also receiving millions of views on the website

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. It was consequently re-released on another DVD compilation, ''The Garfield Holiday Collection'', on November 4, 2014, sold only by

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

, and was also made available for digital download on November 11 that year.

Reception

The special was nominated for the

at the

40th Primetime Emmy Awards The 40th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, August 28, 1988. The ceremony was broadcast on Fox from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. The ceremony was held earlier than its traditional September date to avoid confl ...

. In 2004, ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' ranked the special 10th on its 10 Best Family Holiday Specials list. In 2013, Scott Neumyer of ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'' called it "a delightful little short featuring everyone's favorite cantankerous orange cat". That year, Jef Rouner of the ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown Houston, Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely ...

'' described the episode as "depressing" and mostly unfunny, remarking that since Grandma cannot hear Garfield's thoughts, "what we're watching is a sad old widow so desperately lonely without her late husband that she has begun talking out loud to a visiting cat". In 2014, Johnny Brayson of ''

'' called it "a bona fide classic".

References

External links

* * (official ''Garfield & Friends'' channel) {{DEFAULTSORT:Garfield Christmas, A 1980s American television specials 1980s animated television specials 1987 American animated films 1987 in American television 1987 television specials CBS television specials Christmas television specials Film Roman television specials CBS original programming Television shows directed by Phil Roman Garfield television specials Television shows written by Jim Davis (cartoonist) Animated Christmas films Animated Christmas television specials 1980s Christmas films American Christmas television specials