Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I loved watching this magical program as a child. I was mesmerized by those puppets!According to the TV section of the Philadelphia Inquirer from that year, "The Spirit of Christmas" was first broadcast on December 22, 1951 and was aired 5 times that holiday season. The Wikipedia article and the blog source it quotes are wrong.

This Christmas program is not going to please many people because it lacks a huge WOW FACTOR in terms of visuals. What it does so wonderfully is that it lets you use your imagination. Mabel Beaton uses puppets in this program to great effect. The story is pace beautifully. The film is made "WITH GREAT LOVE" which is apparent.The way this program was made and produced I am sure was the inspiration for the well know "Rankin-Bass" Christmas Specials. If you have kids watch this with them during the holidays. It may play on some PBS stations but it is however worth buying. Trust me it is GREAT.

I like so many others grew up watching The Spirit of Christmas in Pittsburgh. It was broadcast every year for a long time and then seemed to disappear. Two years ago, I was searching the internet for it which took a long time, because I didn't have a clue as to what it was called. I found a web site called TV Party that had a reference to it, and found a TV station in Philadelphia that gave it away as a promotion for a donation. Now here's the great news for us all, it's been released on DVD and even has extras! Type in The Spirit of Christmas on your search engine, and look for a site that says released on October 11, 2005. You can order it for $9.99Enjoy! Rich P.

Growing up in Philadelphia in the '50s this was on TV every night for at least a week prior to Christmas. Somehow my sister and brothers and I never got tired of it. Even back then we could see that it was pretty primitive - you could almost see the hand making the camels 'walk' as they carried the Wise Men to Bethlehem. That was part of the charm, I think.For the longest time it disappeared from the screen, and as I married and had children of my own I regretted that they would not be able to see it and enjoy it as I had. Then somehow our local PBS affiliate got ahold of it and started playing it during pledge drives at Christmas and offering it as an incentive to contribute a donation. That's how I got my copy. My kids were all under ten at the time and I showed it to them. After viewing it a time or two they labeled it as old fashioned and weren't interested in seeing it after that. I was somewhat disappointed, but came to the conclusion that the MTV / Nintendo generation couldn't appreciate it for what it was.The funny thing is, last evening I was watching TV with my middle daughter - now 19 - and a notorious channel changer, and SHE had the remote. This usually means seeing maybe 5% of 20 programs instead of one whole one. Well, she switched and found The Spirit of Christmas during the Nativity segment, stopped, and we both watched it to the end - no interruptions! I didn't say anything to her about it, but it made me happy to think that maybe it reminded her of when SHE was little. I hope so.The last thing that gets me is the unnamed host of the show with his inch wide necktie and dark suit saying that this was a gift from 'your phone company'. Pray, whatever phone company is that? Have you seen anything from MCI, Sprint, or Verizon that doesn't have an underlying "buy from me" subliminal message? No? Didn't think so! Don't hold your breath! I should know - I work for one of these guys.