There’s more....

In the case of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," baby-sitting my nephew forced me to view the special through the eyes of a person momentarily in charge of a 3-year-old. What I learned wasn’t the true meaning of Christmas or the dangers of over-commercialization, but that whipping other people around with a blanket looks like excellent fun. Hey, let's fling Linus to major head trauma! Peace on Earth. The child thinks this is hilarious, which leads me to fear that he will try it with his baby brother, and I will somehow get blamed.

We watch a lot of ABC Family Channel this time of year.  We know all the words to the Snow Miser and Heat Miser’s songs.  DH and I always get a chuckle out of the policeman who begins to write a ticket for the two elves who have ridden in to Southtown with their reindeer, Vixen, and says...”Riding a Vixen the wrong way down a one way street”.   I know... juvenile.  

We’ve seen Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer more times than I can count this past month.  Here’s what Ellis has to say about the classic Rudolph:

There is no workplace so wretched, however, as that in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Much has been made of Santa's incredible sense of entitlement in this film, and, as we can see, the North Pole is very much a top-down operation, with counterproductive attitudes issuing directly from the boot of St. Nick.

Every time Donner says, "No! This is man's work" as he stomps out of the cave, I shake my head over the fact that he still has a job when he comes back.

However, absolutely none of this excuses the trollopy behavior of Clarice, Rudolph’s little lady friend. She's filling exactly the role the men surrounding her expect her to, and her bow-headed self requires saving at the hands of a non-licensed dentist and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge destructor Yukon Cornelius.
Plus, she just met Rudolph, and she lets him walk her home. And before they've taken two steps? Full body contact. Then, at the end of the film, while everybody else is working, she's standing around under the mistletoe. Help a sister out, Clarice, and help yourself.

This all completely reminds me of Rachel’s diary about warning labels on the DVDs of old Sesame Street episodes.  Do we need that with these cartoons?  I guess Sesame Street’s saving grace is that the shows are supposed to be educational.  The Classic Christmas cartoons are pure entertainment... nothing more.  

But maybe they can be educational.  I’ve explained to Grant, who is 7 ½ that Donner saying (and yes, I do cringe when he says it) “this is man’s work” is ridiculous.  He gets that.  I think we can still watch the cartoons without worrying about any underlying social messages, because the greatest influence a child has are his parents.  If you teach your children these things aren’t acceptable, they’ll grow up knowing it to be true.  

Oh... and I also have to mention that Ellis gripes about Frosty’s ala Cookie Monster’s pipe in the Alister Cookie sketch.  Puleez... gimme a break.

Should we toss out all the old classic Christmas cartoons?  Do they need warning labels?  What say you, MotherTalkers?