As the Christmas season was drawing nearer, it was time for the folks in the Hundred Acre Woods to begin their preparations. First thing's first: telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas. As Christopher Robin wrote the letter, Rabbit requested a new fly swatter to deter the bugs from his garden, Eeyore wanted an umbrella to keep the snow off his house, Tigger wanted a snowshoe for his tail so he can bounce in the snow, Piglet wasn't sure what he wanted, so put a gift card down for him, and for each request, Pooh suggested adding a jar of honey. Christopher Robin finishes off the letter by requesting a sled for himself. Now, they have a very unique way of sending mail in the Hundred Acre Woods. There are no post offices or mail boxes, so in order to send this letter to Santa Claus at the North Pole, they wait for the weathervane to point north and send the letter flying with the wind. I've heard of airmail, but this... Well, if you're like me, you'll notice something was missing from that previous scene, and Piglet noticed too, because the very next day, he hurried over to Pooh's house, where he was decorating the tree he had drawn on the wall. Well, that's a good way to save fifty bucks. Piglet informs his friend that they forgot to include a present for him in the letter. This just goes to show how selfless Pooh Bear really is, as he was completely thinking of his friends that night and never once about himself, but then, doesn't that say something about his friends who didn't think of him either? No matter, they have to get that letter back, and Pooh's idea would be to fly after it, sailing on a balloon blown up by Piglet. Unfortunately, it doesn't go quite as planned and the friends have a nasty fall, but luckily, they discover the letter to Santa stuck in a bush. Pooh asks Eeyore and Tigger for a pencil, and while they don't have one, suggest asking Rabbit who, at that moment, was battling an army of bugs who had infiltrated his house and ate away the carrots he had hanging on his Christmas tree. The only weapon Rabbit had was his broken fly swatter. As you can see, all these guys are in desperate need of the gifts they requested from Santa. Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore show up at Rabbit's house and begin working on the new letter, and quickly get carried away by adding new, more plentiful requests. Realizing it was half past the day before Christmas, they snap out of it and seal up the letter, sending Pooh and Piglet to mail it while the others precure a large Christmas tree for all their stuff.
The weathervane swayed back and forth, but Pooh assumes the letter will know its way and sends it flying, just as Gopher was awakened out of a sound sleep to chop down a tree for the others, and despite his size, he has the strength of a Herculean god. With the tree all set up, even using Eeyore for an ornament, it looks like the gang is set for Christmas. Pooh says this will be the most wonderful Christmas ever, and if you've seen as many Christmas specials as I have, you know it's never a good sign when a character says that, because it's only after those words are uttered does everything go straight to hell. And here we go: first, the letter to Santa gets a return to sender courtesy of nature, and with Christmas being only a few hours away, Pooh decided that he and Piglet would have to bring Christmas to their friends themselves. First thing he does is don a Santa suit and pay Tigger a visit. He almost comes in through the front door, but as Tigger pointed out, Santa is supposed to come down the chimney. So, Santa Pooh climbs up to the roof and barrels down into the fireplace. He brings Tigger the snowshoe he wanted, or rather, a barrel with a spring-loaded boot on the bottom. It worked very well... for a few seconds. Now, onto Rabbit's house, where he was gladly feeding the bugs his carrots, as from his point of view, it will be their last meal, once he gets that fly swatter and atomizer he'd asked for, then it's curtains for those little green pests. This time, Pooh climbs in through the window, as I don't think Rabbit's house has a chimney. He leaves the gift and quickly makes his exit, and what sort of makeshift present did Rabbit get? A teapot with a connected pump handle. Needless to say, it has no effect on the bugs, who laugh in his face, then start swatting him on the behind with his old fly swatter. He runs into Tigger outside, and they both see what "Santa" had brought for Eeyore: a "mobile home", or rather he was strapped into a suitcase. They decide that either Santa has a really sick sense of humor, or he was an imposter, so they set out to find him. At that moment, Pooh was seated on a makeshift sled for Christopher Robin, which he was expecting Piglet to pull. Not very familiar with physics, are you, Pooh Bear? When they find him, Rabbit dares him to make he and "reindeer" fly. The attempt causes them to crash, revealing who this holly jolly imposter was: Winnie the Pooh. With the charade over with, the gang decide to try one last time to send the letter, but unfortunately, there was no wind, so Pooh decreed that he would travel to the North Pole and deliver the letter himself. What a selfless bear. His friends bid him a tearful goodbye and he sets off on his quest, but sadly, he doesn't get far before the wind picks back up and blows the letter right out of his hands. Now, all seemed lost. Pooh couldn't deliver Santa the letter to get his friends their presents, and as for Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, and Rabbit, all they wanted for Christmas now was to have their friend back. Well, at least they get that when Pooh returns, saying his mission failed and that his friend won't get their presents, but Piglet assures him that as long as they have him back, they don't need any. Well, luckily they can have their cake and eat it too, as Christopher Robin slides in on his new sled with special deliveries from Santa Claus: new fly swatter for Rabbit, a snowshoe for Tigger, an umbrella for Eeyore, a... beer stein with a propeller(?) on it for Piglet, and although Pooh received a pot of honey, he felt he didn't deserve it. But he does use it to give Christopher Robin a hug, and he's only too glad to return the favor for his silly old bear.
Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too, great Christmas special and great follow-up to The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which concluded the same year this special aired. It saw the return of Paul Winchell as Tigger, who had left the series a year prior and turned the duty of voicing that bouncing tiger to Jim Cummings. All the voice actors did a great job as always. If you're a fan of the New Adventures series as I am, you will have noticed that the plot has been recycled from an episode called "The Wishing Bear." In it, Christopher Robin introduces the concept of wishing upon a star to Pooh, but when the bear tries it out on his own, giving wishes from all his friends, it gets covered by a cloud, making him think he exhausted its magical power and decrees he would make the wishes come true himself. It plays out in a very similar fashion to how Pooh brought presents to his friends here, and in both cases, things don't go as expected and so in the end, Pooh makes the sacrifice to become the new star, much like he volunteers to deliver the letter to Santa himself. Both stories resolve in a similar fashion as Christopher Robin comes to the rescue. This holiday season, I recommend journeying back to the Hundred Acre Wood and joining your old friends for Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too, they're all still there, just as you remember them from your childhoods, and see that it isn't about what you receive, but what you give.
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