A Mac Davis Special: Christmas Odyssey - 2010 (1978 TV Special) User Reviews

I Remember This Christmas Special...

[jgcase · 7/10 · 27 January 2018]

...39 years later, so it apparently made a significant impression on me at the time. I do not share the earlier reviewer's distaste for it, however. The show was a parable that explored a dystopic future where official paganism (presented as a worship of materialism) had overwritten the Christian meaning of Christmas, replacing it with a cultural "Commerce Day"--and, in fact, keeping the traditional ways of Christmas had actually become illegal. As I recall, the show ends with the chilling sound of police sirens in the distance, coming closer, presumably enroute to arrest the family who rebelliously dared to celebrate CHRISTMAS.

The special thus provoked thought: Have I allowed Christmas to become merely Commerce Day in my own heart?

Oy.

[Micheaux · 4/10 · 25 October 2012]

What "Green Christmas" by Stan Freberg says in roughly three minutes is spread to the length of this show. The children sing ditties like (to the tune of "Jingle Bells"),

"Every Commerce Day, We get lots and lots of stuff, No matter how much we get, It never is enough!"

Outside of Mac Davis singing a Christmas carol at the end, I recall (with resulting shivers and night sweats) Ted Knight, dressed as Santa, singing "Christmas isn't Christmas anymawwwww!

Between this and the "Star Wars Holiday Special" I am surprised I own a TV.

One of the Worst Christmas Specials Ever

[PeaceAndLongLife · 1/10 · 9 May 2022]

I remember this show. The theme is that the "commercialization" of Christmas had reached the point by 2010 that the religious celebrations were outlawed. You would be arrested by the police. Maybe the fact that it was so bad is the reason it's never been rebroadcast.

It was an early warning from the "keep Christ in Christmas" Christians.

Well, as of 2022, the religious celebrations of Christmas are still legal, though some "war on Christmas" Christians decry the fact that they can't use the public square to flaunt their religion during the holidays. They can still celebrate in their churchs and their homes. Maybe they don't like the fact than non-Christians can enjoy the holidays without celebrating the birth of Jesus. Maybe they don't like the fact that people are discovering that the holidays were a time of celebration, focused on the Winter Solstice, long before the rise of Christianity. (Kirk Cameron's "Saving Christmas" was a terrible attempt to explain away the pagan origins of many of the holiday traditions.)

This show is among the worst Christmas specials ever. It's down there with the "Star Wars Holiday Special" (also never rebroadcast), Kirk Cameron's "Saving Christmas", and "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."

Truth about Commercialization

[garyleiendecker · 10/10 · 3 December 2022]

The story tells the truth about the commercialization of christmas and the loss of the real Christmas. I really loved the part where Santa Clause was shown bowing down to the infant Jesus in the manger scene. It brings back the true story of the Christ Child and exposes the hyprocacy and emptiness of the way we all treat this sacred day. May you all return to the true Jesus and find how the Creator of the Universe came to redeem all who would follow the narrow door to Truth and bypass the highway to Hell. Your free choice of eternity. The Creator set the rules for a full and complete life here on earth.