Elmo Saves Christmas

Elmo Saves Christmas is a sixty minute fantasy comedy television special released on PBS on December 2, 1996.[1] It was released to VHS that same year. Inspired by the 1892 short story "Christmas Every Day" by William Dean Howells, Elmo learns that Christmas does not occur every day. The program was filmed in Sesame Street's usual home, the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York City. Footage from the film It's a Wonderful Life also appears in the program and after the credits.

Plot

Elmo stays up on Christmas Eve to meet Santa Claus. He falls asleep, but is awakened by Santa stuck in the chimney, helps him out, and gets to choose a stuffed animal or a magical snow globe. He chooses the globe and is granted three wishes, wasting his first wish on a glass of water.

On Christmas Day, Elmo, excited by all the joy and cheer, wishes for it to be Christmas every day. Everyone is excited, but Santa explains that Christmas would no longer be special if it occurs every day. Lightning, a reindeer-in-training, takes Elmo to the future to see the effects of his wish. Big Bird is sad that Snuffy is in Cincinnati with his grandmother, the Fix-It Shop is closed every day, It's a Wonderful Life plays on every channel, Santa’s elves never get a vacation, and other holidays never come. Oscar the Grouch enjoys all the misery, declaring it a “bah, humbug Christmas everyday".

By next Christmas, Sesame Street is ruined, the Count is "all Christmassed out,” the carolers have lost their voices, Christmas trees are an endangered species, Big Bird cries about missing Snuffy, every business has gone bankrupt, and Santa has retired to Florida. Elmo uses his last wish to make it Christmas once a year again, but the snow globe breaks before the wish is made. So he and Lightning go back in time to the Christmas Eve when Elmo first pulled Santa from the chimney, and Elmo chooses a stuffed animal as his new gift.

Snuffy returns, telling Big Bird that his grandmother came to Sesame Street instead. In the end, Elmo learns that although Christmas cannot be every day, everyone can keep their Christmas spirit alive all year.

Cast

The cast of Sesame Street

The Muppet Performers

Additional Muppets performed by Peter Linz, Noel MacNeal, Jim Martin, John Tartaglia, Jim Kroupa, Alison Mork and Matt Vogel

References
  1. Geiss, Tony (12 July 1996). "Elmo Saves Christmas". Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
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