20 essential classic holiday films to watch this year

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Many kids may have never read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but they’ve at least seen the Muppets interpretation of it. The Muppet Christmas Carol ushered in a resurgence of the felted favorites after the one-two punch of The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Take Manhattan. Released two years after the death of Muppets founder, Jim Henson, the adaptation of Dickens’ novel was hoped to inspire a fruitful union between the Muppets and the Walt Disney Company, who’d been trying to buy them for years. The deal would fall through at the time, but we still have this snow-coated gem.

Like A Christmas Carol, the film follows famous miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine) who is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve. In interacting with them he finds out about the lives of the people around him, all of whom he’s pushed away to chase money, and realize the true meaning of the season.

The story is familiar, but what the Muppets end up doing is bringing their own patented brand of insanity to a somewhat stodgy tale. The puppet effects are brilliant, particularly in the spirits themselves. Michael Caine’s curmudgeonly Scrooge is pitch-perfect. And I’m fairly certain Kermit the Frog was born to play Bob Cratchit. Add the catchy Muppet songs and you have a Christmas classic!

Rent on Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.