Have you ever wondered how it is that Santa, who is a tad on the portly side, manages to get down all those teeny-tiny chimneys?
There’s a good chance, particularly in your younger years, that you have mused on the physics of present delivering on Christmas Eve, and if so, you are in very good, bright yellow-feathered company.
Dear sweet Big Bird (the late, much-missed Carol Spinney) spends much of Sesame Street’s gloriously warm and lovely classic 1978 festive special, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, wondering how it is that Santa gets his job done.
Fretting might actually be a more accurate word since after Oscar, in his usual pot-stirring way, asks how someone so large could get into spaces so small, Big Bird begins to worry that neither he nor any of the other kids on the street like his best friend, Patty (Debbie Chen) are going to get a single present this year.
He’s so worried about one of the most crucial parts of Christmas for any kid simply not happening that he enlists the help of Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) and Grover (Frank Oz) to do a series of quintessentially improv vox pops with all kinds of kids to know if they have any idea how this impossible feat takes place.
They actually end up having all kinds of wonderfully offbeat ideas, which Kermit recaps in an amusing segment towards the end of the special, but as Patty explains, she’s a kid too and she doesn’t know so how how could any of the others know?
It turns out they don’t and Big Bird’s quest to get to the bottom of the mystery ends up seeing him almost freezing his giblets on the snowy roof of the main Sesame Street residential building, with only pigeons for company, in the hope that he’ll see Santa doing his thing.
Naturally he misses it happening after he falls asleep but that’s not the greatest gift of the night; no, what really makes Christmas Eve on Sesame Street come affectingly alive is the same caring spirit that infuses the show itself, with everyone from Gordon and Susan (Roscoe Orman and Loretta Long respectively) to Bob and Mr. Hooper (Bob McGrath and Will Lee respectively) dropping everything to find him.
It doesn’t matter what else they had planned for the night – they need to find their friend or Christmas won’t even be a little bit magical or worthwhile.
This sort of all-inclusive, richly thoughtful and emotionally enveloping dynamic is nothing new to Sesame Street, which has always fostered the idea that everyone, no matter who or what they are, has a place on New York’s most loving and well-educated street and that nothing is more important than looking after those around you.
That soul-liftingly approach finds expression in another ongoing segment in the show where Ernie (Jim Henson) and Bert (Frank Oz) selflessly give up their most precious possessions to bring happiness to the other person.
In order to secure a soap dish for Ernie to put his precious rubber ducky on, Bert trades in his treasured paper clip collection to Mr. Hooper, while Ernie gives up his Rubber Ducky so he can gift Bert a cigar box, also from Mr. Hooper’s store, on the big day.
The sacrifice these two friends are prepared to make for each other is an absolute joy to watch, tugging monumentally at the heartstrings and teaching another valuable lesson to kids and parents watching that real love, the kind that gives and unconditionally supports, often involves giving up something vitally important but that it’s always worth it if it makes the other person happy.
That sage seasonal lesson is bolstered even more when Mr. Hooper drops by to give Bert and Ernie their gifts, and upon opening them, in which are, of course, Rubber Ducky for Ernie and the paper clip collection for Bert, they discover just how far the other went to make their friend’s Christmas merry and bright.
In amongst all these beautiful lessons, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, which begins with live-action versions of the inhabitants of Sesame Street and their human neighbours at an ice skating party, there are moments of inspired lunacy such as when Cookie Monster eats the pencil, telephone and typewriter he needs to write his gift list letter to Santa, and when Cookie again is aghast to find out that in addition to not getting cookies from Santa for Christmas, that he’s expected to leave some out with milk for the big red guy to enjoy.
Spliced with some truly touching musical interludes including “Feliz Navidad”, by José Feliciano (while Big Bird skates with one of the children), “True Blue Miracle” (sung during the gang’s trip from the ice rink back to Sesame Street), “I Hate Christmas” (sung by Oscar the Grouch outside on Sesame Street) and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (sung by Bert and Ernie after opening their Christmas presents to each other) – thanks to Wikipedia for this information – Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is like a great big festive hug all the way through.
It reminds us again and again of the magic of the season but more importantly, of how precious it is to belong and being care for by others, and how even when it looks like Christmas may not happen the way you want it to that, that everyone will be there for you anyway, which is perhaps the most precious Christmas gift of them all.