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Many Christmas stories have been popularized as movies and TV specials. Since the 1980s, many video editions are sold and resold every year during the holiday season.
A notable example is the film It's a Wonderful Life, which turns the theme of A Christmas Carol on its head.
The 1964 stop-motion version of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, narrated by Burl Ives, became an annual holiday tradition on television after its first telecast.
Perhaps the most famous animated television production is the 1965 production A Charlie Brown Christmas, wherein Charlie Brown tries to address his feelings of dissatisfaction with the holidays by trying to find a deeper meaning in them.
But its popularity is rivaled by the 1966 animated version of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by horror film star Boris Karloff. On British Television it has become traditional for Channel 4 to show the animated film of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman.
Radio and television programs aggressively pursue entertainment and ratings through their cultivation of Christmas themes. Radio stations broadcast carols and Christmas songs, including classical music such as the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah. Among other classical pieces inspired by Christmas are the Nutcracker Suite, adapted from Tchaikovsky's ballet score, and Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Television networks add Christmas themes to their standard programming, run traditional holiday movies, and produce a variety of Christmas specials.
There are a variety of Christmas media and entertainment during this holliday season, Christmas music and carols, poetries, stories and many activities to ply at Christmas Eve or during the holidays.
To learn more about this topic, click in one of these categories aside – and Have a Great Holliday!
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