Picture from Muppet Wiki

It was Boxing Day morning in 1989 when I returned from my paper round and made a dash for the television before my brother and sisters could get to it. I was an obsessive video taper as a child and Christmas for me was as much about stocking up on blank videos, one of which was used to record (while I watched it - I recorded to keep) A Muppet Family Christmas. By this time it was two years old and hadn't been shown on British telly until then. Sadly it probably won't be again, more about that later. I taped it (at the beginning of a new cassette so it was easier to find) and watched it every year, at least in my memory we did. It is a good job I taped it because it was never on television again and probably won't be for much the same reason it hasn't had a proper outing on DVD, a messy pile of copyright problems. This production was Jim Henson's final work before his sad death in 1990 and as I have written before, the output from The Muppets has been hit and miss since then with some forgettable straight-to-video encounters and ropey television appearances (the X-Factor duet with Olly Murs was an embarrassing career low, how would you like to appear on X-Factor with Olly Murs?). I am not including The Muppet Christmas Carol of course and since the resurrection thanks to the two newest movies things have looked up and it no longer feels like The Muppets belong in our memories. With every The Muppets' Wizard of Oz a little piece of our childhood died and I would have preferred to never watch The Muppets again than endure Kermit's Swamp Years. 

The premise of A Muppet Family Christmas is that Fozzie Bear invites the cast to spend the holiday in the countryside with his mother despite not telling her in advance. Cut to Fozzie's mother preparing to take off for Malibu for a sunshine and surfing Christmas. (It's remarkable how much the actress playing Fozzie's mum looks like him, it must be his real mum although I didn't know she acted). She has rented her house out to an old man and Sprocket the dog from Fraggle Rock, this confused me because I recognised Sprocket and wondered why Henson couldn't find a new dog puppet. I found out later that Fraggle Rock was recorded with the puppet scenes all the same worldwide and the upstairs element was filmed especially for the territory it was being broadcast in, UK fans will remember the late Fulton Mackay as the lighthouse keeper. The Fraggles appear when Robin (Kermit's nephew) finds a hole in the cellar and goes exploring and they sing a song, and the crossover continues when the puppet cast of Sesame Street turn up singing carols and end up staying over despite it not being clear if they actually knew each other, of course Kermit used to be a news reporter years ago so maybe they kept in touch.

A Muppet Family Christmas is a lovely warm example of The Muppets at their best and teaches us that family is determined however you want it to be, Fozzie is the only Muppet spending any time with a blood relative after all but the gang wanted to be together. The script is full of the usual sharp one-liners and running gags and although there is very little in the way of a story there is a narrative concerning whether or not Miss Piggy will make it to the house through a bad storm to celebrate Christmas. In storage I have the UK version of the DVD which is unscathed but now deleted and only available second hand if you are lucky enough to find it. Incidentally, the DVD has as a special feature another Henson special The Christmas Toy. Made in 1986 it is about a child's bedroom of toys that come alive at night, if you haven't seen it then imagine Toy Story as that is where they nicked the story from. Due to the same issues this has been edited due to the introduction by Kermit the Frog. A Muppet Family Christmas, if shown at all, will have Fozzie and his freshly built snowman singing 'Sleigh Ride' removed along with other songs but now as The Muppets are owned by Disney and Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock are not there's little chance of it being seen again in its entirety. 

That is to say officially as thankfully some kind soul (several in fact) have cocked a snook at the laws of copyright and uploaded it to YouTube how it was meant to be seen. This is how we watched it today and how I recommend you do the same.

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