Week-to-Week: The precious moments of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
A special holiday edition of the newsletter reflects on the 1978 special in the wake of the passing of star Bob McGrath
Earlier this month, longtime Sesame Street cast member Bob McGrath passed away at the age of 90. As the show’s “music teacher,” Bob—who shares a name with his character—was responsible for a wide range of songs across his time on the show, although as with many of the human characters his role was often to serve as an intermediary of sorts for the muppets the show brought to life. In “People In Your Neighborhood,” for example, Bob serves as the interviewer, the song serving to help young viewers get acquainted with various professions.
While anyone who grew up watching Sesame Street no doubt remembers Bob, they might not recall specific segments he was part of. The truth is that most of Sesame Street’s segments aren’t meant to stick with us: they’re lessons for a particular moment, part of a larger pedagogical experience. Much like our earliest elementary school teachers, we’re more likely to recall the presence of characters like Bob in our childhoods than the actual lessons he taught in the vast majority of the hundreds of Sesame Street episodes he appeared in (IMDB has it at 462).
However, while much of Sesame Street may be ephemeral (unless you, like David Sims, are watching old episodes along with your toddler), the early adult cast were a part of moments that have gained significant longevity. The first is “Farewell Mr. Hooper,” the 1983 episode where the writers chose to acknowledge the death of castmember Will Lee as the adults on Sesame Street explain to Big Bird why the general store’s proprietor isn’t coming back. It’s a heartbreaking sequence—as Slate documented earlier this year—and has become a rare Sesame Street storyline to resonate beyond its initial airing (to the point where even those of us who weren’t alive at the time are likely aware of it).
But for me, Bob McGrath will always be associated with another piece of Sesame Street’s history that has endured at least in my family, where it is part of our ritual viewing every holiday season. The Emmy-winning Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is, alongside A Muppet Family Christmas (which I wrote about over a decade ago for The A.V. Club), something that we put on every Christmas Eve, despite the fact that neither myself nor my older brother were alive when it first aired in 1978. But through a combination of PBS continuing to air it during the holidays—I have distinct memories of pledge breaks—and an eventual home video release, the special has endured, and even made its way to HBO Max in 2020 (although it remains available on YouTube with Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” intact during the opening ice skating sequence).
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street tells a variety of different stories across its runtime. Its central story—the one you probably vaguely remember if you saw the special as a kid but haven’t revisited it—is about Big Bird’s faltering belief in Santa Claus, with Oscar the Grouch poking holes in the logic surrounding the magic of Christmas. Big Bird sets out on a mission to discover the truth about Santa, assigning Kermit the Frog and Grover the task of interviewing kids, testing whether Mr. Snuffleupagus can fit into a chimney (spoiler alert: he cannot), and eventually disappearing to the roof in order to see for himself. There’s also a fun runner with Cookie Monster trying to get his Christmas wish list to Santa, which devolves as every writing implement just reminds him of the cookies he’s asking for. And it opens with a scale-destroying but charming “Sesame Street on Ice” segment where Oscar’s trash can is turned into a wrecking ball.
However, the story that has always resonated most with me as I’ve revisited the special over the years is Bert and Ernie’s struggled to find gifts for one another on Christmas Eve. It’s a direct riff on “The Gift of the Magi,” with each friend deciding to trade away their most prized possession—Ernie’s rubber ducky and Bert’s paper clip collection—to give a gift inspired by those very possessions, not realizing the other is trading it away. Pedagogically, it’s a valuable lesson in selflessness, as you watch each character wrestle with the decision to give up something they care about, but realizing that doing something for their friend is more important. And unlike the story that inspired it, the universe ensures that this selflessness is rewarded—Mr. Hooper, who oversaw the trades, shows up at their door as they’re exchanging presents, bringing rubber ducky and the paper clips back to their proper home.
There’s no question that this story took on greater meaning when Lee passed away less than five years later. The scene embodies the relationship between the adults and muppets on Sesame Street, with Hooper watching over them but allowing them space to learn the lesson. Yes, he swoops in at the end to ensure that their Christmas is magical, but he clearly knows what’s up as soon as Ernie trades Rubber Ducky for an empty cigar box, and lets it play out because he knows the lesson will serve them well. And given Lee’s death, it’s such an indelible image to remember Mr. Hooper by, as though he’s still looking over everyone with his portrait that still to this day sits in Big Bird’s nest on Sesame Street.
As I’ve grown older, this part of the special has become increasingly emotional for me, and as I prepared to revisit the special this year I realized that McGrath’s passing is likely to transform another scene in similar ways. Bob doesn’t really have a significant storyline to speak of in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, but he gets a scene built around one of the special’s three original songs. After returning from the ice rink singing “True Blue Miracle” with the rest of the adult cast, Bob returns to his apartment, where he finds a group of children waiting for a music class, joined by his friend Linda. As he enters what is presumably his own apartment, he interrupts Linda teaching the kids sign language, and suggests that Linda read a magazine while he rehearses with the kids for some undefined event. He then leads them in “Keep Christmas With You (All Through The Year),” a song written for the special by David Axlerod and Sam Pottle (the latter of whom co-wrote the Muppet Show theme song).
It’s a notable scene because it features no muppets. Bob isn’t here as a translator or intermediary for muppet shenanigans—instead, this scene is about Bob, with Linda surprising him by revealing that all of the kids have learned the song’s chorus in ASL. Although there’s no followup on this plot beyond the song playing as a reprise with the lyrics onscreen at the end of the special, there’s still something so crystallizing about seeing Bob the music teacher in his element, earnestly leading the choir in the song that reflects the core message of the special.
I might argue that “True Blue Miracle” is the actual star of the soundtrack, mainly because I can’t hear the “gladness of living” lyric in this one without good-naturedly rolling my eyes, but that message has resonated with me more as the years have gone by. I woke up this morning to the Facebook post I wrote two years ago amid my first Christmas where I wasn’t able to gather with my family, and this year marks the first time I’ve spent the holiday separate from a partner. With all the ceremony and ritual around Christmas, it’s hard not to place so much importance on the day itself, and lament what’s lost when you’re not able to gather in the way you might want thanks to a global pandemic, a less flexible work schedule, or some other circumstance. And while the song is ostensibly about overcoming the detox we experience in the days after Christmas, its ode to the resilience of its spirit in our memories has a larger utility in navigating the change that inevitably comes as our relationship with the holiday evolves.
As expected, revisiting this song and the special as a whole carries extra weight with McGrath’s passing. According to his Wikipedia page (albeit from a dead link I can’t verify), Christmas Eve on Sesame Street was—along with “Farewell Mr. Hooper”—the highlight of the actor’s time playing Bob, and it really is a showcase of his generous spirit. And while I’ll always be sad when we lose Sesame Street actors that were a part of my childhood—Emilio Delgado, who played Luis, also passed earlier this year—the reality of the characters they played is that their spirits really are going to remain to look over us, whether we’re showing new generations specials like this one or simply embodying the messages they taught us in our daily lives.
Bob asked us to keep Christmas with us all through the year, much as Mr. Hooper taught Ernie and Bert a lesson about selflessness, and I feel so fortunate to be able to revisit their wisdom every Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.
Episodic Observations
I haven’t had a chance to revisit it yet this holiday, but in case you missed the news: Disney has finally uploaded a director’s cut of The Muppet Christmas Carol to Disney+ under the “Extras” section with “When Love is Gone” finally reinserted into the film (which had never happened before because they couldn’t find the original film negative).
As with A Muppet Family Christmas, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is an artifact of what I refer to as Sesame Street B.E., aka “before Elmo.” Big Bird being the central protagonist creates a very different vibe, and I do wonder how younger kids would connect when the “lead” is canonically 6 as opposed to 3 ½.
That said, if you’re an A.E. Sesame Street viewer, you might recall “Keep Christmas With You” as the closing number of Elmo Saves Christmas, which Bob still leads off.
One potential hazard of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is the muddying of waters regarding the Sesame Street/Muppets distinction, with Kermit making a cameo appearance. I recommend the Muppet Wiki’s detailed history of the character’s time on the show, and note that Kermit’s Twitter account was among those to reflect on McGrath’s passing.
While it stands out in the special itself that “Keep Christmas With You” doesn’t involve any muppets, as I looked for YouTube videos of McGrath’s songs you realize how common this was in the early years of the show when it came to the original songs. I wonder if there was an official point where they decided to make that change.
The third original song from the special, Oscar the Grouch’s “I Hate Christmas,” is notable for being excluded from the soundtrack version of the special, which tells Big Bird’s central story as a book-on-tape while also telling the “Gift of the Magi” story. You can find the album on Spotify.
If you’re wondering, I did make my boyfriend watch A Muppet Family Christmas (we didn’t get to Christmas Eve on Sesame Street), and I did discover that someone with limited Muppet literacy will be very confused by it, which was hard to parse as someone who can quote the entire special by heart. We’re working on it.
Happy holidays from me and everyone at Episodic Medium. Well, actually, I haven’t checked with each of them individually to confirm that they wish you well, but I’ve decided to do so on their behalf anyway. If you’re new, learn more about our weekly review coverage on our About page.
Obviously this one mean lot to me. We really put together timeless holiday message that hold up through ages, and it was case of whole ensemble stepping up and doing best work. And, of course, it terrific way to revisit old friends when we were all so young!