Jessica and I didn’t meet until we attended the same college, but we have found over the years of our being together that we did share certain aspects of growing up. One such thing was that we both called it the “California Raisins Christmas,” though neither of us knew the actual, correct name of the Christmas special. This was an anthology of sorts, a series of songs accompanied by stop-motion animated characters.
Having been grasped by nostalgia, we were determined to show this Christmas special to Namine. Unfortunately, we could not find the entire thing on YouTube. We found several segments, though out of order and not titled in such a way that we could reliably construct a playlist with which to watch the entire thing from start to finish. We did learn the official name, however: Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Special1.
Through some Internet sleuthing, Jessica found a channel on the Roku where we could watch the entire Christmas special, and for free, no less. The name of the channel is OSI74, which apparently stood for “Outer Space International.” Its focus is older, nostalgic movies and shows — which aligns perfectly with our purpose that evening.
There have been times, I will admit, that our introducing Namine to things we’ve grown up with has not always landed. There are some things, though — like Scooby Doo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for example — that she’s come to love as well. We’re very happy that the California Raisins is another nostalgic throwback that’s added to that list.
- The discovery of the special’s true name also led to another discovery. Claymation, which we have been using (pretty much our entire lives) to describe any stop-motion animation, is actually a trademarked name. This is not dissimilar to using the trademarked name “Kleenex” to describe any facial tissue, or “Band-Aid” to describe any small bandage. ↩︎
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