MovieChat Forums > The Christmas Toy (1986) Discussion > Nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like a de...

Nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like a dead clown.

posted 14 years ago by savgmouse
4 replies | jump to latest

I first saw this special in 1986 when I was eight years old, and I spent a good part of my adult life thinking that I must have dreamed most of it. Because it seems odd to me now that children were sat down to a Christmas special whose major plot point involved sentient toys *beep* DYING.

Okay, so technically they weren't dead so much as frozen forever, which, and I think Ted Williams would agree with me on this, is pretty much the same thing as DEAD. And yes, (spoiler) at the end they bring the DEAD toys back to life but still. Dead toys, man. Merry Christmas, kids. Sleep tight.

Plus there's the horrifically disturbing doll who I think is honestly more frightening than Chucky. Granted she's not as pants-crappingly terrifying as the puppets from LAZY TOWN, but what is?

Sometimes I wonder how so many of us 80's kids managed to make it to adulthood with even a sliver of our sanity intact. Or did any of us? Huh.

Actually, I do still like THE CHRISTMAS TOY, and I'm giving my nephew a copy for Christmas. Because some mental illness is hereditary, but some you have to pass along manually.

"heroine & fudge... what could it mean?" -tom servo

[–] BenjaminDempster 14 years ago

I completely agree! I just loved that creepy pile of frozen toys :P

R.I.P Bernie Mac, Dimebag Darrell, Phil Hartman, River Phoenix & Heather O'Rourke

[–] konrad4489 14 years ago

Come on it wasn't THAT horrible. There wouldn't have been much of a plot otherwise. As you said yourself, they came back to life. But I was 12, so it wasn't as scary to me. I like pretty much everything muppet realated while Jim was alive. Not as much the stuff after his death :(

[–] zeta1983-1 13 years ago

I saw this when I was very young and just recently rediscovered it after asking someone about it on the need to know board. I wouldn't call this disturbing but it sure stuck with me over the years.

[–] amandalajoy 11 years ago

My mom taped this when I was 5. And left my big sister and I to watch it in the den. Suddenly, from my parents' room, she heard a horrible wailing coming from the den. Ran to investigate. Literally thought I had fallen off the couch and cracked my head open. No. Just Mew.