The Wonderfully Weird Rankin/Bass Christmas Specials

Holiday greetings, lovely readers! Before you get to sipping eggnog, snogging under the mistletoe, and overdosing on tinsel, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! And what does Christmas mean? That’s right, Christmas specials! Every Christmas since I was a kid I would park myself directly in front of my television and watch a never-ending series of stop-animation Christmas specials. I recently realized that the storyline for each special was actually pretty strange. Some were weirder than others. I’m going to cover the more memorable of these specials, beginning with the greatest reindeer of all.

Fanfiction Fridays: The Houseguests by MaybeIfI

So since Rise of the Guardians just came out, I figured we’d give you a Rise of the Guardians fanfic to help end the week (and also because fanfiction for this story creeps Saika out, and she’s the one who will be editing this post). Though, for anyone else who might be concerned, the fic I’m about to talk about is entirely platonic and does not feature a romance between a giant rabbit and an underaged three-hundred-year-old boy.

No, this is actually a cute, family-oriented fic that takes place after the movie, and involves Jack finding a home among the other guardians, when beforehand he hadn’t been accepted by them. This fic is also something of a sequel to a one shot about North having a son and the mistakes he made in raising him, mistakes that he’s concerned he’ll repeat with Jack if Jack decides to move in and live with him.

So the story starts with Jack heading back to the North Pole and raiding all the cookie dough from Santa’s kitchen. And after he does this for two days straight, he naturally develops a bit of stomachache, which makes North freak out and think he’s dying. North, not knowing what to do and still fearing that what happened to his son will happen to Jack, calls Bunnymund and Tooth to come over and help him deal with this catastrophe.

Following that, Bunnymund finds himself having to explain to North that making toys for children is very different than having one, and that North will need to learn the difference between the two.

The Houseguests actually came out before the movie release, which leads me to believe that MaybeIfI probably definitely read the book series. While I didn’t read it and cannot say for certain how well the movie follows it, The Houseguests is very much in line with the cinematic production. Not only that, I love how well done the characterization is. Just take a look at this conversation North and Bunnymund have about Jack’s harmless stomachache:

North glared at him. “Don’t you have any medicine or something?”

Bunnymund shrugged. “Besides chocolate? I don’t think he needs more candy after all that cookie dough. It’s a stomach ache. Children get those when they eat too many sweets.”

“He didn’t have any cookie dough-”

“How do you know?”

“Because he told me!”

“Well, that’s one mystery solved. He lied,” Bunnymund kicked his paws out lazily.

And though it’s North’s guilt and overreaction about Jack becoming ill that gets the story going, the main characters are Bunnymund and Tooth, and they’re written perfectly as well. Tooth is twittering and awkward with words because she always has to focus on millions of fairies collecting teeth everywhere all the time and Bunnymund is his grumpy and sarcastic self. Mostly, what I like about Bunnymund is that he recognizes North’s plight about Jack and how that reminds North of his original son.

“I don’t think of Jack as Nightlight’s replacement,” North mumbled reproachfully. “It’s very different. That’s why I’m trying to do better this time.”

Are things going to be done better? Well, I don’t know. Jack, Tooth, and Bunnymund all end the night by drinking hot chocolate and falling asleep in the guest bedroom.

Unfortunately, the story is very short, and the author seems to have a habit of writing one shots and not multi-chaptered stories, but that’s not really a probably. MaybeIfI is great, and everyone should go check out this fic.