Rudolph vs. Charlie Brown vs. The Grinch: Who's The Best?

Rick Retro’s Rankings #1: The Big Three Christmas TV Specials.

Note from Rick Retro: These rankings were originally posted December 9, 2024 to a select group of friends and family via a text group, thus the currently out-of-season topic! We have nearly four times as many subscribers in our community now, so I am working on bringing all those old posts to Substack for all of you and future subscribers as well.

To start from the beginning, visit this post and follow the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links at the end of each post, until you arrive at this one, where that link will be dead, until I upload the next post from our text group archives 😉. When the next post is not yet available, there will be a link to the post that is “Next Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded ➡️”

The first post to Substack after the current “Text Group Gaps” of posts I have not yet uploaded can be found here. From this post, following the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links will bring you all the way to the most current post.

This note will disappear when the next text group post is added, and this post takes its rightful spot in our archives. For now, I hope you enjoy this look into Christmas past!

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Rick Retro’s Rankings #1: The Big Three Christmas TV Specials. Rudolph vs. Charlie Brown vs. The Grinch: Who's The Best?

I’ve now reviewed all three of the iconic Christmas TV specials some of us have seen too many times to count. Dozens, if not hundreds, of Christmas TV specials have been produced since these ones from the 1960s, but most people agree these were the best. The Charlie Brown special made all ten of the best Christmas movies lists I recently checked. Rudolph and Grinch both made nine of ten. They would be near the top, if not the top three, on most lists of Christmas TV specials, no matter what aspect of the specials is being ranked.

Here are my takes on the respective strengths of these three specials that all received my highest grade, A+^. It’s not easy to decide on these rankings. They’re all great specials in their own right, and a lot of these are really close calls. Here goes:

Best Christmas TV Special

1 Charlie Brown
2 Grinch
3 Rudolph

Use this same order for:

Best Christmas TV Special for Adults
Best Christmas TV Special for Teenagers
Best Message in a Christmas TV Special
Best Script in a Christmas TV Special
Best Dog or Dogs in a Christmas TV Special (Snoopy, Max, Yukon's sled dogs)

Best Christmas TV Special for Younger Kids

1 Rudolph
2 Grinch
3 Charlie Brown

Use this same order for:

Best Visual Appearance of a Christmas TV Special
Christmas TV Special Most Improved by HD
Best Voice Cast in a Christmas TV Special
Best Plot in a Christmas TV Special

Best Cast of Characters in a Christmas TV Special

1 Charlie Brown
2 Rudolph
3 Grinch

Use this same order for:

Best Lead Female Character in a Christmas TV Special (Lucy, Clarice, n/a)
Best Supporting Male Character in a Christmas TV Special (Linus, Hermey, Max)
Best Christmas TV Special Soundtrack Album

Best Christmas TV Special for Older Kids

1 Grinch
2 Charlie Brown
3 Rudolph

Use this same order for:

Best Lead Male Character in a Christmas TV Special (The Grinch, Charlie Brown, Rudolph)
Best Supporting Female Character in a Christmas TV Special (Cindy Lou Who, Sally, Mama Claus)

Best Dark Whimsy in a Christmas TV Special

1 Grinch
2 Rudolph
3 Charlie Brown

Use this same order for:

Best Animation in a Christmas TV Special
Best Production Quality of a Christmas TV Special

The next three reviews will be from the second tier of Christmas TV specials, sitting just below the Big Three in stature, but still more renowned than all the rest.

Meanwhile, feel free to debate these rankings or post your own as comments!

Originally posted to text group 2024-12-09
Last updated 2025-07-07

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