A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas: A Christmas Calendar (1987)

Travelogues have a proud tradition on PBS.  These shows whisk us away to exotic locals with a charming host (sometimes a celebrity, sometimes not) to spend 60 minutes or so experiencing the local culture without having to leave the comfort of your couch.

Actress Loretta Swit, best known for her work on the sitcom M*A*S*H, but also for her starring role in the unfortunately neglected 1983 adaption of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, was our host for German holiday travelogue A Christmas Calendar.  Swit proclaims herself excited to be heading to Germany (or at least West Germany, as the Cold War was still going on when this was shot) to explore some of the many special traditions the country has, many of which are older than the United States.

After introducing us to her host family (a dad, mom, and two kids--whether they're really a family who are friends of hers or merely actors, who knows) and setting up the special's gimmick (that every time she opens a door on an Advent calendar, they head to a new locale), it's off to the first lesson, about Advent wreaths.

In succession, we learn, among other things, about how marzipan is made, the tradition of dressing people as essentially haystacks to scare away evil spirits, the arrival of Saint Nicholas on the evening of December 6, the making of famous spice cookies in the city of Aachen and gingerbread from Nuremburg, that city's Kris Kringle mart and fair, the Nativity scene market in Munich, nutcrackers from Rottenburg, hurly gurly men in Berlin, the celebration of "Silent Night", just across the border in Austria, and (my favorite) the Christmas Eve gunfire in the far southern town of Berchtesgarden.

If all this sounds like it could be interesting, then this is the special for you.  If not, well, it won't be.  But then, that's the risk with travelogues.  If you don't care about the place the show is traveling to, you're probably not going to much care about the show.

While the special is uneven, and a tad dull in places, I do admit I learned about some fairly interesting German Christmas traditions from A Christmas Calendar.  While this column has focuses primarily on American specials over the years, which means mostly American traditions, I do find it fascinating to see how other cultures and other countries celebrate the Christmas season.  And, since it's highly likely that each and every one of these traditions is still going strong (even if they have to take 2020 off), the special will likely remain surprisingly current for many years to come.

Next time: Not the one with Ralphie.