Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is a Christmas special based on the television series Sesame Street.

Synopsis
The opening features the inhabitants of Sesame Street enjoying an ice skating party. Big Bird has trouble skating, but a child gives him a hand, and he ends up doing so very well. Bert falls victim to the antics of Ernie, Cookie Monster and Count von Count as they play ice hockey with one of his shoes, clown around while barrel jumping, play a practical joke on him, and make him very dizzy in a game of Crack the Whip. After the skating party, the story leads into three principal plotlines.

Oscar the Grouch tells Big Bird and his friend Patty (a girl around age seven) that there will be no Christmas presents if Santa Claus is unable to go down narrow chimneys. Distraught, once they return to Sesame Street, Big Bird and Patty enlist the help of Kermit the Frog and Grover to ask children how Santa does it. Their responses vary. Big Bird even tries to experiment by having Mr. Snuffleupagus play Santa Claus entering a pretend chimney, but still does not find the answer. Patty tries to comfort him, but fails. He winds up trying to stay up all night on the brownstone's roof, watching for Santa Claus, but falls asleep while the residents of Sesame Street become very worried looking for him. During the search, Maria confronts Oscar for upsetting Big Bird. He says he was only teasing him and agrees to search for him. Back on the roof, at one point, sleighbells and hoofbeats are heard, and a person's shadow falls over the dozing Big Bird. He is startled awake, but sees nothing unusual.

Meanwhile, in a retelling of the story "The Gift of the Magi", Bert and Ernie want to give each other Christmas presents, but have no money. Bert trades away his prized paper clip collection to buy a soap dish for Ernie's Rubber Duckie, but Ernie has bartered Rubber Duckie to get Bert a cigar box for the paper clips. Mr. Hooper, the store owner, realizes what is happening and gives both characters their treasured possessions back while also reminding the audience that being Jewish himself, he doesn't celebrate Christmas yet understands the spirit of the holidays.

While all this is going on, Cookie Monster tries to communicate with Santa Claus and request cookies for Christmas. However, as he talks to himself about the many different kinds of cookies he would like to get, he gets hungrier and hungrier, absentmindedly devouring the instruments he is trying to use (a pencil, typewriter, and telephone). At the Robinsons' apartment, he laments that he was unable to contact Santa. Gordon reminds him that he might get what he wants - if he leaves a plate of cookies for Santa.

At the end of the special, when Big Bird comes down from the roof to warm up, Gordon and Susan make sure he stays. They comfort him by showing that there were indeed presents brought, but having him back for Christmas is more important. The special concludes with Susan and Gordon returning to their apartment to find that Cookie Monster has eaten the needles off their Christmas tree. ("Scotch Pine delicious, but Douglas Fir give me heartburn!")