A Garfield Christmas Special

A Garfield Christmas Special (also called A Garfield Christmas for short) is a Christmas special based on the commercially successful newspaper comic strip, Garfield.

Synopsis
Garfield wakes up to see Jon dressed as an elf, who says it is Christmas and he must be treated to a large amount of lasagna and get his gift, which consists of a robotic Santa which reads minds and produces whatever Garfield wants, pleasing him until he actually wakes up and sees Jon say it's Christmas Eve and that he, Garfield, and Odie are going to the countryside to celebrate Christmas with his family on their farm. Making their animated debuts are the sweet and always cooking Mom, hard working farmer Dad, mischievous younger brother Doc Boy, and the tough as nails Grandma. As we get to know the wacky members of Jon's family, Odie is busy working on something secretive. Grandma and Garfield eventually grow a special bond. That night he finds out about Odie's suspicious activity and follows him into the barn. While there he stumbles upon some old letters. The next morning is Christmas and just when it seems like all the presents have been opened, he gives Grandma the letters he found in the barn. They were love notes written to her by her late husband when they first met and courted. Garfield finds out that Odie had been busy making him the ultimate Christmas gift: a homemade back scratcher. This is a rare glimpse at his other side, as he learns one of the true meanings of Christmas.

Songs

 * "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" performed by Lou Rawls
 * "Can't Wait Till Christmas" performed by Thom Huge and Lorenzo Music
 * "O Christmas Tree" performed by Pat Carroll
 * "Christmas in Your Heart" performed by ensemble and Desirée Goyette
 * "You Can Never Find an Elf When You Need One" performed by Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette
 * "A Good Old-Fashioned Christmas" (ending song) performed by ensemble

Edits
Like its fellow comic strip-based special A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Garfield Christmas Special has not been shown in its original form since its earliest airings. The original airing didn't have the scene in which Doc Boy and then Grandma play "O Christmas Tree" on the piano. Instead, they cut straight to Jon asking "Why don't you play for us, Mom?", immediately following Garfield's comment on the fully decorated tree. The cut is made rather obvious, though, due to him standing in front of the tree and then suddenly sitting on the piano in the very next shot.

The scene of Doc Boy and Grandma's piano playing was reinstated into the special in 1991. Unfortunately, this meant cutting out several seconds of the original footage. Mostly, the only footage that was cut were several insignificant frames of some of the shots, as well as a brief shot of Jon driving his car out of his driveway and down his neighborhood. However, a full six seconds of music were cut from the song "You Can Never Find an Elf When You Need One". For some reason, some shots also had their animation redone, most noticeable in the shot after Dad finishes reading Binky, the Clown Who Saved Christmas (a comparison can be seen on the right). The 1991 edit is the one that has been aired in all subsequent broadcasts, as well as on the VHS and DVD releases.

Deleted scenes
As if the post production editing wasn't enough, the comic book adaptation contains a few scenes that were never featured in the actual special. Presumably, these scenes were in the original scripts (and possibly even storyboarded), but were most likely cut for time and because some of them did not move the story along. These scenes include:


 * During Garfield's dream, as he's eating the line of lasagna pans, Odie is shown playing with a remote-control crane to dig up a hole and bury a bone in it.
 * After Garfield complains about visiting the family, there is a scene where Jon gets him to help him wrap presents. He then wraps up Odie.
 * Dad gets Jon and Doc Boy to do the chores in the barn, which means lifting hay bales. They get into an argument with each other, and Doc Boy makes fun of the hard time Jon is having lifting the hay bales. In the special, this is replaced with Jon, Odie, and Garfield simply walking out in the snow.
 * Immediately following Mom saying that "It just wouldn't be Christmas if we put the star on [the tree] first", Dad replies, "One more remark like that, and you'll see stars, woman."
 * Before Jon and Doc Boy go to bed, Garfield looks at one of the presents under the tree and shakes it, saying "Gee, I hope it's for me." He then hears the gift inside breaking apart, places it down, and says, "Gee, I hope it's for Odie." Right after this, Jon and Doc Boy head off to bed, and immediately after Mom kisses them good night and leaves the room, they have their eyes open like in the flashback.
 * Originally, the scene where Odie finishes up Garfield's back scratcher had him being unable to finish it because there's no hole in the base to put the rod in. After it falls apart, he gets angry and kicks it away before crying. Garfield figures out what he is doing and distracts him by throwing some corn for him to go after. Garfield then rushes in, uses a hand drill to drill a hole in the board, inserts the rod, and then ties the gardening tool to it. As he leaves, Odie arrives and is surprised to find the gift made up, so he wraps it in the bag and leaves. In the finished special, there is apparently already a hole in the board and Odie is able to make the gift with no problem.