The five best Christmas specials

They really don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Although broadcast and cable channels continue to churn out Christmas specials and movies, a handful of specials made in the early and mid-1960s are still the best. This isn’t just baby-boomer nostalgia: Post-millennium kids will choose “A Charlie Brown Christmas” over, say, “Shrek the Halls” anytime.

The one exception to the rule isn’t family viewing at all, Stephen Colbert’s brilliant parody “A Colbert Christmas.” Parents are advised to watch this one after the children are nestled all snug in their beds.

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)

Produced for NBC, this hour-long version of the Dickens tale is, surprisingly, many people’s favorite screen adaptation. The conceit is that Mr. Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus), despite his debilitating nearsightedness, is an actor playing Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical version of “A Christmas Carol” on Broadway.

In fact, the producers got two actual Broadway songwriters, Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, to compose the special’s songs, which are wonderful. The script messes with Dickens’ chronology and streamlines the story, but most of the choices work.

People weaned on this special tend to find Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, completely redundant. Those of us who first saw it as children, however, were disappointed to learn that there’s no such thing as razzleberry dressing. (Although the special has aired only sporadically in recent decades, it’s available on DVD.)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

This special had the opposite problem from Mr. Magoo’s: how to pad out a story that can be told in a three-minute song. The solution — adding such characters as a prospector, the Abominable Snow Monster and an elf who wants to be a dentist — still feels a little inorganic, but they all help confirm the song’s message that misfits can find their place.

The stop-motion animation was dazzling for its time and is charming now. Though purists might argue with the script’s assumption that if Santa doesn’t show up, there is no Christmas, that issue is addressed in the next two shows.

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

In the Peanuts gang’s first and best animated special, Charlie Brown is depressed because no one seems to be feeling the true spirit of Christmas. His little sister, Sally, wants “tens and twenties” from Santa; the kids in his Christmas pageant just want to boogie to Vince Guaraldi’s jazz score; and even his dog is trying to win big bucks in a house-decorating competition.

Leave it to Linus to remind Charlie Brown, and us, of the true meaning of the holiday, in a passage from the King James version of the nativity story.

Executives at CBS reportedly suggested that Charles Schulz remove the scene from the script, but without it, would the near-miraculous revival of Charlie Brown’s forlorn tree seem possible?

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

Dr. Seuss’ tale of the Christmas-hating Grinch and the Christmas-loving Whos was already woven into the holiday when Chuck Jones, a former Looney Tunes director, created a version that was better than early readers could have imagined.

It did need some padding to fill a half hour in those relatively commercial-scarce days — the Grinch, voiced indelibly by Boris Karloff, complains that on Christmas morning, the Whos will “beat their trum-tookers, they’ll slam their sloo-slunkers! They’ll beat their blum-blookers, they’ll wham their hoo-whunkers!” — and some of the slapstick action is superfluous, but the finished product is true to the book and its message.

A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All (2008)

Back in the ’60s and ’70s, family-oriented performers like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Andy Williams would appear in annual Christmas specials, which often featured celebrity guests dropping by sets designed to look like holiday-decorated living rooms. Even though boomers are the only ones around who even remember those usually dreary exercises — for an example, go to YouTube to watch Bing’s bizarre but sweet duet with David Bowie on “The Little Drummer Boy” — Stephen Colbert parodied and preserved them for the ages in this hour-long special.

Trapped in his cottage by a bear, Stephen is visited by a series of celebrities, who perform some hilarious songs, mostly written by Colbert’s then head writer, David Javerbaum, and Adam Schlesinger, the bassist of Fountains of Wayne.

Toby Keith sings about the war on Christmas; Willie Nelson, as the fourth Wise Man, sings about the gift he’s bringing to the manger, “a plant that smokes more sweetly/Than either frankincense or myrrh”; and Jon Stewart tries to see if Stephen is interested in switching to Hanukkah.

Like “The Colbert Report,” the show sidles up to some serious issues but stays resolutely silly. (In another example of the silliness of TV programmers, “A Colbert Christmas” isn’t airing this season, but it’s available on DVD.)