1982's "Christmas Comes to Pac-Land"

How is it already time to put up the Christmas decorations again? And how will our family fare at keeping the cats away from those decorations this year? And what obscurities can I dig up for yuletide-themed Papergreat posts?

For starters, let's turn back the clock 42 years (gulp) to December 1982. That's when "Christmas Comes to Pac-Land" tried to chomp its way into the pantheon of beloved holiday specials, alongside those featuring the Peanuts gang, Rudolph & Yukon Cornelius and iconic characters voiced by Burl Ives and Boris Karloff. 

It did not succeed.

I have no recollection of watching "Christmas Comes to Pac-Land" when it debuted on December 16, 1982, days after I turned 12. Or any time thereafter. Certainly I was familiar with and had played plenty of Pac-Man at Pizza Huts, bars and roller rinks. But, for me, the holiday viewing season was still about the classics, not new contenders to the Dolly Madison Holiday throne.

Judy Flander, describing the special for a syndicated column that was published in Lancaster's Intelligencer Journal, wrote: "Actually, it's Santa who pays Pacland a visit — crash-landing, reindeer and all, smack-dab in the middle of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac and Pac-Baby. Well, how to get Santa back on his way to all those little kids in America? First it will be necessary to gobble up the ghost monsters who've made off with Santa's own pack."

Does anyone out there have memories of watching this? Are they good memories?

Here are some translated excerpts of a 2011 German-language review of the special on the website Tofu Nerdpunk:

"An unidentified flying object crashes over Pac-Land. In the sleigh sits a man who calls himself Santa Claus, but they have never heard of him or this Christmas, and he hasn't heard of the Pac people either. Anyway, Rudolph is sick and another way has to be found to distribute the presents to the children. ... I thought it was great how happy Santa was about how much computers made his work easier. ... Basically an entertaining special, but only because it's so absurd that Pac-Man meets Santa Claus. Otherwise there's nothing special about it."

Nosing around the internet, it seems there are, indeed, some fond memories of "Christmas Comes to Pac-Land," and it tends to show up more on the lists of "most bizarre specials," rather than the lists of "worst specials." So it has that going for it.

I also stumbled across a mention of "Lollipop Dragon: The Great Christmas Race," which may warrant a future post.