Since it was cheapish, I bought a DVD containing a bunch of holiday specials. This is the one I bought it for, since it stars Phil Hartman as a weedy, bumbling squire.
This special is based on a story idea from Romeo Muller, the legendary writer of Rudolph and Frosty and a lot of other, less beloved Christmas specials. The actual writing, though, fell to another fella who mostly wrote for Smurfs, and this special's idea of both humor and tension feel very 1983 Saturday morning -- lots of sound-effect-enhanced pratfalls throughout. For some reason, all the main characters are bears, looking a lot like the Disney Gummi Bears characters to me, though your mileage might vary.
Sidebar: I know this is my pet peeve, and most people won't care, but a show that focuses so much on music shouldn't have every instrument in the score portrayed by a 1993 synthesizer. (Sure, every other possible corner was cut, from the cheap animation to the lack of brand-name voice actors [apart from Phil, the only other "name" in this special is the voice of Lion-O from Thundercats]. Still, it's named after a song. It's based on a song. Hire some people that own real instruments, and pay for some studio time.)
But even after all that, there are a few bright spots to this special, It's fun to see Phil Hartman do his brief impression of Maurice Chevalier, and the best parts of the special are different musical spoofs. The titular song itself can be interminable, but I enjoy the conceit here, where each verse is done in a different style, from doo wop and Dylan to Michael Jackson and Elvis. The basic idea of the story, wherein a crossword puzzle and a Christmas wishlist get confused, is vaguely clever, so much so that I can imagine a truly enjoyable version of this story.
More Christmas Phil coming up. Stay tuned.
You have two choices of buy link today -- either by itself, or you can spend two bucks more and get other specials too (including TWO with Ernest Borgnine!)
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