SeedSing Classic: The Advent Calendar of Great Holiday Movies: Day 8 "He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special"

ed note: This article was originally published on December 8th, 2018

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we are looking back at the great holiday music, movies, television episodes, and food of this great season. Enjoy

Day 8: “He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special”

Opened Doors: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

There are times when we may find ourselves in a place that does not have the same traditions and customs that our own home celebrates. We may go to a new part of the world that our western way of life has not been the primary influence. First thing to know, do not be rude. We can introduce our customs and traditions, but we must respect the ways of the indigenous people’s. We may learn some new traditions to bring home, and we may impart part of our way of life to make a positive impact on their day to day dealings. These lessons of understanding and sharing are not just important to Earth, but to all the planets we may accidentally visit that are spread out among the universe.

On December 25th 1985, the “He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special” aired once on American televisions, and was then released as a VHS so families could enjoy the movie every holiday season. The story centered around two Earth kids who were accidentally transported to the planet Eternia and they just want to get home for Christmas. The wizard Orko initially accompanies the kids, and he learns all about this holiday called Christmas. Orko is on board with this great day, and he wants all his Eternia friends to get in on the action.

Since this a He-Man She-Ra joint venture, the audience is treated with the double dose of villainy that is Skeletor and Hordak. The two bad guys want to please their great evil master by bringing the earth kids to him (or to it, Horde-Prime may have a masculine voice but is just a big colorful cloud, I do not think cloud’s have genders. I could be wrong.). Unfortunately Hordak and Skeletor do not like each other, and refuse to work together. Through some sort of shenanigans, Skeletor ends up with the two earth kids in his custody and he is going to bring them to Horde Prime.

The moments with Skeletor and the earth children is what makes the “He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special” an instant classic. The kids teach Skeletor all about Christmas, and the evil ghoul seems all in. He asks if their are fights and exploding presents, the kids say no there are only nice things that people want at Christmas time. The problem is that Skeletor likes fights and exploding presents, oh and he is definitely not nice. See the magnificent scene for yourself.

Thanks to a well timed attack from a snow beast, and a dog that keeps licking Skeletor’s fleshless face, the once evil scourge of Eternia seems to be infected by the Christmas spirit. He saves the kids from the snow beast, saves them later on from Hordak and Horde Prime, and doesn’t beat the hell out of He-Man and She-Ra when they have a laugh at Skeletor’s Scrooge like change of heart. The Earth tradition of Christmas saved everyone on Eternia the inconvenience of a Skeletor scheme on this one day of the year. God bless us everyone.

The best of our traditions that get passed down generation to generation usually have great kindness at their heart. Eternia may not have had Christmas before a couple of Earth kids got caught up with the careless Orko, but the ideas of generosity, togetherness, and being nice had a great effect on the planet’s number one Grinch. For good measure the earth kids also got to take home a tradition from Eternia. Man at Arms gifted them some run of mill rocket belts. Befriend Skeletor and get a couple of rocket belts, it is going to be hard to top that Christmas.

RD

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. If the earth is destroyed in a nuclear war, will Christmas still exist? Weird Al Yankovic seems to think it will.

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