A Christmas They Never Forgot

alexczarn wrote:

Buttercup wrote:

Laura: *logs on to facebook. Starts typing in the comment box.* Where snow in. Pa, walk to the barn. Get ours presents from the barn. Snow is covering all the way to the second floor, almost reaching the roof. It's Christmas morning. Ma's homemade pies is baking in the oven. We open our presents. I love my present, Almanzo gave me. Ma, called me. Must helped cooked Christmas dinner. Check back later. *press send, and click the like button.*

Love it!

Thank you, Alex.

bethandmanly wrote:

That's funny. I often think about what Laura would like about modern technology.

I wounder what she think about cell phones/intrnet.

This was on today and I loved all of the stories the characters told. My favorite was Hester Sue's. It made me tear up.

On a sillier note......I remember when I first saw this I was young and my first thought was how on earth will they go to the bathroom when it snowed up to the 2nd floor!!! lol

LOL, I thought the same thing..the Ingall's never seem to use the outhouse. : P

I always wondered why "Ma" except for the oven, never seemed to get anything for Xmas or birthday's...Pa got shirts, scarves, hats, the girls got things, but poor Ma, her only present was a trade for Bunny so it was bittersweet.

Yes, Ma Ingall's didn't get many gifts that we could see but she loved to give.
I liked all the stories although Hester Sues was a bit sad. I wish they had more Christmas shows. It was on a long time and only 3 come to mind.

Praire Girl wrote:

I liked all the stories although Hester Sues was a bit sad. I wish they had more Christmas shows. It was on a long time and only 3 come to mind.

And one of them was kind of sad (Blizzard). There is also the Christmas scene from the Pilot, where Mr. Edwards brings presents to the girls. Kent McCray gave me some idea what it took to shoot those episodes with snow in them. I was amazed and surprised when he said they never went over budget. I would have loved to see an annual Christmas episode, but they didn't seem to do that back then. Even Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which was shot in the 90's, didn't have many Christmas episodes.

I think the Walton's did which I watched too. I like the homey, corny at times stories and showing how poor, you can still keep the real reason for the holiday alive in spirit.

I don't understand the lack of Christmas shows, it goes with the type of show Little House was, but maybe he couldn't think of another spin to give it besides all working together...no more sad ones please!

bethandmanly wrote:

This is one of my favorites because we get to see the past lives of some of the characters. I wish they could have worked in a story about Adam's childhood. It seems like Mary and Adam showed up and then Mary quickly disappeared to go to bed. I would have liked to have seen more of them.

I agree. I don't like it that Melissa Sue Anderson was credited in the closing credits. She should have been listed as special guest star.

I like this episode. I watch it every year. I usually skip watching Blizzard from season 3. Even though it's a Christmas episode, it doesn't seem much like a Christmas episode. I watch Christmas At Plumb Creek, A Christmas They Never Forgot and Bless All The Dear Children. I wish they would have had Charles talk about a favorite Christmas.

I would have liked a Christmas episode with the kids doing the Nativity play as a side story and the drama that might go into that along with other moral issues woven in.

Praire Girl wrote:

I don't understand the lack of Christmas shows, it goes with the type of show Little House was, but maybe he couldn't think of another spin to give it besides all working together...no more sad ones please!

Christmas played a role in the books. I'm not sure if Wilder mentioned it in every book, but it was in there often. It's too bad we didn't get more of them for the show.

This episode will air on Hallmark Channel this Saturday at 5 AM Eastern.

Docfan wrote:

I have to say this though (and it might sound silly)...this episode makes me CLAUSTROPHOBIC! If I got caught in a house in a snowstorm like that, I would go completely out of my mind!! I always wondered how in the world they would dig themselves out of a pile of snow like that when they can't even get out the front door...

Oh my, this is exactly what I was going to write about this episode. When they opened the door on Christmas morning and the entrance was blocked with snow, I felt a tightness in my chest! LOL

The cozyness of everyone being together on Christmas Eve and reminiscing by the fire was very nice.

When I watched this again, I realized drifts of snow might block one door but the back door should have been okay. A little unrealistic to think the snow was uniformly that high!

All I know is as fun as it seemed watching it,very warm and cozy and sweet, in real life MY kids, would have been, "We have to go potty".

Maybe back in them days they really got more snow then we do now.

littlehouselover wrote:

When I watched this again, I realized drifts of snow might block one door but the back door should have been okay. A little unrealistic to think the snow was uniformly that high.

Have you ever read THE LONG WINTER? Laura used to watch the horses and sleighs go by from the second story window. The things that amazes me is that one day the snow would be that deep and the next day it would be all gone, blown away by the Dakota wind. I was in De Smet this summer and it really is windy there so I guess it happened the way Laura described it.

I can see the wind blowing the snow like that...we would get drifts just in the northeast up to our porch, my mom couldn't open the screen door...but then it would melt..mainly big drifts...it amazed me our garage would be almost covered in the front or our car but other families would be fine.

I think The Long Winter was my favorite...the bending twigs and her raw hands stuck with me and the magazines she tried to stretch out.

I wish they used the Xmas barrel in the show..or a Xmas tree, that was a nice thing.

And you have to admit, the outhouse was not a good thing in the winter...probably chamber pots were used....and it didn't matter how rich you were. "Widow Thurmon" with her nice home and dishes and dresses, still had to use the dirty outhouse. One convenience I am glad came about.

I think that's why this episode always bothered me a bit. If they actually got that much snow, Charles wouldn't have been joyously screaming for everyone to wake up. He would be wondering how in the heck he was going to get out of his house, take care of his horses, and get to town for supplies. Ah, the wonders of television.

bethandmanly wrote:

I think that's why this episode always bothered me a bit. If they actually got that much snow, Charles wouldn't have been joyously screaming for everyone to wake up. He would be wondering how in the heck he was going to get out of his house, take care of his horses, and get to town for supplies. Ah, the wonders of television.

Yeah good point.

And the chickens and eggs! Of course being LHOP, Charles probably had the worst of it and others had less. lol

I wish they had just one more Christmas show...without Bunny or sadness, just fun and joy and secrets....they could have shown it every year.

me to

I watch this today. Just got finished the episode a few minutes ago. Wonder, how many fake snow they had used. At the end of the episode. I know, couldn't be all real snow. Maybe some real snow mixed with fake snow.

I remember that Carrie cried, in this episode because she was worried that Santa had died in the storm.

At the end, Charles reassured to her that the gifts are in the barn!

bethandmanly wrote:

This is one of my favorites because we get to see the past lives of some of the characters.  I wish they could have worked in a story about Adam's childhood.  It seems like Mary and Adam showed up and then Mary quickly disappeared to go to bed.  I would have liked to have seen more of them.

I rewatched this episode and I sooo agree!  I wish it had been a 90 minute or dareIsay 2-hour special and also worked in a vignette with Adam's childhood before he went blind and possibly even a Mary as a child vignette before Laura was born.  Would have been interesting to see a Christmas memory with Adam's mother (who they never really developed backstory about on the show).  

They should have done the same with Almanzo as well, there must sure have had something from Farmer Boy that they could have included in this Christmas episode.  Would have been a much fuller and richer episode, especially seeing that this was Melissa Sue's and Linwood Boomer's last ones of the show ever!  They came all the way from NYC to just sit around and/or sleep/volunteer to make more coffee?!?

But I'm majorly biased that way.

On another note, I always laugh at how the whole entire family could fit and sleep in this Little House, especially when they were all unexpectedly snowed in together.

I have been reading Melissa Sue Anderson's book. She was upset she had only had only about 5 lines in the whole episode and felt like she was an outsider rather than a family member.