Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen is a 2006 Stop Motion animated Christmas special that premiered on ABC. It was directed by David H. Brooks and features an All-Star Cast, including Fred Savage, John O'Hurley, Gladys Knight, Edie McClurg, Harland Williams, Paul Rodriguez, Brenda Song, Emily Osment, Fred Willard, and Dylan and Cole Sprouse.
The plot revolves around Rudolph's brother Rusty (Savage), who's hopelessly inferior to the other reindeer and is ignored even by his own dad. He joins a support group for depressed holiday icons, such as the Easter Bunny (Knight), Cupid (Rodriguez), a Thanksgiving turkey (Williams), and two ghost girls representing Halloween: Trick (Osment) and Treat (Song). Together they search for the meaning of Christmas and help an unnamed boy (Sprouse) get on Santa's (Willard) nice list.
The special was sponsored by Campbell's soup, Walmart, Ask.com, and Coca-Cola, all of which were subjected to Product Placement in the special itself.
Not to be confused with Holidaze, a seasonal 2D animated short created by Vivienne Medrano.
This special contains examples of:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The kid who knows a talking reindeer doesn't believe in Santa.
- Product Placement:
- Most if not all of the commercial breaks from its original airing had a commercial enticing viewers to buy the DVD of the special itself at Walmart (which nowadays can be had for cheap on Amazon).
- Near the beginning of the special Rusty runs into the Coca-Cola bears.
- Shout-Out: When Trick and Treat are holding a Battle of the Bands to decide what song is better for Rusty, the songs are judged upon by the turkey, the Easter Bunny and Cupid in the manner of American Idol.
- Tropaholics Anonymous: Rusty meets the other holiday icons through an "Icons Anonymous" meeting.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Rusty is Rudolph's brother, but the latter isn't mentioned by name because he actually isn't a public domain character.
