All the Ways Our 2025 Was Like a Classic TV Christmas Special

Sometimes we were Grinches, and we battled Heat Miser, but we also found our fellow misfit toys and learned how some things just need a little love.

If there was a theme to our digital nomading in 2025, it was that we spent much of the year in climates that were ridiculously hot — often, unnaturally hot, at least according to the locals.

More than once, one of us would remark, “Oh, my God, I’m melting — like Frosty the Snowman, when the temperature starts to rise in that old Christmas special!”

But this has us thinking about all the classic TV Christmas specials that our 2025 resembled:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

In How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), the Grinch looks down on the village of Whoville with smugness and disdain.

And the fact is, upon arriving in two of our 2025 nomad destinations — Taipei, Taiwan, and Hong Kong — we felt pretty Grinch-like too. Both were grittier than we expected, a lot of the food was off-putting, and we were overwhelmed by crushing crowds, especially in Hong Kong.

But like the Grinch, our hearts grew three sizes, at least when it came to Taipei. The people turned out to be incredibly friendly. And once we got our bearings, we came to love the food scene.

We didn’t “carve the roast beast” in Taipei, but we had incredible soup dumplings!

Alas, when it came to Hong Kong, we remained firmly in “Grinch” territory: the crowds were just too much for us, and we were disturbed by the city’s shocking poverty and the very obvious divide between the rich and the poor.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), outcast Rudolph and loner-friends end up at a place called the Island of Misfit Toys — a refuge for defective toys (except for A Dolly for Sue, who is famously not a “misfit” in any visible way; the creator later explained she was “clinically depressed”).

Arriving at the Island of Misfit Toys.

I have a theory that most digital nomads — and maybe most long-term travelers too — are also “misfit toys” in one way or another. After all, if you’re happy with your home, mostly content in life, why would you leave?

Anyway, the best part of our 2025 was definitely the new “misfit toy” friends we made, especially four couples: Alan and Carla (who we met in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico); Amy and Gary (who we met in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico); Daniel and Claire (who we also met in San Miguel de Allende); and Whitney and Howard (who we briefly met in Serbia back in 2021, but who we became much closer with this year, on a road trip through Japan).

We’re certain we’ll be seeing and/or traveling with all these new friends again very soon!

The Year Without a Santa Claus

In The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), two of Santa’s elves, Jingle and Jangle, go looking for signs of the Christmas spirit to convince Santa not to cancel Christmas.

But they’re repeatedly thwarted by two very memorable antagonists who share an insanely catchy theme song: Heat Miser, who controls the world’s hot climates, and his brother, Snow Miser, who controls the cold areas.

In 2025, we had our own dealings with Heat Miser, who plagued us throughout our stays in Mexico and later in Asia, sending us blistering temperatures even as late as October.

Like Jingle and Jangle, we tried to outrun Heat Miser, heading north to Japan for a gloriously soothing autumn.

Unfortunately, autumn gave way to winter, and now Snow Miser has found us, and we’re stuck in Osaka in a house with some of Japan’s famously thin walls.

Okay, it’s not that cold. But the walls of our house (behind) really are that thin!

Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town

In Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970), the mountains above Sombertown are terrorized by an evil wizard known as the Winter Warlock.

But future-Santa Kris Kringle transforms the villain into an ally by being the first person to ever show him a little kindness.

Unfortunately, in losing his evil nature, the Winter Warlock also loses his powers — until he rediscovers them at the end of the story, granting Santa Claus much of his signature magic.

Evil Winter Warlock, left, and “Winter,” post-evil.

Before our trip in mainland China, we thought of that country as a bit like the Winter Warlock: scary and mysterious — with censored internet access, no less!

But by facing our fears, China was transformed right before our eyes into a stunningly beautiful land rich in history. Interestingly, this mostly came about because of all the kindness the Chinese people showed us.

And just like the Winter Warlock, in transforming into something different, China didn’t lose its magic. On the contrary, in our eyes, it now seems more magical than ever.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

In A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) — the greatest Christmas special of all time — chronically depressed Charlie Brown is lamenting his lack of Christmas spirit, so he and his ever-loyal friend Linus go to pick out a Christmas tree to liven up the Christmas pageant.

But Charlie Brown picks the most miserable, pathetic tree in the entire lot — because he feels sorry for it — and all the kids laugh at him, and he’s reminded again how he can’t do anything right.

But then Linus shames the group with a thoughtful, unassuming speech on the true meaning of Christmas, forcing everyone to forgive Charlie Brown and magically transforming the scrawny little tree into a much fuller, greener one.

According to Linus, the tree — like Charlie Brown — just needed a little love.

Incidentally, have you ever noticed how that little tree changes throughout the special — even before the magical transformation at the end? The damn thing has an entirely different number of branches and needles from scene to scene!

Then again, the reason A Charlie Brown Christmas is the greatest Christmas special of all time is because it’s so unbelievably earnest and heartfelt, breaking every imaginable rule about storytelling and kids’ programming with its tone, pacing, music, voicing, and theme. It very obviously poured directly from the soul of creator Charles M. Schulz.

Also, the whole thing was conceived, written, voiced, animated, and scored by a handful of people in a mere six months, which means the occasionally awkward animation makes this TV special more charming, not less.

Anyway, like Charlie Brown, we wanted to liven up our thin-walled house in Osaka with a Christmas tree. But when we priced them at the Christmas store, even the smaller artificial trees were an eye-popping $150 USD or more.

That seemed excessive for a tree we would use once and then throw away.

So we bought a tree at the local Daiso, which is a kind of Japanese five-and-dime, for a whopping $4.50 USD. We even got a white faux-snow-covered tree, which Brent has always wanted but that his mom used to think was “tacky.”

But how would such a cheap, tacky tree look? Our hopes were not high.

Here’s how it turned out:

Clearly, it was another tree that just needed a little love.

Merry Christmas from Brent and Michael!

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Michael Jensen is a novelist and editor. For a newsletter with more of my photos, visit me at www.MichaelJensen.com.

Brent Hartinger is a screenwriter and author. Check out my new newsletter about my books and movies at www.BrentHartinger.com. And order my latest book, below.

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