The City That Forgot About Christmas, in syndication
BCDB; Christmas Specials Wiki; IMDb
streaming sites: Amazon

This originally aired in 1974, but I watched it for the first (and only) time in 2015, as a bonus feature on the Gift of Winter DVD. It had some familiar voices, but otherwise I didn't think much of it. The animation wasn't great, but no worse than plenty of other things from the era in which it was made. There were a couple of songs, which I didn't really care for, and the story itself was kind of blah, in my opinion.

It begins with a boy named Benji, whose parents are too busy getting ready for Christmas to help him get ready for Christmas. But his dog is willing to help... unfortunately, that leads to the Christmas tree getting knocked over. So his parents send him and the dog out of the house. A friend of Benji's stops by, and they both wish there were no Christmas (though no explanation is given for why Benji's friend feels that way). Then they hear Benji's grandfather working on something in his shed, or whatever, so they go to check that out. And when they complain to him about Christmas, he tells them a story, which is the main part of the special. It's unclear when the story is set, but I'd say most of the people in the city where it takes place were dressed in cartoonish medieval clothes, while the Mayor is dressed in a more Victorian style.

Anyway, a carpenter named Matthew comes to town (with his dog), and he learns that no one there knows what Christmas is. And because of that, nobody in town helps each other or loves each other, or anything. (This strikes me as a very problematic idea, one that a lot of Christians seem to be prone to believing: that no one would have any reason to ever do the right thing, if not for a belief in God, which of course isn't true.) So, Matthew does whatever he can to help people, asking nothing in return. And eventually he starts preparing for Christmas. The children are curious as to what that is, so he tells them about the baby Jesus. I assume he explains things in greater detail that isn't shown, because what he does say is stuff that barely scratches the surface, and really wouldn't make much sense to anyone who doesn't already know about Jesus. (Which, of course, the viewing audience must already know, so whatever.) But the Mayor and his lackeys aren't happy about all this, and the Mayor decides to steal the wooden baby Jesus that Matthew carved for the Christmas celebration he and the children (and their parents) were planning. Naturally, his plan doesn't work, because as one of the songs says, "You can't stop Christmas."

So, basically, the plot is a religious version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but way less entertaining. I don't want to sound like a Grinch, myself. I have nothing against the idea of Christmas specials that focus on the religious aspect of the holiday instead of secular aspects like Santa Claus and snow men and stuff like that. I just wish the people involved in making such specials did a better job of writing them. It's not like they haven't got great source material to work with. But... I dunno. It just rarely seems to work out very well. (Of course, this is just my opinion. People who are more obsessed with their religion than I am tend to like things like this a lot more than I do, because, I guess they're unable to discern quality as long as they like the message.)

Oh, btw, the grandfather's story inspires Benji and his friend to like Christmas again. Also, I got the impression the grandfather was supposed to secretly be Matthew, wink-wink.