A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa

A 2008 Christmas Special starring The Muppets.

Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzie and the gang are all living in a New York City brownstone (for reasons not really explained), where the only human tenants are their adorable neighbor Claire (Madison Pettin, The Game Plan) and her mom (Jane Krakowski, Ally McBeal). It's Christmas Eve, there's no snow on the ground, and for the first time ever, the Muppets aren't planning to spend Christmas together. Kermit and Miss Piggy are headed for the Caribbean, Gonzo is going to Hawaii, and Fozzie is heading out on a comedy tour. Before they go, however, they make a last-minute trip to the post office to mail their cards; Gonzo also promises to mail Claire's letter to Santa Claus.

An impromptu musical number at the post office creates some minor havoc, and Gonzo discovers that a few letters to Santa -- including Claire's -- have been left in his possession. Anxious to make sure they reach their intended recipient in time, he persuades some of his fellow Muppets to help him get to the North Pole to deliver them personally.

Tropes used in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa include:

• As Himself: New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg
• Better Than a Bare Bulb: The Muppets hang lampshades on everything.
• Christmas Elves: Just one, played by Paul Williams himself, who answers the door when the Muppets finally reach the North Pole.
• Christmas Songs: Most of the songs in the special are original holiday compositions by Paul Williams; more traditional carols are performed by a choir of rats.
• Christmas Special: Naturally.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rizzo, though less so than usual.
  • Pepe tries to be this, but ...isn't quite there yet.

Pepe: Santa? Letters to Santa? (laughs) Okay, you know what? I will help you, okay. Eh, what is Santa's e-mail?
Kermit: Well --
Pepe: Oh, let me guess! Let me guess! Eeeh... [e-mail]! (laughs vigorously)

• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The brownstone in which the Muppets are living is very similar to the one located at 123 Sesame Street.
• Eek! A Mouse!: Claire's mom shrieks when the rat Muppets join the party in her apartment at the end. To her credit, she recovers quickly and apologizes, inviting them to make themselves at home.
• Everything's Better with Penguins
• Furry Confusion: Appropriate to the season -- the rat choir singing carols outside the brownstone are dressed as reindeer.
• "Happy Holidays" Dress: Uma Thurman's whole wardrobe for the special.
• Homemade Sweater From Hell: Fozzie wears one his mom gave him, and presents Claire and her mother with identical sweaters. One of the extras on the DVD has him explaining to an interviewer that his mother made the exact same sweater for everyone in the cast. (In Fozzie's mom's defense, they're not that bad...relatively speaking.)
• Informed Judaism: Zoot, the saxophonist for the Electric Mayhem, shows up for the Christmas Eve celebration with a menorah, prompting guitarist Floyd to comment that he never knew Zoot was Jewish.
• It's All About Me: Miss Piggy, unsurprisingly, harbors deep resentment that Kermit is setting aside their vacation plans in favor of making sure that Santa receives the stray letters. She practically invokes the trope by name when he appeals to her better nature and she replies, "What about ME?" She gets over herself in the end...as much as a diva ever gets over herself, anyway.
• Just for Pun: All over the place. Possibly the most memorable is when they fly to the North Pole by clinging to the wing of an airplane, prompting Fozzie to declare that they're "winging it!"
• Let There Be Snow: While waiting in line at the post office, Kermit laments the lack of snow. Of course, by the end of the show it's snowing.
• No Name Given/Unnamed Parent: Claire's mother's name is never mentioned. The Muppets all refer to and address her simply as "Claire's Mom."
• Overreacting Airport Security: The Muppets are detained by TSA for Fozzie's bad jokes.
• Polar Bears and Penguins: Played with. At the airport, the Muppets discover that they can get to the North Pole via North Pole Airline, and wonder who exactly would want to fly to the North Pole. The question is immediately answered by a pair of penguins, who enter the scene loudly declaring to each other that they can't wait to visit the North Pole because they're sick of the South Pole.
• Rules Lawyer: When Gonzo and Fozzie discuss the possibility of opening the kids' letters to Santa to see what they asked for, Sam the Eagle shows up apropos of nothing to teach them, and the audience, that opening mail that isn't yours is a federal offense.
• Statler and Waldorf: It wouldn't be a Muppets special if they weren't heckling somebody.
• Yes, Virginia: Most of the Muppets don't express an outright belief or disbelief in Santa, but Gonzo definitely believes, and Rizzo and Pepe claim they definitely don't. They only go along with the whole trip to the North Pole because, as Rizzo puts it, "We can't miss this train wreck!"
  • As it happens, in the special Gonzo turns out to be right, as Santa shows up claiming that such a "pure Christmas wish" (Gonzo's desire to see to it that Claire and the other unnamed writers' letters to Santa got through to him so they could have their holiday wishes solely because he wanted to keep his promise to Claire that he would send her letter to Santa and refused to leave anyone else's letters to the Jolly One behind either) deserved to be granted. This turns Rizzo and Pepe into believers when they meet the man himself.