Elmo Saves Christmas (special)

Elmo Saves Christmas originally aired on PBS in 1996, and was released to VHS that same year. It was released on DVD in 1997.

Plot

Elmo plans to stay up all night on Christmas Eve to see Santa Claus descend from the chimney. He falls asleep, but is awakened when Santa is stuck. Elmo nobly pulls Santa out, where they discern the cause of the extra weight -- a stowaway reindeer-in-training named Lightning. In gratitude, Santa offers Elmo a gift: a pink bear, or a magical snowglobe. He wants the pink bear at first, but then chooses the latter when Santa mentions the snowglobe will grant him three wishes, and Lightning recommends it. To test it, Elmo uses his first wish to obtain a glass of water. Santa tells him he could wished for anything, but to not waste the other wishes.

On Christmas Day, the excitement, joy, and happiness everyone experiences inspires Elmo, and he wishes that it could be Christmas every day. At first, everyone is thrilled about it being Christmas again, thanks to a news report given by Kermit the Frog. Elmo thinks it's a wonderful wish, but Santa thinks otherwise and returns to convince him otherwise, so gives Lightning to him and instructs them to visit the future and see how Christmas every day is not a great idea. Elmo sees Big Bird mope over the fact that Snuffy is in Cincinnati, spending Christmas with his grandmother for a whole year, Maria and Luis get crabby over the Fix-It Shop being closed all year, everyone get annoyed at It's a Wonderful Life always playing on TV, and general unhappiness is evident. The elves, too, are annoyed at their continued work shift, and slack off on the job, producing a cow-bunny combination called the "Moo-Bunny". Easter and Independence Day aren't as fun anymore either. Also, obviously, the only Sesame Street resident who isn't getting tired of Christmas every day is Oscar the Grouch. He loves to see all the broken toasters piled up by the Fix-It Shop, a whole lot of trash piled up by his trash can and that there's nothing on TV but It's a Wonderful Life. He says it's a "bah, humbug" Christmas every day.

A year after that first fateful Christmas, the Fix-It Shop has gone out of business, Christmas trees are an endangered species, and even Santa is about to retire from his job. When Elmo realizes "if everyday was Christmas, there wouldn't be Christmas at all", he decides to use his third wish to undo his second, but he shakes the snowglobe so much that it flies from his hands and smashes to the ground before he can make the wish. All looks lost, until Elmo suggests that Lightning could fly him back in time to the Christmas Eve when it all started. He does and Elmo decides to pass on the snowglobe and take the pink bear, that is until Santa offers him the Moo-Bunny instead. Also proud of Lighting's part in helping Elmo, Santa offers to promote him so he may pull the sleigh with the other reindeer. The next morning Big Bird is standing near the Fix-it-Shop alone and sad but is brightened up when he sees Snuffy who tells him that instead of him going to Cincinnati to spend Christmas with his granny she came to Sesame Street. They join the others in the arbor around the big Christmas Tree to sing "Keep Christmas With You All Through the Year".