The aliens silhouetted against their ship.

I love A Cosmic Christmas. And I think it’s an underrated Canadian classic (I think it deserves it’s own Heritage Minute, but I’ll wait until later to actually make a case for it). I tell everyone interested way too many facts about it and my house is full of A Cosmic Christmas art (some official, some I’ve made or adapted). I love collecting everything I can about this obscure, largely forgotten gem, but I wish it weren’t so forgotten. I wish everyone knew about it and how it helped both reflect and build an emerging industry in Canada, how it brought real artistry to animation and to storytelling, how it set Nelvana on a path to global domination. There’s a ton of our history wrapped up in this simple little animated Christmas special that I think’s worth knowing about.

Peter and his grandmother share the angel with Amalthor.

But, having a love for this special and all the kinds of information and ephemera around it doesn’t do anyone any good if we don’t share it, so I thought it was high time I made this website to share with history the many bits and bobs that are still kicking around from a special produced in 1977. You wouldn’t think there’d be a ton, but I’m surprised that I’m still being surprised by what’s out there. I search the web every day (long story) for more treasures from this classic, and I’ve keep finding stuff I’ve never seen before. It’s a small group of people gathering stuff, be we’re out there. And I hope if you’ve found your way here, it’s because you’d like to see some of this stuff. And much Peter sharing the love of Christmas with the aliens, we’re thrilled to be able to share it with you. More amazing stuff to come!

The physical and digital assets dictated the layout of this site. The key thrust of the site is to share what I’ve collected, so in an effort to put it out there in ways that can be easily searched and understood, I broke it down into Print, Production and Products.

Print

Ads
Ads
Articles
Articles
Books
Books

Print contains everything I’ve found related to the special in print, articles, ads, books, etc. You can click on ‘Print’ to see all of it, or click on ‘ads’, ‘articles’ and ‘books’ just to see those subsections. I say books, but it’s really book. Perhaps some wishful thinking on my part, that something else might still show up, like A Cosmic Christmas colouring book, or read-a-long book. I doubt anything like that exists, but the thought that it could and no one knowing about it is in part why I made this site. My hope is to share with everyone interested everything that’s out there.

Production

Original Drawings
Original Drawings
Animation Cels
Animaton Cels
Backgrounds
Backgrounds

The Production section contains things that went into the making of A Cosmic Christmas. My mind is still blown that after 45+ years, that these things still exist, and that I’ve been able to get my hands on them. I have quite the collection already, and I have more coming later this year that, if you’re like me, will blow your mind… The Production section is broken into ‘Original Drawings’, ‘Animation Cels’ and ‘Backgrounds’.

Products

Video Cassettes
Release Formats
Other Products
Other Products
DIY Merch
DIY Merch

There aren’t a lot of A Cosmic Christmas products, and each one is hard to find, or even one-of-a-kind. Still, I want to share what’s out there so people can know what got made, either commercially or for fun. Got any Cosmic Christmas merchandise that you bought or made? Share it with us, we’d love to see it!

References

There’s also a lot of great references around A Cosmic Christmas, including a bibliography with all of the books I’ve found about it, referencing it, or better explaining to context behind it. We’ve also got links to videos and podcasts about A Cosmic Christmas, and references to it in other media or works. All of these are being added to as we can, so check back often to find more resources as they become available.

Bibliography
Podcasts
Connections
Videos

About Us

I remember when I was a kid, seeing the articles and ads appearing, heralding this new exciting Canadian-made animation special. There was hype around it because it was the first time we were saying, hey, this is our Christmas special, made by Canadians and it’s cool. I never forgot that original hype, and I’ve carried with it the love for the special that I first knew then and kept with me since. I think it’s important that we celebrate it as the ground-breaking special it was, and is, and keep that history alive. So, I’ve been collecting everything I could get my hands on related to A Cosmic Christmas ever since. It seemed silly to put all that work in without sharing with everyone what I’ve found. I hope you find it interesting. And if you have anything cool from A Cosmic Christmas, let me know, and if you want, I’ll share it here too for all to see, because it’s about sharing some history. I think it’s important that people see just how impressive and important A Cosmic Christmas was for Nelvana, for kids everywhere, and for Canada!

Thanks for stopping by!

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