The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow

This movie has all the feel good aspects of other Christmas classics but not the fantasy. A person could almost believe it is a story that could have really taken place. This is a good piece of work by Angela Lansbury. It is often over looked when compared with other Christmas classics but more than worth watching.

Young shepherd Lucas gets blinded by a lightning strike. Nuns from a nearby abbey nurse him back to health. Father Thomas intends to send the blind orphan to the orphanage. The other kids play a prank on Lucas by hiding his sheep. The sheep run away into the woods where wolves are hiding. The kids make it back for the Christmas play where a miracle answers Lucas' wish. I'm not sure if snow is part of the Biblical story. This is fine although it didn't hit me as hard as expected.

I just recently saw this special again and it made me realize what a heart warming story it is.

Oh yes little Lucas is blinded in a thunderstorm and is taken in by an Abbey of nuns, one of which as voiced by Angela Landsbury.

I loved how Lucas had to deal with his disability while still being a shepherd, worryng about whether or not he gets to stay at the Abbey, finding the right gift for Angela's nun character, befriending a girl named Louisa, finding his lost sheep, and being in the Christmas pageant, where two miracles happen. What a story!

I loved too how they incorporated not only the typical Christian Christmas story, but also Jesus' Parable of the Lost Sheep from Luke 15:3-7 into the plot-line of his story, which makes it especially special.

If you can find it (and ABC Family often broadcasts this special during their 25 Days of Christmas every December) I think this is one special to watch.

This is the kind of show that you'll never see made again - something that is about Christianity and has a good moral for the children it's geared towards. Today it would be protested and replaced with Danny Phantom's Holiday Special or some crap like that. My seven year old boy loved it and counts it amongst his favorites. All the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials are enjoyable for young and old alike. This is probably one of the lesser known and harder to find ones. I love the claymation style they use - it would be great to see something new in this vein. Maybe one day they will release all the specials on one DVD - If you have small kids - catch it if you can.

While parts of the story are adorable - the little shepherd boy and his sheep, with the dog, the nuns and the other children - the weird, weird aspect of adding snow and Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" bothered me to no end. Especially since the children add snow to the nativity scene of the first Christmas. In Bethlehem? Jesus was sleeping outside in a manger in the Middle East and there was snow? What is this even? Whose terrible idea was this and good lord why in the world did so many people go along with it as late as 1975?

Generally I am a fan of 70s cinema and I especially love these stop-motion Christmas specials, but this one is truly bizarre.