After Jon wakes Garfield up from an amazing dream, Jon takes Garfield & Odie to his grandmothers's to spend Christmas Eve & Christmas day together. Garfield becomes very close with Jon's Mom, and learns about the true meaning of ChristmasI have seen this many times over the years. The last time I watched this was back in 2002. It's been a long time since I have seen this. I was a Garfield fanatic as a kid. For some reason this has slipped my mind on Christmas for quite a few years. Well, two days after Christmas, I decided to revisit this. It's safe to say this still has the same effect on me as it did all those years ago. The opening sequence of Garfield's elaborate dream is fantastic. It's everyone's dream to get the gift that keeps on giving, but that's not what Christmas is about. I feel this does a terrific job of explaining the true meaning of Christmas in the most genuine way possible. Christmas is about spending time with the ones you love. As far as I know, this is the only time we see Jon's real family. Correct me if i'm wrong on this, though. They are all cool characters, but Grandma is by far the coolest. She is succinct and straight forward, just the way I like it. She made me laugh with her antics, and I loved her relationship with Garfield. They were like two peas in a pod. We also get an epic Garfield & Jon duet, with Garfield improvising like only he can. it gets extremely sentimental towards the end, and I loved it. It's Odie that steals the show with his surprise gift for Garfield. If you don't like it, you may need psychological help. If you wanna see Garfield act caring and amorous, this will be right down your alley. The final 10 minutes will blow you away with how well it's done. Even if you're not a fan of Garfield, you'll most likely love this. I don't see how anyone could dislike this. I rarely use the word perfect, but this is about as close to 30 minutes of perfection that you'll see. I will now go back to my tradition, and make this one of my annual Christmas line-up. It makes me realize that Christmas really is a special holiday10/10

Before the advent of atrocious CGI, there were 2D animated Garfield cartoons. And they were awesome. Garfield's pessimistic and tired tone is somehow perfect for the Christmas season. It was great that they tried something that captures your average family Christmas, rather than trying to force characters into another adaptation of A Christmas Carol (as much as I do love that). Jon returns to his family farm for some simply sweet offerings of tradition. The mom cooks, and in one particularly humorous scene the dad is forced to read a children's Christmas story to his now grown sons. We also see Odie trying his hardest to make a gift for Garfield, and grandmother reminiscing about her deceased husband, in a heartfelt scene which never becomes schmaltzy. It does a lot in its 23 minutes, and is everything Christmas should be.

I enjoy reading Garfield in the comic section of the paper everyday. He is funny, his strip one of those that takes itself seriously next to never and if all the other strips fail, his is the only one that delivers. That is why this holiday based movie is kind of the pits. The funniest part was the first part where Garfield has the dream of the ultimate X-mas gift. After that it is time for Jon to take Garfield and Odie to the farm where they meet Jon's family and it just is not as funny as it should be as we meet grandma and everyone is trying to find the perfect gift. I realize it tries to impart a lesson on what X-mas should be, but there are more than enough specials of this ilk on the airwaves during the holiday season, what would be so wrong if we had something that was just funny? I want the sarcastic overweight Garfield, not the highly sympathetic one. I want Odie kicked off the table, not making a gift for Garfield. The entire special just is not like the comics at all, but then not many of the cartoon versions of Garfield are like the strip. Still, this was a change of pace back in 1987 as by then we had seen all the same holiday specials again and again. Though they still rank ahead of this one for the most part.

The 'Garfield Christmas Special' is another one of those films from my childhood that were much enjoyed and much appreciated. As usual, 'Garfield' brings in some humor followed by some lessons on how to be a good boy. In this film, Garfield goes with Jon to the country to spend Christmas with Grandma. One of the events is Garfield getting a gift for Grandma and learning the true spirit of Christmas.As always, 'Garfield' is enjoyable and educational for children. There is plenty of humor so the film does not 'talk down' the meaning of Christmas. Rather, it makes it enjoyable and makes it understood through emotion. I miss these old Christmas specials. I wish they would show them again.