Really Bad Puppet Movie Makes Really Good Memories

As a kid, attorney Brandon Long remembers one year around Christmas when he stayed home from school as it snowed outside. He discovered a movie on television that featured puppets, called “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas.” It was a really bad movie, he recalls, but it produced really good memories and became a holiday tradition that he’s passed on to his own kids.

So when I was a kid, I remember pretty vividly one year staying home from school and it was snowing outside. And there was this puppet show called “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” that was released in the late seventies. It’s this really bad movie involving these puppets. You can even see the puppets — you can see the strings that they’re walking on.

It’s got a musical flair to it. It’s really pretty bad, but it was a big part of my childhood. And I remember watching it that year that I stayed home and then every year from there on.

As my kids started experiencing Christmas, I bought the DVD one year and started showing it to my kids. And my wife just hates this show. She hates it. So, every now and then, we’ll play that in the car when we’re going to look at Christmas lights or whatever, just to kind of get my wife all worked up because she thinks it’s just horrendous. And my kids of course, love it and think it’s funny. That’s a big memory for me.

It’s funny how, you know, all these years later, 40 years later, you still remember Christmas morning. You remember movies that you watch with your parents. The pajamas I was wearing as I’m, you know, playing with the trains that my dad put together. Little things like that that you kind of never forget. Lots of great memories.

But that stupid “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” is probably the one tradition that I’ve carried through with my kids from my childhood.

Happy Holidays!