IStock Photo 10754412 © Eduardo Jose Bernardino

While movies from the 1940’s top the list of adults’ favorite holiday films, holiday TV specials are dominated by a 3-year period in the 1960’s: 1964-1966. The top 3 holiday TV specials favored by adults were all produced in that time: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” first, followed by “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

The odds an adult considers "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964) to be his or her favorite animated holiday TV special are 1 in 3.85. An unlikely hit—made in Japan and Canada, and based on a Johnny Marks song—“Rudolph” has been shown on TV every Christmas for 45 years, the longest-running US network TV Christmas special. In it,

• Sam the Snowman was designed to resemble the show’s screenwriter, Romeo Muller, who also looked very much like Burl Ives, who was the narrator and therefore the voice of the snowman.
• The scene depicting Santa rescuing the inhabitants of the Island of Misfit Toys, and delivering them to new homes, was not in the original 1964 airing of the special. It was made and inserted in 1965, in response to a massive number of viewer letters complaining that Santa did not come through on his promise to the misfits.

Almost as popular is "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965). The odds an adult considers it to be his or her favorite animated holiday TV special are 1 in 4.17.

• It is the second longest-running Christmas special, after “Rudolph.” It is also the first animated Peanuts special.
• Director Bill Melendez—a longtime animator for Disney and Warner Brothers, and the uncredited voice of Snoopy—did not want the special to incorporate Biblical references, such as Linus’s speech from the Book of Luke. Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz changed his mind, arguing, “If we don’t do it, who will?”
• Since the characters were voiced by actual child actors—an uncommon practice at the time—long portions of the script were given to them phonetically. One actress, Kathy Steinberg (the voice of Sally) was too young to read, and had to be fed her lines a word at a time. Also uncommon for the time, the cartoon contains no laugh track.
• Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” jazz piano theme, written for this special (and seen played by Schroeder), ultimately became the recognizable introductory theme for all Peanuts specials.

Coming in third is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (1966), the odds being 1 in 4.76 that an adult considers it to be his or her favorite animated holiday TV special.

• The Grinch is voiced—and the special narrated—by Boris Karloff, forever remembered as the original Frankenstein. Another famous, though uncredited, voice sings “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”: Thurl Ravenscroft, later known as the voice of Tony the Tiger.
• Director Chuck Jones—creator of many well known Warner Bros. cartoon characters—chose the Grinch’s particular shade of green based on the regularity with which rental cars in Washington DC-Baltimore appeared painted that exact color.

In fourth place: "Frosty the Snowman" (1969), written, like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” by Romeo Muller. The odds an adult considers it to be his or her favorite animated holiday TV special are 1 in 12.5. It was narrator Jimmy Durante’s last film.

And finally, the odds are 1 in 33.33 that an adult’s favorite animated holiday TV special is "The Year Without a Santa Claus" (1974), in which Santa is voiced by Mickey Rooney. Like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman,” it was a Rankin/Bass production.

Curiously, women tend to prefer “Rudolph”—the odds a woman considers it to be her favorite animated holiday TV special are 1 in 3.45—while men, 1 in 3.57 of them, most often favor “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”