The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
Christmas Episodes!
Boys' Christmas Money (1952)
The series' first TV Christmas program, an (almost) yearly tradition. Some holiday shows were rerun in later years - 'The Lost Christmas Gift' aired in 1954 and 1955. 'Busy Christmas' aired both in 1956 and 1964 and this episode, 'Boy's Christmas Money,' was also rerun in the sixties.
In this episode, the boys want to earn extra money for Christmas so Ozzie gives them permission to look for work.
The Miracle (1953)
Ozzie remembers a long-ago Christmas from his childhood, when he wished for a white Christmas.
The Lost Christmas Gift (1954)
This may be my fave Ozzie & Harriet holiday program - no better glimpse into what Christmas was all about in the 1950s and 1960s.
After the Christmas gifts have been opened, something is amiss: Ricky's catcher's mitt isn't among the presents under the tree. Ozzie guesses that Amazon may have delivered the package to another Nelson family across town. They venture out there only to discover a poor, single mother (a widow of course, no divorcees on TV in the 1950s) with little kids who are going without gifts on Christmas Day. Ozzie, Harriet and the boys decide to throw them a merry Christmas. (Wait - Amazon?!?)
Busy Christmas (1956) Hard working Ozzie has volunteered for so many Christmas committees to benefit others that he has almost no time for his own Christmas shopping, hang the Christmas lights or even visit a lot to buy a Christmas tree. The family that Christmases together stays together!
The Christmas Tree Lot (1957)
What happens when David and Ricky decide to earn extra money for the holidays by opening a Christmas Tree lot? The usual shenanigans!
A Piano for the Fraternity (1960) David and Rick's fraternity tries to find an affordable piano to use for their upcoming Christmas party. The brothers are just about to give up when they meet the Stewarts who offer them their old, but serviceable, upright piano. The boys find a sheaf of Christmas carols in the piano stool and convince their fraternity brothers to invite all their parents to the party - and the Stewarts, too - for an evening of Christmas carols, dance and (non-alcoholic) punch.
Not the kind of fraternity party you read about today!
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet aired over the ABCtelevision network from October 3, 1952 through April 23, 1966.
Starring the real-life Nelson family, it was based on a long running radio sitcom, brought to television in 1952 where it continued its success, initially running simultaneously on radio and TV.
