Technically, this is The He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special, not The She-Ra Christmas Special, but I only watched She-Ra as a kid, so she was the hero of this entire episode as far as I was concerned. To me, He-Man was just a forgettable side character who showed up on She-Ra’s show from time to time. I do realize that most people see those characters in the exact opposite way.
Anyway, growing up, I wasn’t so familiar with He-Man and Skeletor. One of the only reasons I knew anything about Skeletor at all is because of The She-Ra Christmas Special (yes, I’m going to call it that), in which he appears prominently. I watched this a gazillion times as a kid, even when it wasn’t Christmas—which probably says a lot about me. I turned out great!
Even back then, I think I could tell that this Christmas special is corny to the point of being hilarious. Skeletor is a delightfully ineffectual villain, as always, who (spoilers?) soon reveals himself to be a total softie when it comes to children and puppies. I guess it’s a lot easier for him to torture more equal adversaries, like He-Man and She-Ra, as opposed to ending up with a couple of kids and a dog, as he does in this episode. Except I’m pretty sure Skeletor wasn’t that competent even on He-Man. (I wouldn’t know, I didn’t actually watch much He-Man.)
This special ends (again, more spoilers?) with the two kids getting magic seatbelt-looking things that give them the power of flight, which is a deeply impractical and unsafe gift to give two young children. Did I mention that these two kids are from Earth, not Eternia, and they take these magical seatbelts home with them? As a kid, I remember being super impressed by the seatbelt flyers and wanting one really badly. Why wasn’t that released as official She-Ra merchandise?
Anyway, thanks to the official He-Man YouTube account, you can watch this entire 45-minute cornball Christmas special for free. Enjoy! And let me know in the comments which weird Christmas specials you remember from your childhood—especially if you also watched this one as many times as I did.
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