Welcome to another installment of Christmas in quarantine. It's Christmas Past's impromptu miniseries of

indeterminate length. Today is day 19 of these daily episodes. It's all about keeping spirits up

during these uncertain times. Speaking of which, I hope that you're staying safe and healthy, that you're practicing all

of the common sense guidelines, treating this situation with the seriousness it deserves, and

taking your advice only from trained medical professionals.

Now, today's installment is another trip back to the cartoon specials of the 1980s. Some popular 80s characters

seem ready-made for their own special. Garfield? Sure. The Care Bears makes perfect sense. But then

we have those characters who, while wildly popular, don't exactly put you in mind to deck the halls.

Like, for example, He-Man and Shira,

who come from another planet after all and spend most of their time doing battle with

Skeletor and Hordak. But the 80s, gunna 80s, and that means that the world did indeed

get He-Man and Shira a Christmas special, which aired on Christmas Day in 1985.

There's a lot to unpack here, so I recruited my friends Mike Westfall from the Advent

Calendar House and Tim Bab from Can't Wait for Christmas to take a little moonwalk down

memory lane with me. I'll be back at the end to say goodbye. For now, let's go back to

1985 for some muscle-bound Christmas spirit.

So first of all, okay, He-Man, how much a part of your childhoods was it?

He-Man, I think, was the first Christmas gift I remember getting when I was four years old.

So consciously, it's always been there,

whether it's in the background or not. On my show at the very end, there's a sign off where my dad says

that was Christmas 1983. That's a video of us opening presents that Christmas. That Christmas, I got

a Skeletor and Castle Grey Skull.

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