The Office Christmas specials wrote that the specials are "as wickedly, painfully funny as the first two seasons and, in tiny, fleeting doses, as delicately tender". The following year it was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. Gervais and Merchant received a nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. The episodes won in the Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-series & Specials category at the American Television Critics Association Awards. The award was collected by Lucy Davis. The specials appeared at #4 on Channel 4's "100 Greatest Christmas Moments" polls in 2004. The specials
Christmas by medium film tax benefits). Before 1962, when "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" premiered, true Christmas specials made for TV were either adaptations of stories such as "A Christmas Carol" (with live actors), or the Nativity Story, or episodes of variety shows highlighting Christmas music. They were often hosted by such celebrities as Perry Como, Jane Wyatt, or Florence Henderson. (A notable exception was "The Spirit of Christmas" in 1950, which, although featuring an appearance by Alexander Scourby, who also narrated, starred the Mabel Beaton Marionettes.) This all changed once variety shows began dying out in the late 1980s and Rankin-Bass began producing