Over the course of my life, I have seen many of the best holiday specials ever, whether it be “The Strike” from Seinfeld or “Mr. Plow” from The Simpsons. I have even seen the classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer. I believe that The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is on par with, and in some ways, surpasses even the very best holiday specials out there.

   The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special focuses mostly on the characters Drax and Mantis. Mantis is Peter Quill’s sister, and he doesn’t know this yet. Mantis feels bad that Peter hasn’t been able to celebrate Christmas ever since he joined them and has lived with him since the first The Guardians of The Galaxy movie. She takes Drax to Hollywood to get Peter the best Christmas present ever. Normally, people would give a simple Christmas present, however, Mantis has something different in mind. Peter always talks about how much he loves actor Kevin Bacon. Mantis and Drax go to Hollywood in order to bring Kevin Bacon to Peter in order to make it a good Christmas for Peter. The rest of the special follows Drax and Mantis taking Kevin Bacon to Peter.

   The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special was announced back in December 2020, and it was originally going to air on ABC alongside the more traditional holiday specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty The Snowman. However, for an unknown reason, this didn’t work out, and the special ended up becoming a Disney+ exclusive. 

   The special was written and directed by James Gunn, who has wanted to make a holiday special starring the Guardians for some time now. When he initially wrote the script, he said that the holiday special is “… one of my favorite stories ever” (Twitter).

   The story is one to write home about. It is one of the most unique and chaotic stories that I have ever seen. I have absolutely no idea how Gunn came up with the idea for Mantis and Drax to basically kidnap Kevin Bacon to give to Peter as a Christmas present, and I have no idea how Gunn got Kevin Bacon to go along with it, but I am happy that it happened nonetheless. It was insane and amazing all at once. 

   I also really liked the acting in this special. I thought for sure that the actors would be a little rusty given the fact that they haven’t played these characters in such a long time, but they didn’t miss a beat and they were still able to make me laugh as always. The best acting was done by Chris Pratt, who plays Peter. His line delivery always made me laugh, even if it was something that normally isn’t funny.

   Overall, The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is a fun holiday adventure that will appease fans of the Guardians of The Galaxy franchise until The Guardians of The Galaxy comes out in May 2023.

   The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is streaming exclusively on Disney+.