The best Mickey Mouse holiday shorts aren’t at Disney Plus

Growing up, nothing could compare to the exhilaration of seeing all my favorite Disney characters finally come together Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the Mouse House to sing “The Best Christmas of All” together around a beautifully lit Christmas tree

. Of course, that was before I knew fan fiction was a thing, so to see a mega crossover just got me excited. Lumiere light the fireplace? Great. Jasmine and Aladdin flying in on a magic carpet? Fantastic. Grumpy and the rest of the gnomes want bunk beds for Christmas? Phenomenal filmmaking, cinema at its finest.

That was the biggest gimmick of house of the mouse, a Disney Channel animated show that focuses on Mickey and his friends who run a dinner theater club – the fact that characters from various Disney animated objects visited the club and watched various Disney short films. Some of these shorts were created specifically for the show, while others are drawn from Disney history. But the most important thing was the fact that all the characters were hanging out together and watching her.

Image: Disney

As the name suggests, the Christmas special takes place on a night when all the guests are snowed in. While Mickey is happily hosting longer, Donald is in the grumpy pre-Christmas spirit for an unspecified reason, so to cheer him up upstairs the gang decide to play their favorite Christmas shorts.

Snowed in at the House of Mouse was not only my first contact with various classic Mickey Mouse short films, but also my first contact with classic Christmas stories like A Christmas song and The Nutcracker. All other adaptations of these stories will always pale in comparison to my first time. For me the Ghost of Christmas Past will always be Jiminy Cricketand Uncle Drosselmeyer come in The Nutcracker will always sound vague like Louis of Drake. Eventually our VHS player broke and we switched to DVD… until that DVD player broke and the Christmas special was just a memory to live on. When Disney Plus debuted, I was ecstatic — I could finally spend the holidays watching my beloved childhood favorite.

Unfortunately not a single episode of house of the mouse is on Disney Plus. The special in itself is It was available to rent for $7.99 on YouTube and Prime Video, but the fact that it wasn’t readily available on Disney Plus, a service I already pay for, irked me. I thought maybe I could at least cobble together a DIY version of the special using the shorts are available on Disney Plus – but only two of them are! Hey, what’s up Disney?

Image: Disney

During Mickey’s Christmas carol and Pluto’s Christmas tree are on Disney Plus, the other three shorts are mysteriously missing. After a little research, I found out that the other three short films – a retelling of The Nutcracker with Minnie; Donald participates in an ice skating race; and Mickey creatively decorating his house – all from a Disney series called Mickey Mouse Works. This show aired from 1999 to 2000 and was intended to recreate the golden age of Disney animated shorts. Some of these were short ditties, others were longer and based on classical stories (hence the Nutcracker one). None of them are available to stream or rent anywhere!

Funny enough, house of the mouse essentially replaced that show when it aired. The fact that none of them are available on Disney Plus – or anywhere really – is frustrating. That’s the state of modern streaming. While every media company out there wants their own custom service, there’s no guarantee their own original content will even appear on it. There’s kind of more content than ever before, but it’s at the same time as accessible as ever and more inaccessible than ever. Sure there is a lot of

of shows and movies all at your fingertips, but that certain forgotten childhood favorite? The chances of coming across it anywhere in a video store are slim; The chances that it’s on a streaming service are basically zero.

Image: Disney

There are certain films and series that you only watch during the holidays. It’s a tradition as old as baking cookies or decorating a Christmas tree. But now, with so many shows and films being locked away and released at the whim of corporate powers, some of that magic is being lost. When Apple took control of the Charlie Brown films, many people weren’t too keen on the fact that they were going to be streaming exclusive content. Sure, this Disney special doesn’t garner as passionate a fan base as Charlie Brown, but man, it’s sad that this beloved holiday tradition is now inaccessible to me and many others out there.

Maybe I should spend the $7.99 to rent it and stop being such a curmudgeon about paying extra. Maybe I should accept the harsh reality of the streaming wars as a fun holiday bonus. Or maybe I should put a DVD-VHS player combo on my Christmas list in hopes Santa will help me keep my childhood favorites a little longer.

Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the Mouse House can be rented on YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play and Prime Video.