This article is about the video. You may be looking for the book adaptation.
Title card
Barney's Night Before Christmas is a 1999 direct-to-video Barney Home Video that was released on September 28, 1999. Directed by Ben Vaughn and written by Stephen White, this marked the second Christmas special in the Barney franchise, with the first being the Barney & The Backyard Gang video, Waiting for Santa.
The video begins with now it’s Christmas Eve, at Hannah's house. Hannah and her mother are looking in the snow covered yard out the window, and they have just enough time to decorate the house for Christmas. Hannah’s mother goes to bake cookies for Santa, while her father brings in boxes of decorations. Then, Robert, Keesha, and Stephen come over at the house, singing "Jingle at the Window". They give gifts and help with the Christmas decorating. They start at the outside, but when Stephen takes doll Barney out, he accidentally slips on the ice, dropping him, when he magically comes to life, all covered with garland, and the kids help him untangled the garland. Barney agrees to help the kids decorate the house. They sing "Winter's Wonderful".
Back inside, while Mom goes to bake extra cookies for Barney, he and the kids gather decorations for inside, when they find something yellow, which happens to be Baby Bop's blankey! Baby Bop agrees to help decorate the inside, and they all sing "Deck the Halls". After that, Barney has a feeling that something is missing. The tree needs to be decorated. Barney, Baby Bop, and the kids set up the tree skirt, the ornaments, and the lights to decorate, as they sing "Oh, Christmas Tree". After that, Barney's string of lights lights up, and after he does a count of three, everyone blows the lights onto the tree.
While Barney and Baby Bop go outdoors to play in the snow, Hannah’s mother and father return. Mom lays the cookies on the table. While Hannah's parents leave, BJ appears, dressed as Santa Claus, carrying Hannah's laundry bag (thinking it's his bag of toys), leaving the kids confused, wondering if he's really Santa. They sing "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". After that they offer BJ some cookies, when Barney and Baby Bop come inside, noticing BJ in his Santa outfit. The kids then know it was BJ the whole time, so they let BJ eat some cookies, and some other dig in, leaving the rest for the real Santa Claus.
After BJ takes off his Santa suit, Baby Bop wonders that if Santa fills stockings for people around the would, who's going to fill Santa's stocking? Baby Bop then decides that everyone should do it, so the gang makes presents for Santa as they sing "Jingle Bells". After that, they wonder how they're supposed to get to the North Pole. Barney points out to Hannah's snow globe with Santa's House. Using their imagination, the gang teleports to the North Pole. As they look in the window of Santa's House, they see a sleeping Santa Claus.
They quietly walk in the house to fill Santa's stocking, when suddenly, Santa's quill tickles Baby Bop's nose and she lets out a sneeze, waking up Santa and the whole house. Santa, surprised, greets everyone and knows their names. He happens to keep a book, containing a list of names of all the people around the world. Barney and Santa sing "Look into Santa's Book".
Santa then decides to break for a while and shows the gang lots of toys from around the world. BJ finds a round, flat thing, thinking it's a Frisbee. Santa tells him not to spoil its music. He puts the metal disc in an antique music box, which plays "Joy to the World". Hannah signs the lyrics in sign language. Next, Santa leads the gang to where new toys are being made and calls Mrs. Claus on the phone to inform her that Barney and the kids are coming.
Mrs. Claus greets them once they arrive at the factory. The Elves have already gone home to celebrate Christmas Eve with their families. Then Robert asks if they're anything to see in there. Barney, Mrs. Claus, and the kids take a train ride around the factory, singing "Christmas is Our Favorite Time of Year", as they watch toys of every kind. Baby Bop and BJ watch them through the window, and enter the factory once the song is over.
Mrs. Claus tells the gang that Santa needs help and there's work to be done and instructs them to wrap the gifts. They sing "Wrap It Up", while Barney, Baby Bop, BJ and the kids wear blue Christmas gift wrapping aprons, while BJ is struggling, ending up with ribbons and bows all over him. BJ claims there were maybe just too many presents, which reminds Barney of a song about someone who loves to give presents. They sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
After that, they go back to Santa's workshop. Keesha thanks the Clauses for showing them around the North Pole. Meanwhile, Santa discovers his stocking full of gifts and thanks Barney and his friends for that. BJ says it was Baby Bop's idea. Santa then gives Baby Bop a gift - a ballerina music box. When Santa winds it up, the little ballerina comes to life, dancing to "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy". Baby Bop thanks Santa for the gift, and Santa thanks everyone for visiting, and later in the night he'll be visiting each of them, but only if they're asleep. He then lets Baby Bop and BJ join him on his sleigh tonight, and gives Hannah another snow globe, with Hannah's house modeled in it. Barney and the kids say goodbye, before they teleport back to Hannah's house.
Hannah's Mom reminds the kids that supper will be ready shortly. The kids then notice Barney outside of the house. They go outside to check out the lights. Then some people, including Hannah's friends from school, come in. The carol leader lets Barney and the kids enjoy their music. They listen to a bell choir performing "Silent Night", then everyone sings "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as it starts to snow.
Late at night, Hannah walks out of bed. Dad reminds her that Santa won't come until she's asleep. Hannah says she's too excited and asks if she can stay up with Barney. Dad accepts this and leaves, before Barney enters the house. Hannah asks him what it's like when Santa comes. Barney explains it in song - "Up on the Housetop" - with Hannah joining him in each chorus. After that, Hannah grows sleepy, and realizes she forgot to give Barney a gift, but Barney says his gift is sharing the day with the people he loves. They sing one last song, "I Love You". Barney tucks Hannah in and wishes her a Merry Christmas. Hannah's parents take her to bed, while a bag of gifts fall through the chimney and Barney has turned back into doll form. He winks at the audience from the window and the camera zooms out from the house as the credits roll.
Cast[]
The cast of Barney's Night Before Christmas.
Barney and Hannah's Mom on set of Barney's Night Before Christmas.
(Left to right) Julie Johnson, Bob West and Carolyn McCormick on the set of Barney's Night Before Christmas.
NOTE: Songs marked with an asterisk indicates that it was instrumentally played during the end credits
Marketing[]
In 1999, a float based on the video Barney's Night Before Christmas debuted in the "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" from 1999 until 2001. It was the largest float based on Barney, as it was a two-story. The float depicted a view of Santa's North Pole workshop. The clock depicted the time until Christmas day as the below depicted a toy train with children dressed in pajamas riding the float.
Barney's Night Before Christmas Float in 1999.
Barney in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 1999.
Barney, BJ and Baby Bop on a float based on Barney's Night Before Christmas in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2000 as it passes through Times Square.
Release[]
Advertisement for Barney's Night Before Christmas.
Home media[]
On the screener copy of the special, before it was officially released, the title was "The Holiday Show". The same version has a different and slightly longer audio track during the credits and no text in the credits. Barney's Night Before Christmas was available for pre-order on August 31, 1999. The video was officially released on VHS and DVD on September 28, 1999 by Lyrick Studios. Originally priced at $24.99 on DVD,[1] it was the second interactive Barney DVD released following Let's Play School!. The DVD release contained two read-a-longs (which were Barney’s Christmas Surprise and Barney’s Wonderful Winter Day), ten sing-a-long songs from the video, a sampler of Happy Holidays Love, Barney featuring five songs, eight interactive games, a Behind the Scenes info on kids in the cast, the dinosaurs, producers and a educational guide.
The VHS release of Barney's Night Before Christmas was on the Billboard Top Kid Video chart and Billboard Top VHS Sales, going as far to reach #11 and #35 on the charts respectively on December 1, 2001.[2] The United Kingdom release of Barney's Night Before Christmas, from Universal, spent eight weeks on the Official Video Chart for OCC, entering at #75 on November 13, 1999 and peaking at #61 on December 11, 1999.[3]
UK/Ireland VHS Rerelease by Hit Entertainment (2002)
UK/Ireland DVD Rerelease by Hit Entertainment (2002)
Australian VHS Release (1999)
Australian DVD Release (2000)
Original Spanish Release (1999)
First Spanish Rerelease/Aprendre Con Barney (2001)
Second Spanish Rerelease (2005)
Hungarian DVD Release (2012)
Hong Kong VCD Release (2004)
Portuguese Release (2007)
Other[]
Barney's Night Before Christmas was aired on PBS from 2000 until 2001 and aired on Sprout in 2010 as part of the latter's "Elmo's Movie Merry-thon".[6] On December 6, 2008, Kidtoon Films released Barney's Night Before Christmas in theaters as part of its in-theater matinee movie program. The video was played all throughout the month.[7]
Trivia[]
Barney's Night Before Christmas Kidtoons poster.
This video marked:
Another time something happens to the Barney doll before coming to life. It was when Stephen slips on a bit of ice while holding the box of decorations, dropping the box then they land on the soft snow, Then Barney comes to life, tangled in tinsel.
The DVD was originally going to contain a soundtrack to the video Waiting for Santa.[1]
During one verse of "The 12 Days Of Christmas", when Baby Bop sings "5 Golden Rings", her head comes off a little but quickly falls back down.
Barney makes a reference to Waiting for Santa when remembering how to get to the Toy Factory.
Larry Haron, an assistant music director to Bob Singleton (the music director of this video), makes an appearance as the Choir Master.
Lori Plummer, the future spouse to Dean Wendt, a Barney voice actor, makes a cameo appearance as a caroler.
Barney's Night Before Christmas is Stephen White's favorite Barney video that he wrote[8]
The toy train that circles a loop of track in Santa's house is the Bachmann Big Haulers Golden Spike Set with a green cab, blue tender, gondola, and the caboose with no letterings on them. It would later appear in Round and Round We Go but with the stock car that came in the set, and from Season 7 to onwards it appears as a decoration in the caboose.
The big hauler set is among the list of trains that were owned by Carey Stinson after Barney & Friends ended.
During "I Love You", Hannah and Barney sang the first verse while Barney sang the second verse.
Children[]
Although the children seen in the "bell choir" and "carolers" are regular characters on Barney & Friends, the characters are not credited but the actors are. This video marked:
Although Robert isn't a member of the "bell choir" or the caroler group, he can be seen singing with Chip, Kim and the adult carolers during the song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".
Videos[]
Promos[]
Barney’s Night Before Christmas Trailer
Barney's Night Before Christmas Home Video Commercial (1999)
Barney - Holiday Videos Trailer
Outtakes[]
Barney the Dinosaur Outtakes - Barney Falls Down (Barney's Night Before Christmas - VHS)
Barney the Dinosaur Outtakes - Stephen Forgets his Lines! (Barney's Night Before Christmas - VHS)
Barney the Dinosaur Outtakes - You Go, Girls! (Barney's Night Before Christmas - VHS)
Barney the Dinosaur Outtakes - Stephen Forgets the Lyrics! (Barney's Night Before Christmas - VHS)
See also[]
Other media[]
Barney's Sing Along: Night Before Christmas - the final tape in the series of sing along tapes. It was released on October 26, 1999 to coincide with the release of Barney's Night Before Christmas. Along with the cassette came a lyric book was included.
Barney's Night Before Christmas (book) - The video was adapted into a book of the same name. Released on August 1, 1999. It was adapted by Stephen White, who also contributed in writing to the home video, and illustrated by Rick Grayson.
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