Doesn't hold up
Used to watch it all the time as a kid. Watched it today and sadly it doesn't hold up. Animation is bad and a lot of the jokes don't land. Overall just kind of a boring special.
shareI actually have a story about this Christmas special.
Many years ago, during the late-90s when I was in my teens, I went with my dad and step-mom to my step-mom's parent's house for Christmas. They lived about an hour away and I didn't want to be bored during the trip, but this was of course during the pre-smartphone, pre-mobile Internet days. My dad had a handheld, black-and-white TV that he let me take along and while sitting in the back of the car and searching through the channels I landed on the Garfield Christmas Special.
At the time, I enjoyed it immensely and felt very thankful to find it, even though I started to lose the signal at the end and miss the last bit of it, much to my disappointment. I had never seen it before or heard of it but because of that experience I've never forgotten it.
I didn't see it again until one day when I ran across it on YouTube. While it was fun to find it again after so many years, I sadly have to agree with you that it doesn't hold up super well. I won't complain about the animation, but the story wasn't really as I remembered it and it could be better.
It was fun to watch in black-and-white on a 3-inch screen 25 years ago though.