Chuck E. Cheese is getting a televised Christmas special

The rodent mascot of the children's pizza chain will appear in the company's first animated holiday special this year. A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas will air on Amazon $AMZN Prime Video, debuting Thanksgiving Night. Don't have Prime? You can also watch on the Chuck E. Cheese YouTube channel.

The debut of Charles Entertainment Cheese's holiday spectacular will feature all of the elements shared by the holiday specials you grew up with. Original songs? You bet! (After all, what's a Chuck E. Cheese cartoon without Munch's Make Believe Band?) Merchandise? Absolutely.

The special will also feature watch parties at Chuck E. Cheese locations around the country (because who doesn't want to go to a pizza restaurant full of children after stuffing themselves with a rich turkey dinner?).

The special will see Chuck E. and his friends (Helen Henny, Jasper Jowls, Bella Brinca, Munch, and Pasqually) organizing a surprise party to put Santa in the Christmas spirit. The show will debut two new songs, co-written by the songwriter behind the Monkees' "I'm a Believer" and the holiday standard "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)".

This is just the start of a media expansion for Chuck E. Cheese. The restaurant chain has previously announced a development partnership with Magical Elves, the producer of shows including Top Chef, to create a game show based on the arcade games that crowd each location.

Chuck E. Cheese is fast approaching its 50th anniversary in 2027. The company says it has more nostalgic plans in store during the walk-up, meant to lure back old fans as well as new ones.

The company was founded by Atari creator Nolan Bushnell, who has long since severed his involvement with the chain. It barely made it to 10 years, but was saved by merging with its arch rival Showtime Pizza.

Chuck E. Cheese, though, wasn’t always meant to be a mouse. When Bushnell first came up with the concept of the restaurant, there were no plans to use a rodent as the mascot.

"The project started as Coyote Pizza," says Bushnell. "We thought that a Coyote would be a great mascot. I purchased what I thought was a Coyote costume from an amusement park walk around costume vendor and had it shipped to the company. When it got here it was obvious to everyone but me that it was a rat costume.

"Rather than get another costume we decided that we would use a big rat as the mascot. Marketing didn't like Rick Rats Pizza and came up with Chuck E. Cheese — as they called it a three-smile name."