YMMV / The Little Drummer Boy

• Awesome Music: The title song, as performed by the Vienna Boys' Choir. Also "One Star In The Night."
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ben Haramed painting a smile onto Aaron's face is portrayed as a degrading experience for the boy, but Classic Media would perform something similar for certain home media covers: The 2017 DVD and 2022/23 Complete Rankin/Bass Christmas Specials Collection boxsets Photoshop Aaron's miserably horizontal mouth into a smile.
• Lighter and Softer: Book II compared to the original special.
• Jerkass Woobie: Aaron may be misanthropic, but it's still hard not to sympathize with him.
• Tearjerker:
  • The flashback to the murder of Aaron's parents. After his father is killed, his mother can only help him escape through a window and urge him to run, then Face Death with Dignity herself, and Aaron flees into the desert in tears as the house burns. Doubles as Nightmare Fuel.
  • Aaron's reaction to Baba's Disney Death. The poor kid has been through hell and back, and now one of his only friends is dying right in front of him. And when he begs the Three Kings to help him, his voice audibly breaks when Caspar sadly tells him there's nothing he can do.
  • The burning of Aaron's drum in Book II, when the villainous Roman soldiers snatch it from him to use for firewood. Aaron can only watch helplessly as his only worldly possession and the only thing he has left from his parents is destroyed, and he later sobs over the loss when alone with his animals. Fortunately he gets a new drum in the end, but it can't replace the sentimental value of the original.
• Values Dissonance: Balthazar has a very stereotypical Chinese design, with Eyes Always Shut, but he is portrayed as wise and kind-hearted.

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