My wife has been a fan of Garfield Christmas since before I met her, and I met her 29 years ago. I remember it being out of print, and finding a VHS copy on eBay. And then years later, as DVD's took over, being able to purchase a new DVD copy for her.

This year, we did not have a DVD hooked up in the living room. So we rented it through Apple for $3.99.

As we were watching, my children (ages 9 and 13) said, "Hey, they skipped that part." It was not something I noticed, so paid it little attention.

But then they skipped the part where the grandmother plays the piano and then tells everyone, "You better let those ivories cool down."

And when the grandmother is reminiscing, they skipped showing the picture of her late husband.

All of these are fairly minor things, and if we did not watch this show every single year, we might not have noticed. If this was on network TV, and they edited for time, I suppose I would understand.

But since we paid for it, why would Apple edit all these small parts out of the show?

Probably because time & money is all that matters to Apple.

It sounds like Apple just has the rights to the original 1987 version. There were edits made post-1991. According to online wikis:

The 1991 edit has been used in all subsequent broadcasts, as well as on VHS, the Garfield Holiday Celebrations DVD, and earlier copies of the Garfield Holiday Collection DVD. The original 1987 cut was made available for viewing on Hulu.com during December 2014 and 2015, and is available on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video. Later copies of the Garfield Holiday Collection DVD have also used the original 1987 version.

In 1991, the following edits were made to the special:

- Jon driving his car out of his driveway and down his neighborhood was cut.

- Grandma giving some of her dinner to Garfield and Odie under the table was trimmed to remove two additional shots of Garfield and Odie receiving their meal.

- The original broadcast version did not have the scene in which Doc Boy and then Grandma play "O Christmas Tree" on the piano. Instead, the special cut straight to Jon asking "Why don't you play [the piano] for us, Mom?", immediately following Garfield's comment on the fully decorated tree. The cut is made rather obvious, due to Garfield standing in front of the tree and then suddenly sitting on top of the piano in the very next shot, indicating that the scene was cut at the last minute.

- A full six seconds of music were cut from the song "You Can Never Find an Elf When You Need One".

- Some shots also had their animation completely redone, particularly in the scene where Grandma reminisces about her late husband. During the scene, new shots, all done in a different lighting, were made, including a close-up on a framed photo of Grandma with her husband, which was never seen in the original version. Also, when Jon and Doc Boy go to bed after Dad finishes reading Binky, the Clown Who Saved Christmas, the reaction on Dad's face is different.