Elmo and Mark Rober's Merry Giftmas

Context & Trivia

This half-hour holiday special is a collaboration between Sesame Workshop and Mark Rober's CrunchLabs, premiering globally on Netflix on December 8, 2025. Production took place in New York and Los Angeles. Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer and YouTube star known for his viral science experiment videos, founded CrunchLabs in 2022 to inspire a love for science and engineering in the next generation. Rober described teaming up with Elmo and the Sesame Street Muppets as a "childhood dream come true," aiming to show that with imagination and creativity, anything can be built. The special emphasizes STEM concepts and the idea that "failure is awesome," encouraging children to learn from mistakes during the building process. Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster are among the Sesame Street characters featured in the special. Matt Vogel serves as the puppet captain, with Martin P. Robinson as the assistant puppet captain. Other puppeteers include Jennifer Barnhart, Tyler Bunch, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, and Ryan Dillon.