Who’s ready for a little extra hugging, smiling, singing, candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup this year?  Once we hit December, 2003’s Elf will likely be airing on TV nonstop, but this year, in addition to the Will Ferrell live-action comedy we’ll also get a Buddy the Elf animated special as well.

NBC will air Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas on Tuesday, December 16th at 8pm with The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons voicing the title character.  Hit the jump to find out who will be joining him.

As reported by THR, Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas will also feature the voices of Mark Hamill, Ed Asner, Fred Armisen, Jay Leno, Matt Lauer, Gilbert Gottfried, Kate Micucci, Rachael MacFarlane, Max Charles and Steve Higgins.  The story will be a retelling of the narrative from the feature film and chronicle what happens after Buddy passes through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, goes through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, walks through the Lincoln Tunnel and makes it to New York City to search for his biological father.  In the process, Buddy insists on spreading holiday cheer around the clock.  (Well, minus 40 minutes of sleep a night.)

The special will combine the look and feel of "the stop-motion animated Christmas specials of the past with the sharp sensibility of the modern-day film."  It'll also feature nine songs including "Happy All the Time," "A Christmas Song" and "Nobody Cares About Santa Claus,” all of which come from the Broadway rendition of the movie that ran from 2011 to 2013.  However, the article doesn’t specify if all nine songs will come from the show.

If you need a little refresher, here’s the Elf trailer:

Related: The Best Christmas Songs of All Time