Top Ten Christmas TV Episodes
Every year I like to
go back and watch Christmas-themed episodes of some of my favourite TV shows,
besides the traditional holiday viewing like Rudolph and The Grinch.
Obviously this isn’t
a definitive list of Christmas-themed TV episodes—there are hundreds of them
out there, nearly every long-running series has had at least one holiday-themed
episode—this is just a reflection of my own personal favourites.
10. “Refrigerator
Day”: Dinosaurs, Season 2 Episode 12
This episode isn’t even about Christmas. So why is it here?
Well it’s sort of about Christmas. If you don’t know the show, it’s an early
90’s sitcom that uses suit-actors and puppets to bring the Sinclair’s, a family
of dinosaurs, to life, and it’s actually a pretty underrated show. On the
supercontinent of Pangea, the most-celebrated day of the year is, you guessed
it, Refrigerator Day, where all the dinosaurs decorate their fridges and
celebrate the invention that allows them to store food. It might sound goofy,
and it kind of is, but I have to give it a spot on this list simply for the
creative approach to a holiday-themed episode. Though the dinosaurs celebrate
this fictional holiday, it still aptly reflects what goes on with Christmas.
The plot is similar to Christmas Vacation,
but with its own prehistoric twist.
9. “Joy to the
World”: House, Season 5 Episode 11
As with most episodes of House,
the beloved medical drama remembered for its misanthropic title doctor played
by Hugh Laurie, the case House and his doctors take on is pretty standard, and
not particularly memorable at first, but it does incorporate Christmas even
into this aspect of the story, with a young girl singing in a school concert,
only to vomit unexpectedly. The best part of the episode is when House gets a
mysterious present, which he throws in the trash, and this prompts some classic
medical team detective work. But the real gut punch comes at the end, when it’s
revealed why the young girl they’re trying to cure is sick. I won’t spoil it,
but it certainly makes the title of the episode ironic.
8. “And All Through
the House”: Tales from the Crypt,
Season 1 Episode 2
If you want a Christmas tale with more murder and fright
than a typical holiday special, this is the go-to episode of Tales from the Crypt come December. The
benefit of Tales from the Crypt is
you can watch any episode and enjoy it on its own, because it’s an anthology
series. This episode was directed by Robert Zemeckis, famous for movies like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, so what’s he
doing directing an episode of this horror-comedy series? I’m not sure, but he
did a great job, because it packs in laughs and scares in equal measure, and
has everything there is to love about Tales
from the Crypt: bad people getting their just-desserts, unexpected deaths,
blood, gore, murder, mayhem. Plus, there’s a psycho killer dressed as Santa
Claus. If you want a different version of the same story, check out the Tales from the Crypt film from 1972,
which this episode is essentially a remake of, but I’d recommend the TV version
over the film version.
7. “The One with
Phoebe’s Dad”: Friends, Season 2
Episode 9
I just had to put one of the many Christmas episodes of Friends on this list. With so many to
pick from, like the one where Ross and Monica do their dance routine at Dick
Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve, or the one where Ross dresses up as the “Holiday
Armadillo”, I had to go with the one where Joey and Chandler join Phoebe for
moral support when she decides to meet her real dad for the first time. This
makes it so Joey and Chandler can’t do their shopping at the mall, so they get
everyone gifts from the gas station, making for one of the funniest outros to a
Friends episode that I can remember.
There’s also the storyline with Ross and Rachel feuding, which does make for
some good jokes, but isn’t really Christmas-related or even that memorable in
general. However, within that part of the story, Ross breaks the thermostat, so
the apartment turns into an oven, resulting in a “tropical” Christmas party
(and, later, a great line from Chandler: “Ho-ho-holy crap is it hot in here!”)
It may not be the most Christmas-ee Christmas episode, but it’s the one that
makes me laugh the most.
6. “The Best
Christmas Ever”: That 70’s Show,
Season 1 Episode 12
Not that I want to compare the two shows, but I think Friends had a greater number of quality
Christmas episodes than That 70’s Show.
However, That 70’s Show’s first
Christmas episode (also called “That 70’s Christmas”) is even better than the
aforementioned Friends episode. It
starts off hilarious, with Eric’s grumpy father Red giving him 40 bucks to go
buy a Christmas tree and spend whatever is left over, but his friends come up
with the brilliant plan to cut down a tree on the side of the highway and spend
all the money on beer instead. It’s a hilarious way to start off, but the rest
of the episode has many laugh-out-loud moments, like when Eric’s jealous sister
spikes the punch bowl at his party and when Red plays pong with dim-witted
Kelso. Later Christmas episodes from the series were never able to replicate the
hilarity found in this first one.
5. “Merry Gasmas”: Corner Gas, Season 3 Episode 13
There was only ever one Christmas episode of Corner Gas, a Canadian sitcom set in the
tiny town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, but with the show being brought back in
animated form next year, that could change. “Merry Gasmas” has lots going on, including
diner-owner Lacey trying to catch a flight home to Toronto, with miserable
results, Corner Gas employee Wanda trying to get a Transfarmer (that’s right,
“farmer”, not “former”), and dim-witted Hank working with police officers Davis
and Karen to give presents to a needy family that isn’t actually so needy. But
I think the best part of the episode is with Corner Gas owner Brent getting
bummed out by his parents forfeiting their “traditional” Christmas tidings,
which is the inverse for most families. Instead of having the retro fake-tree
made of aluminum, they switch to a real tree. In place of cranberry sauce from
a can is homemade sauce. It’s really clever humour, and as with many of the
best Corner Gas episodes, all the
characters come together in the end for one last hearty laugh.
4. “Gift Wrapped”: Looney Tunes
On Christmas morning, Sylvester the Cat is excited to open
his presents, but dismayed when he finds that Santa only brought him a rubber
mouse. But no problem! He switches the tags on his gift and Grannie’s, and of
course Granny got a Tweety Bird, but once Granny realizes Sylvester’s trick,
she spends the rest of the episode keeping Tweety safe from Sylvester—and keeping
Sylvester safe from Hector the Bulldog, who is also wrapped up under the tree.
This is a classic Looney Tunes short,
with all the Sylvester-chasing-Tweety fun that has come to be expected, but
with a nice injection of holiday spirit. As the title implies, it mostly
focuses on the gift-giving side of Christmas, but it makes fun of other holiday
traditions like carolling and “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. If time
constraints are an issue for how many Christmas shows you can watch this time
of year, definitely go with this one. It’s only 7 minutes long, and packs a
surprising number of laughs within the short runtime.
3. “Xmas Story”: Futurama, Season 2 Episode 4
Futurama might be
the smartest and funniest animated sitcom of all-time, and the signature mix of
thoughtful, clever, and goofy humour is all present (no pun intended) in this
futuristic twist on the holidays. I really like that it doesn’t immediately
start out being exclusively about X-mas, it begins with the Planet Express crew
partaking in the winter fun-times of skiing and bobsledding, with hilarious
jokes like the Professor falling asleep while skiing and winning a bunch of
medals, or Fry discovering that, in the 31st Century, to avoid trees
when skiing you only have to say “Trees down” and they fold over. “What do you
say if you want trees up?” he says, and you can guess what happens next. But
the X-mas part of the episode (even the spelling is an in-episode joke) is
really great, with a robotic Santa Claus that calculates everyone has been
naughty and therefore must be exterminated. I could go on, there’s just that
much to laugh at and love about this episode. Definitely watch it, even if you
aren’t an avid Futurama fan.
2. “A Very Special
Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas”: Family
Guy, Season 3 Episode 16
Here’s another animated Christmas special from another
once-great animated sitcom. Though Family
Guy has gone downhill in more recent years and doesn’t demonstrate nearly
the level of intelligence or ingenuity found in Futurama, sometimes it still generates even bigger laughs than the
aforementioned future-set show, usually for its pop culture references, gags,
and relatability. This episode, which I think is still the best Family Guy Christmas special to date, shows
the Griffin family partake in a number of holiday traditions, but with the Family Guy sense of humour infused.
Stewie wishes for Plutonium from Santa, Brian wishes he could stop wearing the
Christmas sweater Lois made him (Lois: “Don we now our gay apparel.” Brian: “Doesn’t
get much gayer than this.”), and poor Peter just wants to watch the Christmas
special “Kiss Saves Santa” (which I wish was a real Christmas special because it looks awesome). Of course, Peter
screws things up, which makes for even more hilarity, but like the best
Christmas specials, it still has a positive message about the holidays stuffed
in there.
1. The Office: all of ‘em
I know I’m cheating with this one, but I can’t help it. I
don’t know what it is about The Office,
but every Christmas episode is great. Of course some are better than others,
but compared to every other show I’ve seen, no other show, sitcom or otherwise,
has had so many hilarious, memorable,
and/or poignant Christmas specials. The show, for those who don’t know, is very
straight-forward. People work in the office of a paper company, the boss (Steve
Carrel) is a goof, and it’s filmed like a documentary. If I had to pick just
one, I’d say my favourite Christmas episode would be the first one, “Christmas
Party” from Season Two, where they do a secret Santa gift exchange, to chaotic
and hilarious results. Some other great ones are “A Benihana Christmas from
Season Three, “Secret Santa from Season Six, and “Dwight Christmas” from Season
Nine. Even not-as-great ones like Season Eight’s “Christmas Wishes” have
awesome moments, like when Dwight cranks Trans-Siberian Orchestra (a fusion of
Christmas and heavy metal) and a hilarious-yet-badass montage of gift exchanges
occurs. Even if you have never seen The
Office, I highly recommend checking out at least the Season Two Christmas
episode. It might just make you want to watch the whole show.
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