My Top 10 Favourite Holiday-Themed TV Show Episodes
10.) JINGLE BALLS- WILL AND GRACE (2001)
The four main characters in Will and Grace are friends, but their friendships often involve uncomfortable insults and spites that make one wonder why they bother with each other. In this Season 4 holiday episode, which aired in December 2001, we see some of the worst aspects of the main characters. Still, we also see a side, perhaps brought out by the holiday spirit, that shows why Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen more than tolerate each other.
Jack lets his inflated ego get in the way when his boss at Barney’s New York, Dorleen (Parker Posey), needs a designer to design the store’s Fifth Avenue window, and instead of nominating Grace, who tells Jack designing Barney’s window is a dream of hers, he nominates himself, despite having zero experience with interior design. A hurt Grace refuses to step in after Jack predictably messes the whole thing up with the cringe-worthy S&M-inspired theme, even as a concerned Karen tries to hilariously and characteristically influence her and later bribe her to do it. Grace changes heart after overhearing Jack, who is praying for a miracle. Unbeknownst to Jack, Grace does the window, and Jack gets his miracle. Dorleen loves it. When Jack tells Grace he believes Santa Claus did it after he asked him for help, Grace lets him have his miracle and promises to keep his secret. The scene where the two of them stand in the snow in front of the window is heartfelt and shows that while they aren’t the closest two characters, their friendship can overcome Jack’s narcissism and Grace’s stubbornness.
Meanwhile, Will is dating a new man, Robert (Larry Sullivan), a ballet dancer performing in a rendition of “The Nutcracker.” The uptight Will is embarrassed by Robert’s whimsical nature, and when Grace invites Robert over to dinner, he tries to project that onto Grace, who finds Robert alluring. This leads to a fight where Grace tells Will to pull the stick out of his ass and realize what a great guy Robert is, though Robert’s embarrassing pirouettes become too much for Will when he prances along Fifth Avenue in a snowstorm catching snowflakes. Grace comments that she “thought that might happen,” the two opt to “sit home and cry in our underwear” for Christmas, perhaps with friends like last year.
9.) THE CHRISTMAS PRESENCE- THE LOVE BOAT (1982)
The Love Boat, the popular 1970s-1980s prime-time comedy/drama, had several Christmas-themed episodes, but none felt as deep and emotional as the Season 6 episode “The Christmas Presence.”
Like every episode, this one is set on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. It features celebrity guest stars and three main storylines, which converge to create a heartwarming, tear-jerking ending.
The passengers include two nuns (Teresa Wright and Jan Rooney) and a choir from a Mexican orphanage who are stranded in Los Angeles and were offered passage back to Acapulco on the Pacific Princess. The choir’s lead singer, a boy named Rodrigo, is ill. Also on board are a young married couple, Jim and Lori Markham (Donny Osmond and Maureen McCormick), whose relationship is on the rocks due to Lori having a high-demanding job and Jim’s desire to have a more traditional marriage. Meanwhile, two criminals, Charlie (Kennan Wynn) and Henry (Henry Gibson), are trying to smuggle stolen gold into Mexico and decide to trick the nuns into transporting the ill-gotten goods through customs disguised as figures in a Nativity scene.
Things take a terrible turn when Rodrigo’s illness worsens on Christmas Eve, and Dr. Bricker must perform a tracheotomy. After calling for a nurse on board, Lori shows up. It turns out Lori’s high-demand job is as a nurse,,and she assists the doctor in saving the little boy’s life. This leads Jim to realize how vital his wife is to others. They repair their relationship and decide to adopt Rodrigo to start a family.
Their lives intersect with the help of an odd duck, Angelarium Dominicus (Mickey Rooney), who appears to be cruising alone and seems to show up uninvited in every key scene. It’s established quickly that Angelarium is some divine spirit whose goal is to perform much-needed miracles for the passengers and the crew. He helps the crew decorate the Christmas Tree, stops the thieves from getting away with stealing the gold, and, in an incredibly moving scene, repairs Rodrigo’s voice during the Christmas Day concert in Acapulco. At the end of the episode, he appears at the top of the ship’s Christmas tree.
The powerful and emotional episode appeals to the Christmas spirit of hope and belief in miracles.
8.) TWAS THE BLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS - HOME IMPROVEMENT (1993)
The 1990s were a time of excess, ambition, and shifting cultural traditions, and this episode experiences the drama of all three. Home Improvement had a Christmas episode every season. Still, perhaps the best one was the third episode, which brought us some familiar holiday battles and focused on one of the most critical aspects of the holiday season: family.
The Neighborhood Christmas Decorating Contest returns from the first season in this episode. Tim is desperate to beat his neighbor Doc Johnson this year and goes to the extreme. Tim focuses on some unique Christmas decor, including three Wise Men with his face on them and a giant red ball that serves as Rudolph’s nose, but discovers that before he can get his idea off the ground, Doc has already done it. An embarrassed and apologetic Randy admits he is the culprit.
The main plot line involves the eldest Taylor son, Brad, asking his parents if he could spend Christmas skiing with his friends and their family. When Jill says no, a family fight erupts, and Brad is forced to his room while the rest of the family attends church to see the youngest boy, Mark, sing in the choir. While sitting at church waiting for the concert, Tim notices Jill is upset, and Jill laments that the whole family isn’t together on Christmas Eve because of Brad’s punishment. Tim goes home to talk to Brad, cheer her up, and fix what is ailing them, only to discover him sneaking out to go skiing.
In a tender father-son moment that is part discipline and part education, Tim explains to Brad why family is so important and why there might not always be “the next Christmas.” This makes Brad realize that he is an essential part of the Taylor family's Christmas. Bradhe gets dressed and goes to church with Tim, which surprises Jill and leaves her in tears. The Taylors then watch Mark perform “The First Noel.”
The episode immediately addresses the difficulties of keeping Christmas traditions and the lament parents feel when their children grow older and begin to leave the nest.
7.) THE BLEAKENING - BOB’S BURGERS (2017)
This two-part 2017 episode coincided with the first year of the Trump presidency when many feared a regression from the progress made on social issues, including LGBTQ rights, in the previous eight years. The episode highlights the social progressiveness of the Belcher family and Linda’s love of Christmas. The political backlash of the first Trump term is referenced when the town’s gay nightclub, the Wiggle Room, is closed. After dreaming that she should throw a Christmas party, Linda decides to throw one in the restaurant and cuts off the top of her Christmas tree to use as a party decoration. After the party, she discovers the tree and her children’s handmade ornaments stolen. Linda opens an investigation and questions all the people who were at the party, including her gay friend Dalton (John Early), Marshmellow, and her new friend Art the Artist (Adam Driver), who had all been left without a place to party when the Wiggle Room closed.
Meanwhile, Teddy tells the Belcher children a scary ghost story (an homage to the series’ famous Halloween episodes) about a fictional character called the Bleaken who steals Christmas gifts. The kids put two and two together and suspect the Bleaken of stealing the top of their mother’s Christmas tree. After seeing how upset it has made Linda, they vow to find him and return the tree. As it turns out, her tree is one of the numerous decorations that have been stolen around the town.
After dinner on Christmas Eve, the three children sneak out of the house and head to an abandoned warehouse they believe to be the Bleaken’s lair, They face the demon to get back their family’s tree and ornaments. Tina conspicuously calls her parents to warn them. What follows is a chase through the scary abandoned warehouse in what could pass for a scary Halloween episode. Eventually, Bob discovers the warehouse is hosting a rave, where they find Linda’s tree and the other stolen decorations.
The two-part episode features some intriguing songs, including Linda’s “Christmas of My Dreams,” which is reprised several times during the show, and a well-arranged tango-inspired version of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” sung by Teddy as he hides in a Santa Claus decoration trying to catch decoration thieves.
In the climactic scene, drag performer Miss Triple Xmas (Todrick Hall) performs an inspiring number that combines the Christmas spirit with queer pride in which she compares the members of the LGBTQ community and its allies to a strand of Christmas lights. The song “Twinkly Lights” has become a cult favorite among LGBTQ fans of the show and includes the line “When they wanna tell us we’re all wrong, I’m here to tell you that we’re all lights.”
In the end, it turns out that Art steals the tree and othArtdecorations because he has a “dream” of the perfect Christmas party, just like Linda. Everyone’s Christmas spirit is back, and the Belchers save the illegal party.
6.) HAVE YOURSELF A VERY LITTLE CHRISTMAS- THE GOLDEN GIRLS (1989)
“I just never thought there would be children.”
Those are the shocked words of Blanche Devereaux when she sees the human cost of poverty at a Miami soup kitchen on Christmas. Much of this 1989 episode occurs at the soup kitchen and features emotionally powerful shots of sad, scared, and sometimes humiliated homeless men, women, and children sharing a humble meal. Among them, to Dorothy’s shock, is her ex-husband Stan, who is broke and thrown out of his home by his wife after a toy idea flopped when he sourced it through an East German production company to save money, and the toys couldn’t get out from behind the Iron Curtain in time for Christmas. After trying to scam the girls out of cash at the beginning of the episode, he shows up at the soup kitchen for a meal, feeling sorry for himself, while Dorothy reminds him that they’ve struggled before and Stan has always persevered. Ultimately, he surprises the homeless kids as Santa Claus and gives them each a present – the toy firetrucks that ruined him.
The episode focuses on the scourge of poverty, and its message of “everyone is just one stroke of bad luck away from being down” is as relevant today as in 1989. We also see the juxtaposition of the modern commercialization of Christmas and the stress it puts on people, which the first part of the episode is focused on (shopping madness and materialism). That evolves into the spirit of giving and being thankful in the second part, ending with an uplifting moment between the four girls.
Despite the poor children storyline's heaviness, the episode is packed full of hilarious jokes and deadpan one-liners. From Dorothy suggesting she beat up a woman to get her nephew’s gift to implying Blanche gave all the soldiers at the USO event she volunteered at an STD, there’s a laugh around every corner that balances out the seriousness. Rose’s St. Olaf holiday stories take the cake here. The look of confusion and concern on Sophia’s face after Rose compares fruitcakes to the “headless boy on St. Sigmund’s Day” left me laughing so hard that I was unable to breathe, and Rose suggesting bestiality had become an unfortunate, accidental byproduct of St. Olaf Christmas tradition is uncomfortably funny. Dorothy’s frustrated reaction when Rose suggests Mary and Joseph should’ve reserved a hotel room at the inn beforehand also leaves you in stitches.
It’s Rose, though, that injects the Christmas spirit into her roommates and others around here. She explains how giving is her favorite part of the holiday, surprises Blanche with a lovely gift after expecting a bad one, and convinces the girls to join her in helping feed people experiencing poverty on Christmas Day. This gives the girls an inspired and warm feeling and, in their own words, one of the best Christmases ever.
5.) WHITE TRASH CHRISTMAS - ROSEANNE (1993)
Don’t mess with a family’s Christmas decorations.
When the neighborhood association asks the Conners to tone down their decor this year after they creeped out their neighbors with less-than-stellar decorations—including a three-legged reindeer—Roseanne and Dan predictably decide to do the opposite. Looking to get back at their neighbors for telling them to tone it down, they plan the trashiest, weirdest, and most annoying Christmas display yet.
While the couple begins working on their trashy decorations, which include a wreath decorated with beer cans and an (implied) urinating Santa Clause, they are also juggling family issues with their daughters, Darlene and Becky.
One key plotline involves the formerly studious and well-behaved Becky giving money her parents gave her for college to her boyfriend Mark so he can go to Mechanic’s school. Roseanne says no and takes back the money, leaving Becky to work in a Hooters-style restaurant to make ends meet. This storyline reappears more than 25 years later on The Conners, when the family stages an intervention with an alcoholic adult, Becky, and Becky admits she blames herself for letting the now-dead Mark manipulate her.
Dan, indifferent to the issue, becomes more animated when Becky decides to work at the risqué restaurant and demands Roseanne give her the money back. He also blames Mark for letting her work there. In a hilarious heart-to-heart with Mark on the roof of their home, while decorating, he realizes that Becky got the job without Mark’s approval, and Dan offers his son-in-law some marriage advice.
The Darlene subplot features Roseanne’s mother, Bev (Estelle Parsons), taking the youngest child, DJ, to Chicago for the weekend to see “The Nutcracker.” While there, they decide to drop by Darlene’s apartment, much to Darlene’s surprise, as she lives there secretly with David. She had David hide in the bathroom when Bev and DJ came over, but DJ discovered David there and bribed Darlene with all her money to keep the secret.
The episode ends with the obnoxiously bright Conner Christmas display lit off-screen and Bev’s hilarious explanation of some of the more vulgar decorations.
4.) NOEL - THE WEST WING (2000)
The West Wing had several great Christmas-themed episodes, but if I had to pick one, I’d choose the Christmas episode during the second season, which aired in 2000.
Coming just a few months after he nearly died in a shooting that also injured President Bartlet and served as the second season opener, Josh Lyman, a performance that won Bradley Whitford an Emmy that year, struggles with the trauma. He is forced to see a therapist, Dr. Stanley Keyworth (Adam Arkin), after some concerning behavior scares his friends and co-workecoworkersomes to the Christmas Eve therapy session with lacerations on his hand.
During the episode, we are taken back to times in the past three weeks when Josh’s behavior seemed odd and, at times, frightening, tied in with holiday musical performances in the White House lobby. In one scene, he scolds the president for not listening to him about the political costs of tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, while in another, he snaps at his coworkercoworkersng as loud as a “hockey game” outside his office. The situation gets critical when he has an anxiety attack during the Congressional Holiday Party during a performance by Yo-Yo Ma, who guest stars in the episode. Cuts of Josh sweating and panting are shown around flashbacks to the shooting, including one shot of Josh getting shot.
A woman who comes to the session with Dr. Keyworth, allegedly for “training,” notes that Josh got a flashback because he tasted the “bitter taste of adrenaline,” and it reminded him of that night. It is hinted she is a survivor of trauma as well.
In a feel-good subplot featuring some hilarious scenes between CJ and the snobbish Bernard (Paxton Whitehead) from the White House Visitor’s Office, a painting hanging in the White House, a gift from the French government, is discovered to be art stolen by the Nazis aftArtthat daughter of the collector they stole it from, a French Jew, spotted it and exploded into hysterics while on a White House tour. CJ later arranges for the painting to be returned to the woman, who decides to retake possession of it instead of having it remain at the White House and appreciate it, giving us a lesson in how sentimental value is often worth more than monetary. Meanwhile, the interactions between Bernard and CJ, featuring lines like “your necklace is a monument to bourgeois taste” and “you are a freakishly tall woman,” provide comic relief to the otherwise emotionally-wrought storyline. While explaining how the painting ended up in the White House, Bernard hilariously compares it to a “gym sock on a shower rod,” which seems to tickle CJ.
3.) THE ONE WITH THE HOLIDAY ARMADILLO- FRIENDS (2000)
Being Jewish at Christmas was always a curiosity in modern Western society. Christmas is a Christian holiday that has been mainstreamed into the secular world. In the late 1990s, as the number of interfaith couples and families increased, the choice of Christmas or Hanukkah, or somehow meshing both, was a common question.
Friends tackled his problem in a fun and unique way in this 2000 Holiday-themed episode. When Ross, who is Jewish, wants his son Ben, who celebrates Christmas with his Christian ex-wife Susan, to learn more about Hanukkah, Ben resists. When Ben realizes that Hanukkah doesn’t involve Santa Claus, he believes Ross wants him to celebrate Hanukkah because he had been bad that year, and Santa won’t come to bring him presents. This upsets Ross, and he gives in and promises Santa. When he goes to a costume shop to get a Santa suit, he finds out they’re fresh out of Santa and other Christmas costumes, so he has to settle for a less popular costume – an armadillo.
Arriving at Monica’s apartment as the “Holiday Armadillo,” he tells Ben he is a friend of Santa, and starts to teach him about Hanukkah until they are interrupted by…Santa (played by Chandler). Chandler takes Ben’s attention off the armadillo and Hanukkah. When Ben wants the armadillo to leave, Ross asks Chandler to go, and he reluctantly agrees, not before Monica tells him how she is a little turned on by him in the Santa suit. When Ross is ready to give in, Chandler decides to stay and, as Santa, convinces Ben to let Ross tell him about Hanukkah. Ben sits with Santa to listen to the story, and as Ross begins to tell the story, they’re interrupted again…by Joey in a Superman costume.
Eventually, Ross does teach his son the story of Hanukkah, and Ben gets to enjoy both holidays.
Meanwhile, Phoebe finds a new apartment and expects Rachel to move back in with her. However, when Monica tells her that Rachel seems to be enjoying living with Joey, Phoebe tries to make Rachel move out by giving Joey gifts that she thinks will annoy Rachel. This only backfires. Rachel does agree to go back to living with Phoebe, but when they see the newly renovated apartment, they realize the contractors turned the illegal two-bedroom into a giant one-bedroom. Phoebe and Rachel mutually decide to let Phoebe live there alone.
2.) THE STRIKE- SEINFELD (1997)
The show aboutNothingg did one of the most memorable Holiday episodes in 1997 that gave birth to a new holiday that has become sort of a running gag even 25 years later – Festivus.
Festivus is a holiday invented by Georgia’s father (Jerry Stiller), who had enough of the commercialization of the Holiday season. The holiday, celebrated on December 23, includes an aluminum pole as a symbol, and its main tradition is the airing of grievances at dinner. The holiday has entered cultural lore as a comedic alternative to Christmas and Hanukkah and as a catch-all holiday for those who don’t belong to any religion to celebrate any major holiday.
This episode starts with Jerry and Elaine at a Hanukkah party thrown by their friend Tim (Bryan Cranston). While they’re there, Jerry has his eye on a pretty girl (Karen Fineman), flirts with her,, and asks her out. Elaine is mainly left on her own while trying to avoid a creepy guy but ends up having to talk to him. She gives him a fake number on the back of a card she had in her purse to get rid of him. She later realizes the card was a rewards card from a sandwich shop, and she was one more sandwich away from a free one. Elaine searches to try to contact the man and find the card without having to face him, admitting she gave him the wrong number.
Kramer meanwhile gets a call he’s been waiting for: the strike at his job is finally over. When Jerry and Elaine tell him he didn’t even know he had a job, Kramer explains his job has been on strike since 1985. When he returns to the bagel shop, he finds out that all his other coworkercoworkersved on, but the new owner gives him a job.
When Kramer finds out about Festivus, he becomes enthralled and requests a day off, which his new boss refuses. This leads to Kramer going back on strike.
George, trying to avoid buying Christmas gifts, decides to give his coworkercoworkersannouncing he had donated money in their name to a fake charity. However, he later finds out. To save his job, he explains that he celebrates Festivus rather than Christmas and fears being persecuted. As a result, his boss asks to be invited to his parents’ Festivus dinner.
As for Jerry, his relationship with Gwen goes pear-shaped when he realizes she isn’t nearly as pretty in the wrong light. In a cringe-worthy storyline, Jerry tries to make the best of it in attempting to ensure Gwen is always in the right light, but ultimately the relationship doesn't work.
The episode ends with everyone, including George’s boss, at George’s parents’ home for Festivus and a hilarious airing of the grievances.
1.) SIMPSONS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE- THE SIMPSONS (1989)
Perhaps most interesting about this episode is that it served as the series pilot. Though The Simpsons had already been minor characters from The Tracey Ullman Show, and several episodes that aired later in the first season were made before this one, this episode was the first to air and is recognized as Season 1, Episode 1 today. It is the episode where we are introduced to the Simpson family and many Springfield townspeople.
We meet The Simpson Family at a typical suburban holiday scene – the school Christmas show. It’s here we first met the mischievous Bart, who utters the “Jingle Bells” parody that became iconic to any millennial’s childhood.
Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Robin Laid An Egg, The Batmobile Broke A Wheel And The Joker Got Away
The family’s storyline has been overplayed. A working-class family struggles to make ends meet and give their children a Merry Christmas. While at work, Homer finds out he won’t be getting a Christmas bonus, thanks to Mr. Burns protecting his annual raise. Thankfully, the family has saved money in a jar for Christmas presents. However, that plan goes awry when Bart gets a tattoo,, and Marge has to spend the Christmas money to remove it.
With the family out of options, Homer secretly takes a job as a Santa at the mall, but Bart discovers his ruse after trying to play a prank and promises to keep his secret. On Christmas Eve, Homer waits to get paid to buy presents, but after taxes and other fees, Homer is left with only $13. Not nearly enough for presents. On the advice of Barney, Homer goes to the greyhound race track hoping to turn that $13 into a fortune by betting on the right dog, but he neglects Barney’s advice and bets on a dog named “Santa’s Little Helper,” thinking his name is a sign since it’s Christmas. The dog loses and Homer must go home and face the truth.
At home, Marge’s sisters Patty and Selma are doing what they do best, knocking Homer while leading Lisa to make a profound and intellectual commentary about how knocking Homer could affect her relationships as an adult, which leaves her aunt speechless but dismissive.
Meanwhile, Santa’s Little Helper gets disowned by his owner, and the dog runs into Homer’s arms outside the track. Homer and Bart immediately fall in love and decide to adopt him, with Homer uttering an iconic line: “He’s a loser, he’s pathetic, he’s a Simpson.”
Homer brings him home, but when confessing he has no money for gifts, Lisa and Marge wrongly assume the dog is the gift, and Homer becomes the accidental hero, which becomes an everyday staple of the show. The family has a Merry Christmas.
Besides being my all-time favorite Christmas/Holiday-themed episode, it is probably one of the best pilots ever produced. Each character is very quickly but thoroughly introduced to us., but Homer’s lovable idiot vibe, Marge’s adoring wife and mother, Lisa’s intelligence and sophistication, and Bart’s troublemaking personality. We also meet the annoyingly perfect Ned Flanders and other regular characters like Moe, Barney, and Milhouse. This episode sets the ideal foundation for one of the most successful sitcoms ever, still airing a new episode over 30 years later.