For my family, Christmas Eve means it’s time for sitcoms. Sure, we occasionally watch a film classic (I’m partial to the romantic trio of “Love Actually,” “The Holiday, and “Bridget Jones’s Diary”) but mostly, the holidays means it’s a time to rewatch Christmas episodes of our favorite sitcoms.
These aren’t necessarily the very best Christmas TV episodes of all times, but the nostalgia-fueled ones that have somehow made it into the permanent rotation each year. For my money, we always start off with the Season 2 episode of “The Office,” “Christmas Party,” which — even now that I have nearly every line of the 22-minute installment memorized — still manages to never get old.
The Dunder-Mifflin fun follows the office Christmas event, complete with a Secret Santa game that quickly goes to hell. It’s character-driven humor which is particularly impressive for early in the run of the program. Romance fans get some sweet, iconic early Pam/Jim stuff with the teapot with “bonus gifts”; Michael Scott ruins a corporate function; Kelly kisses Dwight (!); and everyone gets drunk and has a good time. Is it any wonder “Happy Birthday Jesus. Sorry your party is so lame,” became a pop culture catchphrase?
There are several “Office” Christmas episodes over the run of the show (Season 3’s “A Benihana Christmas” is also a perennial favorite) but nothing tops the mass outrage at Michael buying an iPod for Ryan, or Phyllis debuting a homemade oven mitt. To me, it is perfect.
Below, some other staff favorite holiday TV episodes — curl up and watch a few of these this week. A good time is practically guaranteed (unless, of course, you cue up “The Leftovers”).
“The Doris Day Show” is a recent find for me, but Season 4’s “Whodunnit, Doris?”— a kooky murder mystery involving the sunny Day as an intrepid reporter opposite a gun-slinging Santa’s helper — is no doubt a Foreman family Christmas tradition in the making. The long-running sitcom was at CBS from 1968 to 1973 for five seasons and boasts an unusual trajectory. The titular blonde begins the series as a relatable mother of young boys before a sharp (and unexplained!) narrative pivot sees her become a single woman in San Francisco for Seasons 4 and 5.
As a friend recently put it, those latter episodes are “pure Ali bait.” Starring Day as Doris Martin, the “Pillow Talk” actress’ show includes several charming holiday episodes— but “Whodunnit, Doris?” is the best because it fully empowers the mid-century leading lady to embrace and push the range of her performance powers. Doris does double-duty here with a slapstick undercover Santa bit (wait until you see her in a hat and beard!) while looking glorious in picturesque narrative framing as herself: a shining cultural icon whose onscreen presence feels like the reason for the season. —Alison Foreman
“Marge Be Not Proud,” “The Simpsons”
There have been A LOT of “Simpsons” Christmas episodes in the show’s 34-year-run — the series literally began with a Christmas special — but the funniest and most memorable in this superfan’s mind is Season 7’s “Marge Be Not Proud.” The episode is so iconic that someone did finally fulfill every boy’s Xmas wish and invented the real “Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge” that you can literally play online. But like any great “Simpsons” episode, it has layers upon layers of jokes that can still be peeled back each time you watch it, like Milhouse sitting in front of a TV in a reference to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” or the stray video game titles on the Try ‘n Save shelves like “A Streetcar Named Death” or “Save Hitler’s Brain.” And that’s a good thing, because this one is worth rewatching every Christmas.
Bart had long been established as ‘90s TV’s bad boy, but the show had until then drawn a fine line between Bart’s mischief and pranks and straight up crime, with the cycling image of him pocketing “Bonestorm” serving as a real emotional gut punch. The coming-of-age moment and reality check for Marge is a storyline that would’ve worked without the Christmas setting, in part because this episode has no songs and no celebrity guest stars (a terrific Lawrence Tierney is not the same as Gary Coleman fighting feral Furbys) and instead is just a show at its peak doing what it does best. —Brian Welk
“The Strike,” “Seinfeld“
This year, Christmas Day and the first night of Hanukkah are both on December 25. But the real holiday season starts two days earlier, with Festivus. Contrary to popular belief, “Seinfeld” didn’t invent Festivus — it just perfected it. Another misnomer is that the 1997 “Seinfeld” episode is titled “Festivus.” It’s not, it’s called “The Strike.”
The title is derived from the episode’s revelation that Kramer (Michael Richards) hasn’t technically been unemployed this whole time. Rather, his H&H Bagels job was just on pause (“No-bagel-no-bagel-no-bagel-no-bagel”) as workers held out for higher pay. Years of organic minimum wage hikes took care of that.
Festivus was originally conceived by author Daniel O’Keefe as a celebration of the anniversary of his first date with his future wife. There was no “Airing of Grievances,” “Feats of Strength,” or aluminum pole. His son Dan O’Keefe, a “Seinfeld” writer, brought it to the masses as a secular, anti-commercialism holiday that wasn’t over until somebody pinned the head of the household, in this case Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller).
Just as Festivus was an alternative holiday for the O’Keefes — and the Costanzas — “The Strike” should be must-see alternative viewing to the mushy, gushy holiday specials adorning this list like tinsel on a Christmas tree. As we know, Frank finds that distracting. —Tony Maglio
“Merry Christmas Mrs. Moskowitz,” “Frasier”
No sitcom has ever come close to rivaling the precise hilarity with which the original “Frasier” executed its farce episodes. From “The Ski Lodge” to “The Two Mrs. Cranes,” the writing staff had an unbelievable knack for winding up elaborate webs of lies and confusion before releasing the pent-up energy into a flurry of slamming doors and kitchen squabbles. So it’s fitting that when the show opted to attempt an old-fashioned farce for its Season 6 Christmas episode, the end result was one of the high points of the entire series.
When Frasier visits the mall to buy his son a menorah as a good faith gesture to his Jewish ex-wife, he is approached by Helen Moskowitz (Carole Shelley), who sets him up on a blind date with the daughter she’s eager to marry off to a nice Jewish man. Frasier and Faye (Amy Brenneman, who becomes a recurring love interest) hit it off immediately, but she tries to avoid telling her meddling mother that she’s dating a goy until after the holidays. The plan backfires spectacularly when the duo drop by the Crane household unannounced, forcing Frasier, Martin, and Niles to pose as a Jewish family while a tree is being delivered and Niles is preparing to play Jesus in a Christmas pageant.
The script swiftly navigates what could be sensitive waters, finding good-natured humor in the inflection points of Jewish and gentile relations without ever being disparaging. It all builds to a conclusion about the ways that family ties can transcend superficial arguments, a wholesome holiday message that makes this quintessential Frasier farce worth revisiting every Christmas (and Hanukah, for that matter). —Christian Zilko
“Easy Street,” “Boy Meets World”
When I submitted “Boy Meets World” for this list, I had to clarify: Not the episode you’d think! The show’s obvious entry in the Christmas category is Season 5’s “A Very Topanga Christmas,” but the one that has me coming back every year is also known as the one guest starring Buddy Hackett and Soupy Sales. For the true love story of “Boy” is not Cory and Topanga, but Cory and Shawn — the Buddy Hackett and Soupy Sales of TGIF!
The boys find themselves at a crossroads (like the Robert Frost poem used as literary allusion in this episode) when Cory gets a cushy holiday job slinging cappuccinos for the vaguely sinister Messrs Fontaine (Hackett) and Martini (Sales) — whom Shawn astutely points out are definitely part of the Mob. Cory quits on the spot, but Shawn himself can’t turn down the massive cash tips they offer for menial tasks like posting an envelope (in a mailbox that may or may not exist). For one of many episodes that tasks Strong with drama and highlights the ways that Cory and Shawn live different lives, “Easy Street” presents concrete examples of what could divide the friends, and what keeps them together. Hackett and Sales are an absolutely ridiculous guest cast and pairing, providing humorous intimidation and a hilarious runner in their recognition of Sam at the bar (Sam!). Also, Eric and Lonnie get stuck in a snowstorm which leads to him yelling “More horsey!” Fun for the whole family. —Proma Khosla
““B.J. and the A.C.,” “The Leftovers”
Few people have had a blue Christmas like Kevin Garvey. The chief of police in Mapleton (played by Justin Theroux) is dealing with an outbreak of silent, cigarette-smoking cult members, his wife — a member of said cult — just filed for divorce, his son has gone missing, and his daughter won’t talk to him about, well, anything. On top of all that, he keeps waking up in places where he doesn’t remember going to sleep, and random odds and ends are just… gone (kinda like three years ago, when 2 percent of the world’s population inexplicably vanished).
Now, he’s been told to set everything aside because it’s his responsibility to find a doll that’s gone missing from the town’s nativity scene: Yes, Kevin has to use the full weight of the police to track down the Baby Jesus, like a religious version of “Red One” where he’s The Rock, the doll is Santa Claus, and Chris Evans bailed to chain-smoke and steal photographs from strangers’ homes.For anyone feeling a little down this holiday season, the biting humor supporting the Chief’s meaningless quest in “B.J. and the A.C.” works as a cathartic balm — a mirror to your frustrations and a warning not to let them get out of hand. It’s also a healthy reminder that one holiday can’t actually fix what ails us; that faith can’t be manufactured in a doll factory, and finding it (in God, in family, in each other) isn’t as simple as following the clues.
Perhaps that’s why the best scene in “B.J. and the A.C.” is when Kevin meets Nora Durst (Carrie Coon), another lost soul. Alone in a school hallway, both parties have the courage to express more than they otherwise would, and they’re honest in ways that would typically scare off anyone else. But this time, it brings them together, starting them on a path that no one could predict, filled with agony and elation, truth and lies, Christmases blue and divine. “The Leftovers” knows that sometimes you just need a little hint of hope to get you through those dark days; a hint that next year will be better. And if you’re in Kevin’s shoes (or, God forbid, Nora’s), how could it not? —Ben Travers
