Blogmas Day 9: My Favourite Christmas Episodes
Hello! Welcome to Blogmas Day 9!
It’s a snowy, blowy day here in Ontario, but I’m cozy and warm. I’ve been listening to Spotify’s Christmas Hits playlist while doing some organizing, and I’ve fallen in love with Fall Out Boy’s new It Feels Like Christmas cover. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone but the Muppets sing this song! I love it!
Advent Calendar
Today’s jigsaw puzzle was uneventful but cute. Not too hard to put together this time!
My Favourite Christmas Episodes
Okay, here’s something you need to know about me – I was once a TV connoisseur. TV was a huge part of my personality from childhood all the way until maybe 2016. In my humble opinion, TV hasn’t been the same since streaming took over, but somewhere around the late nineties to the early 2010s, TV ruled the visual arts.
I often crave the nostalgia of that period and especially love returning to it at Christmas. So many of my favourite shows back then seemed to save their best material for their Christmas episodes, and they can still be great to watch years later out of context of the rest of the series. So today I’m going to pin down my top 10 shows to return to at Christmas, most of which are from that time period.
Disclaimer: I’ve never been a huge watcher of sitcoms, but pretty much all of the great sitcoms have had excellent Christmas episodes. Their absence from this list doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Most “Best Christmas Episodes Ever” lists focus mainly on sitcoms, so I thought I’d do something a little different.
#10. Veronica Mars
This is more of an honourable mention, since Veronica Mars’s Christmas episodes weren’t exactly Christmassy, but this show was great for subverting our Christmas-episode expectations. Season 1 had An Echolls Family Christmas, in which a Christmas party poker game ends in bloodshed, and season 2 had One Angry Veronica, which ended with all our characters grief-stricken and/or traumatized. This was such a great show! If you love a good well-drawn-out mystery but haven’t watched VM yet, I highly recommend you check it out.
#9. Supernatural
Supernatural was my #1 favourite show for years, and its one and only true Christmas episode holds a special place in my heart. It’s in season 3’s A Very Supernatural Christmas that we flash back to a Christmas in Sam and Dean Winchester’s childhood in which the answer to one of the show’s many mysteries is solved in a heartwarming way, while in the present the boys are hunting pagan gods who are using Christmas wreaths to mark their sacrificial victims. It’s a pretty dark story, really, but lightened with humour and Christmas decor. What a great episode of television.
#8. House M.D.
The first few seasons of House had spectacular Christmas episodes. With a Scrooge like Gregory House as your main character, it’s almost an obligation to set his orneriness loose on Christmas! But the one I return to most is season 3’s Merry Little Christmas. At this point in the show, Dr. House was under intense scrutiny for his outlandish practices and addiction, and he spent most of this episode in withdrawal. It’s an intense climax to the first half of the season, but somehow it still gets me in the Christmas spirit. And with exchanges like, “Merry Christmas.” “And a Happy Go-to-Hell,” what’s not to enjoy? 🤣
#7. LOST
When LOST had a Christmas episode, it took fans completely by surprise. This was a show set on a tropical island where a bunch of plane crash survivors barely even knew what day it was, let alone were able to celebrate Christmas. But season 3, episode 5, The Constant, was set on Christmas Eve, and it was hands-down the best episode of the entire show. Sadly, I can’t tell you why, because it involves MAJOR SPOILERS that you don’t want to hear if you haven’t watched the show yet. So I’ll just say… if the words “My constant” and “It was enough” don’t give you chills and/or make you cry, you really need to watch LOST. Greatest show of all time.
#6. Chuck
Chuck was a spy dramedy set mostly at an electronics store, the store being the unwitting cover for the spy operations, and their Christmas episodes tended to be hilariously epic. Especially season 2’s Chuck vs Santa Claus, in which a man dressed as Santa crashes his car into the BuyMore and takes the crew hostage. It’s full of Die Hard homages, and it’s just a hilarious good time that really raises the Christmas spirits.
#5. Psych
Psych was a comedy/mystery show that ran for 8 seasons and a few TV movies, and it will forever be remembered as one of the greatest shows of all time. Don’t believe me? Watch the Christmas specials! There was a Christmas episode in seasons 2 (Gus’s Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy), 3 (Christmas Joy), and 5 (The Polarizing Express), but they also made a Christmas made-for-TV movie after the show ended, in 2017 (Psych: The Movie).
My personal favourite is Gus’s Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy, which was the first time we got to meet main character Gus’s parents, played by Ernie Hudson and Phylicia Rashad. It would be a great introduction to this show if you’ve never seen it before. Psych: The Movie would be full of spoilers for the way the show ended if you’re new to Shawn and Gus’s world, but it’s silly Christmas fun that maintains the feel of the original show 3 years after its final episode.
#4. A Charlie Brown Christmas
I wasn’t sure whether to include this with my favourite Christmas movies or not, but it’s 30 minutes long, and technically part of a series, so… Christmas episode it is. I love A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s so full of nostalgia! And I’ve identified with several of the characters at different times of my life, which I think is the key to the endurance of the Peanuts gang. I also really love Linus’s speech about the true meaning of Christmas. And Charlie Brown’s sad little Christmas tree is iconic. Such a fantastic Christmas special that I hope will continue to be a Christmas tradition for generations to come.
#3. Hawkeye
Sorry, I’m a Marvel fanatic! I had to include this 6-episode Disney+ show because, ever since it aired in 2021, it’s become a Christmas tradition for me to re-watch it. If you’ve never watched a Marvel movie or show before, that’s okay! Hawkeye is connected to the movies that came before it, but it can also stand on its own as a fun Christmas heist.
Hawkeye is one of the original Avengers, but he’s sort of the most regular-person of them all. His “superpower” is that he’s really good with a bow and arrow, but he just wants to be a husband and father and enjoy the quiet life on his farm. The Hawkeye mini-series finds him on a trip to New York with his kids a few days before Christmas, where he gets caught up in some hijinks regarding a disguise he once used to hide his identity while assassinating bad guys. It’s funny and action-packed, but also heartfelt and wholesome. It’s honestly one of the most approachable and fun Marvel projects, and so Christmassy! Gah, now I’m craving another rewatch…
#2. ER
I’m pretty sure ER had at least one Christmas episode per season, and the show went on for 15 seasons, so… that’s a lot of Christmas episodes! For me, though, what I always think of when I think of ER’s Christmas episodes is the season 1 two-parter of Blizzard and The Gift. Blizzard takes place during, obviously, a blizzard. The ER docs begin the episode with basically nothing to do but play pranks on each other, but pretty soon there’s a huge car accident that floods the emergency room with pre-holiday chaos. It ends with a bit of an ER Christmas party.
The next episode, The Gift, is then set on Christmas Eve, where ER cases include an electrocuted Santa, a children’s choir in a bus accident, and a boy who ate a poinsettia, all while Rosemary Clooney (George’s famous crooner aunt who starred in my favourite Christmas movie, White Christmas) roams the hallways singing Christmas carols. I treat these two episodes like a Christmas movie that I love to rewatch this time of year.
#1. Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean
I grew up watching Mr. Bean, but the Christmas special, Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean, was always my favourite. It’s still one of my favourite things to watch at Christmas. There’s just something about the way Rowan Atkinson can make every little Christmas tradition so delightfully silly that makes this half-hour show one of the highlights of the whole year. And I can’t be the only one who says, “Christmas socks” in Mr. Bean voice every time I find socks in my Christmas stocking, can I? 🤣 It’s also kind of inspiring how excited Mr. Bean is on Christmas morning even though he lives alone (Teddy notwithstanding). Life is what you make of it!