Christmas Sitcom Episodes You Watch Every Year

[Jimmy Todd]

Are there any Christmas episodes of sitcoms you make a point to watch every year? Some of mine are:
Roseanne- When Roseanne and her sister get jobs as a department store Santa Clause and his wife.

The Carol Burnett Show- A Christmas themed episode(for a few of the skits) with Alan Alda. Alda plays Eunice's brother who comes to visit at Christmas.

All in the Family- There are two. One where Archie doesn't get a Christmas bonus and one where Edith has a lump in her breast(but it's benign). Those episodes sound heavier than they actually are. The other two Christmas episodes are way too heavy and sad for me to watch. Although, they are very well written.

The Honeymooners- The Kramden version of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi

The Golden Girls- When they all get stuck in a diner on Christmas Eve and exchange homemade gifts instead of store-bought.

These just feel Christmasy to me. What are some of your "must-sees" during the Christmas season?

 

[Swami]

I saw one of the Porridge Christmas specials the other evening, it remains a true classic.

Always like to see the great Only Fools Christmas episodes too.

Swami

 

[Daniel Avery]

There is another Golden Girls episode set around Christmas that I like. Blanche had a calendar made to give the other three girls, "The Men of Blanche's Boudoir". As the girls thumb through them, Dorothy reacts to one "special" picture.
Dorothy: "Whoa!!"
Blanche: "September?"
Sophia: "I'm surprised you could walk in October."

What really makes the scene funnier is knowing that the propmaster for the show had concocted a "real" calendar with the male crew members in various stages of undress. None of the actresses had been told ahead of time, so their reactions to the mock calendar are priceless.

I also get a lot more pleasure out of Married With Children's S2 episode, "You Better Watch Out" than I probably ought to. That's the one where the nearby mall hires a "Santa" to parachute into the mall in a publicity stunt....only his chute fails to open and he goes splat in the Bundys' backyard.

 

[Emelee]

Svensson Svensson. Swedish sitcom from 1994. The last episode of season 1 is their Christmas episode. It airs at 9 p.m. on Sweden's biggest TV station SVT1 every Christmas Eve.

That's the only one I watch every single year. With all other Christmas episodes from different shows, I just alternate. All depends on what I feel like.

This year I feel for Upstart Crow Christmas special and Friday Night Dinner's Christmas episode.

 

[Karin Schill]

For me and my sister it is an episode of Full House were they get snowed in at an airport. We must have watched that episode for more than 20 years!

 

[Daniel Avery]

More of a "general comment"....

I like how British TV shows produce "holiday specials" to air around Christmas that are true "specials" (not just another episode of the series that happens to be set in the Christmas period). Doctor Who's Christmas Specials come to mind. I wish the American networks would pick up on this and do stand-alone specials with their most popular shows, since the period around Christmas is a desert of reruns and boredom.

 

[LEEJ88]

I do not watch every year but most I watch are the Christmas Specials of Bottom and Father Ted.

 

[Crimson]

My entire TV collection is digital and I've arranged a playlist of all of the shows' holiday themed episodes; just under 24 hours worth. This is mostly classic sitcoms, but random shows (DUKES OF HAZZARD; SESAME STREET; etc.) as well. I don't make any particular effort to watch all of them every year, although I did last year what with working from home.

Those shows whose holiday episodes I do make an effort to watch yearly include:

THE LUCY SHOW
THE SIMPSONS
GOLDEN GIRLS
MARY TYLER MOORE
FUTURAMA
THE HONEYMOONERS
SCHITT'S CREEK

 

[Emelee]

This thread just inspired me to create a list of Christmas episodes of all shows I like.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Good Neighbors (The Good Life in the UK) had a great Christmas episode that I try to watch when I can. Tom and Barbara made Christmas crackers out of paper towel rolls (because Margo would have had a fit if they'd used toilet-paper rolls) and Margo's had the best joke:
"The Ooh-Aah Bird is so called because it lays square eggs."

Of course she didn't get it. Because she rarely did.

 

[DallasFanForever]

There was a Christmas episode of The Jeffersons, and I can’t remember which season it is now, but George finds out that his late mother was having an affair with someone that he really used to look up to. It turns out to be a very serious episode for the most part.

 

[Chris2]

The Waltons has an episode called “The Best Christmas” where Olivia wants to make sure all the children are home for Christmas because she feels that with the kids growing up and the war looming, it will be their last one all together. And it was. It’s a wonderfully nostalgic episode, especially John Boy’s closing narration where he explains that just a few years later, the children were scattered at Christmastime “in the hedgerows of Normandy, or on Christmas duty in the emergency ward of a big hospital.”

 

[colbyco]

There was a x-mas episode of the "Golden Girls" I saw (maybe 2 years ago in tv) for the first time .... they are at an airport and all want to travel to visit their families ... but a storm or something like this happens and at the end they are in a cafe´ which they run for 1 hour so the owner can go to his family ... very nice
I also like the x-mas episode of Alf when they look for a tree in the forrest ...
but the only episode I watch every year is Dynasty´s x-mas episode ...

 

[Justine]

F.R.I.E.N.D.S episodes at Christmas (and Thaksgiving) are always my favourites.