Best Christmas/Hannukah/December holiday ep of a TV show.

[DanOregon]

I think my favorite is probably the multi-animation effort SyFys Eureka did earlier this decade - it went through at least five or six different animation styles during the plot.

But as far as a single segment of a Christmas episode - nothing tops this. (It's the Toby homeless funeral-Little Drummer Boy montage from The West Wing).

 

[outofplace]

That is a great episode. I’m rewatching the series right now and I am constantly struck by the great little moments sprinkled throughout the seasons written by Sorkin. That episode was one of the first times we got character development for Mrs. Landingham, including the monologue in which she tells Charlie about her sons. It had been mentioned that they died, but it really comes to life with her telling the story.

 

[Pilot]

I think my favorite is probably the multi-animation effort SyFys Eureka did earlier this decade - it went through at least five or six different animation styles during the plot.

But as far as a single segment of a Christmas episode - nothing tops this. (It's the Toby homeless funeral-Little Drummer Boy montage from The West Wing).

Me: “Oh, AWESOME thread. I can’t wait to recommend Season 1 Christmas episode of West Wing!!”

*opens thread*

Damn it!

Here’s a real suggestion:

Community, streaming on Hulu.

Last night we watched the season 1-3 Christmas episodes. 1 is good but standard.

2 is Community at its best, a claymation episode that really tests the definition of what a TV episode can be. Really amazing.

Season 3 is a Glee knockoff and we were laughing our asses off.

Tonight we will watch that ep of West Wing, Elf, and hopefully my fav Christmas movie, Family Man, with Nic Cage.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

ER’s first season Christmas episode, “Blizzard,” where a huge multi-car crash in the highway leaves them with a ton of patients.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The first full length Simpsons, called their "Christmas Special," remains the best for me. "Now son, remember the family tradition. Not until after the eighth race."

 

[Batman]

The first full length Simpsons, called their "Christmas Special," remains the best for me. "Now son, remember the family tradition. Not until after the eighth race."

Another of their Christmas episodes from one of the early seasons, where Bart gets busted for shoplifting, was great as well.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Does the Seinfeld Festivus episode count?

 

[User 4332]

The Muppets "Emmet Otter's Jug-band Christmas" should be both the beginning and end of this conversation.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

This doesn't count in this thread, but my daughter and I are watching A Christmas Story right now and it's the perfect Christmas video product. Nothing comes close.

 

[SoloFlyer]

I think my favorite is probably the multi-animation effort SyFys Eureka did earlier this decade - it went through at least five or six different animation styles during the plot.

But as far as a single segment of a Christmas episode - nothing tops this. (It's the Toby homeless funeral-Little Drummer Boy montage from The West Wing).

West Wing Christmas episodes are a cut above the rest.

Season 1, In Excelsis Deo, as you noted.

Season 2, Noel, where Leo gives Josh the "man in the hole" speech as Josh deals with PTSD.

Season 4, Holy Night, where Toby's father - once attached to Murder, Inc. - appears out of nowhere to reconnect. Oh, and Danny comes back after being away from the show for a bit.

No real Christmas episode in Season 3 and the only post-Sorkin one in Season 5 - Abu El Banat - is just OK.

But the three Sorkin ones are three of the best episodes in one of the best TV shows of the last 30 years.

 

[HanSenSE]

This doesn't count in this thread, but my daughter and I are watching A Christmas Story right now and it's the perfect Christmas video product. Nothing comes close.

Has become a tradition here, too.

 

[outofplace]

West Wing Christmas episodes are a cut above the rest.

Season 1, In Excelsis Deo, as you noted.

Season 2, Noel, where Leo gives Josh the "man in the hole" speech as Josh deals with PTSD.

Season 4, Holy Night, where Toby's father - once attached to Murder, Inc. - appears out of nowhere to reconnect. Oh, and Danny comes back after being away from the show for a bit.

No real Christmas episode in Season 3 and the only post-Sorkin one in Season 5 - Abu El Banat - is just OK.

But the three Sorkin ones are three of the best episodes in one of the best TV shows of the last 30 years.

I was thinking of Noel, too. I love Leo's monologue and the call-back to it during Season 3.

 

[qtlaw]

This doesn't count in this thread, but my daughter and I are watching A Christmas Story right now and it's the perfect Christmas video product. Nothing comes close.

Was watching just now (it’s my fav) and my 18 yr old walks by and I said remember this? And he responds “of course we watched it SO many times”; so I did something right as a father

 

[Matt1735]

The M*A*S*H episode in which Charles anonymously gifts candy on to have it sold while BJ is feverishly and futilely working to keep an injured soldier from dying on Christmas.

 

[DanOregon]

And then Hawkeye moves the clock ahead so the family doesn't have to think of Christmas as the day their loved one died - classic.

 

[outofplace]

“Look. He made it.”

I can still picture the look on Alda’s face as he said it and I haven’t seen that one in years.

 

[Songbird]

Louie when he ends up going to the Yangtze River in China.

Artistry of the highest order.

The episode starts like this ...

 

[BadgerBeer]

I have spent the last few days rewatching The Office Christmas episodes on Comedy Central. Dwight Christmas is a classic. Nothing like a vintage Schrute Christmas for some laughs.

 

[X-Hack]

Whichever episode of South Park it was when Kyle sings "Lonely Jew on Christmas." No song has ever better captured the emotion of being the only Jewish kid in town on that particular day and the feeling of otherness you'd always feel (and still feel as an adult) with Christmas in your face constantly.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]