‘Dash & Lily’

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In the spirit of the magic of the season (and in hopes of providing some warm respite from the usual end-of-the-year best-of deluge of stories and their attendant doldrums), IndieWire is proud to present our first-ever Holiday Week.

The holidays: A time for joy, love, family, and watching TV. We kid (mostly), but in the days before Christmas — and in the afternoon after presents and in between dinner — there’s a ton of time to laze around and not do much of anything at all. Sure, you can fill that time by building snowmen (weather permitting) or baking gingerbread, but you can also spend it watching some movies and TV to get into the holiday spirit.

The Christmas special is basically as old as TV itself: “I Love Lucy” did one, after all. Of course, many of those specials are standalones without any connection to a greater series, such as the iconic and universally beloved “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But just as beloved and maybe more interesting is when TV shows take time out of their busy storylines and development to tell a holiday tale.

Generally speaking, Christmas episodes tend to exist most commonly with sitcoms, which have small enough stakes that they can devote time to the holidays, and frequently get just a touch sappier than usual in the process: you probably have a friend who watches a Christmas episode of “The Office,” or “Friends,” or whatever their sitcom of choice is every single year, after all. Then there’s the more adventurous procedurals or prestige dramas that figure out a way to incorporate yuletide and good cheer (or maybe not) into their broader plotlines. You wouldn’t expect a sexy drama about young interns at a private equity firm like “Industry” to have a bonafide Christmas episode, which makes it all the more delightful that it managed it right in the first season.

While some (buzzkills) among us might look down at the holiday episode as filler or a byproduct of the days when TV seasons actually had lengthy episode counts to burn, there’s something to be said for when a holiday episode really hits. We’ve all experienced the highs, the lows, the joys and the stress of the December season. Watching characters we love go through all those same emotions can provide some comfort and some much needed soothing de-stress as we barrel to the New Year and beyond.

Read on for a list of the greatest holiday TV episodes ever made. We took the liberty of including plenty of Christmas episodes, but also spotlit the rare shows that provided some Hanukkah celebrations, along with one or two fake holidays (did somebody say Festivus?) Only one episode per show was considered, and entries are listed in alphabetical order by the title of the show. Find yourself a holly, jolly TV episode this holiday season right down below.

“Arrested Development”: “Afternoon Delight”

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This Season 2 episode is remembered chiefly for the jaw-dropping moment of pure cringe that it takes its title from, where Michael (Jason Bateman) and his niece Maeby (Alia Shawkat) take the stage of the company Christmas party in what he thinks will be an innocent duet of Starland Vocal Band’s hit song, only to remember that its content is…not so innocent. The rest of the episode — which mostly follows Gob (Will Arnett) firing the entire Bluth company staff after he gets roasted at said party — is plenty fun, but the duet is one of the show’s funniest, most mortifying gags.

“The Bear”: “Fishes”

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A notoriously stressful hour of television to sit through, “Fishes” flashes away from the main setting of “The Bear” — the titular restaurant of byronic chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) — to five years earlier, when his brother (Jon Bernthal) was still alive but everyone was still unhappy to varying degrees. Mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) is drinking and steadily unraveling thanks to the Feast of the Seven Fishes she’s preparing, while the guest list (a killer lineup that also includes Gillian Jacobs, John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Paulson) poke and prod at each other’s insecurities. The family dysfunction is a ticking bomb that culminates in a vicious dining table fight, which makes this one of the least feel-good but most unforgettable Christmas TV episodes ever made.

“Dash & Lily” (2020)

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Why settle for just a Christmas episode when you can make a whole Christmas show? That’s presumably the idea behind “Dash & Lily,” the delightful 2020 Netflix Christmas series that only lasted one season but should go right on your annual December watchlist ASAP. Based on a young adult novel about two teens — one a sadsack who hates Christmas (Austin Abrams) and one an earnest art girl (Midori Francis) — who communicate and fall in love via a notebook they exchange, the eight-episode series is earnest, sweet, and a little cheesy. But the leads are so charming that you won’t care, and the show uses its New York setting to the fullest, exploring how the city during the winter can be a truly magical place to find love.

“Doctor Who”: “A Christmas Carol” (2010)

It’s near tradition that “Doctor Who” will ring in the holidays with a special, 60-minute Christmas adventure for the time-hopping hero to embark upon, making the challenge of finding the perfect one to recommend a harrowing one. But you can’t really go wrong with 2010’s “A Christmas Carol,” which has the advantage of lacking any plot hooks to then-ongoing storylines in the show and basically just serving as a remake of Charles Dickens’ beloved novella about Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts who guide him toward redemption. There are no ghosts here, with the Doctor (Matt Smith) instead employing time travel to alter the past of a miserly man who’s the only person capable of fixing his spaceship. Said miser is played by the late, great Michael Gambon, and his terrific performance grounds the Christmas cheer in some real weight and pathos.

“Father Ted”: “A Christmassy Ted”

This hour-long special of the beloved British sitcom “Father Ted” remains so widely popular in its home country that — decades after its 1996 airing — it remains a staple rerun for Channel 4 year to year. Luckily for Americans, you don’t need to have much context from the rest of the show — about three priests living in a tiny coastal island’s parish house — to enjoy the special, which focuses on the titular character (Dermot Morgan) as he confronts feelings of underappreciation as the holiday season approaches. Various comedic setpieces — the priests wandering into a lingerie shop, Jack (Frank Kelly) teaching kids to curse — ensue, as Ted learns he will receive a “Golden Cleric” award, and begins to grow increasingly smug because of it. By the end he grows into…well, not a better person exactly, but a more self-aware one, learning a lesson about not needing credit for good deeds that’s perfectly in tune with the season.

“Frasier”: “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz”

One of several great sitcom episodes to derive humor in the interplay between Christmas and Hannukah, “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz” is the exact type of classic farce that makes “Frasier” so timeless. Kelsey Grammer’s radio shrink gets set up by the titular Helen Moskowitz with her daughter Faye, hitting it off with her. But when the mother and daughter visit, Faye learns that Frasier – who was buying a menorah for his Jewish son when he met them — is not Jewish himself, and is terrified of what her mother will think. So they have to hide the Christmas decorations around the house, and keep up appearances for the evening, which proves tricky when the dog has a Santa costume on and Daphne (Jane Leeves) is organizing a Christmas revue downstairs. Like the best “Frasier” episodes, the installment is the perfect mix of highbrow humor with accessible sitcom antics.

“Friends”: “The One with the Holiday Armadillo”

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Unusually for a sitcom, “Friends” was most famous for its great Thanksgiving episodes, a yearly tradition that yielded memorable storylines like a touchdown football episode or Monica (Courteney Cox) dancing with an uncooked turkey on her head. The one 10/10 Christmas episode of the show’s long run came in season 7, and it’s less a Christmas episode than it is a paired episode with Hanukkah. “The One with the Holiday Armadillo” sees Ross (David Schwimmer) desperate to share Hanukkah with his son Ben, who already loves Christmas. Without a Santa figure for the holiday, he invents a new mascot for the holiday, the “Holiday Armadillo.” Seeing Schwimmer dressed in a massive, impressively detailed armadillo suit makes for one of the show’s greatest sight gags, and it’s really all that’s needed for the episode to be a classic.

“Hey Arnold”: “Arnold’s Christmas”

Not just one of the best Christmas episodes but one of the best episodes of children’s TV ever, “Arnold’s Christmas” spotlights periphery character Mr. Hyunh, a neighbor of Arnold who works at a Mexican restaurant. When Arnold draws his name for the boarding house Secret Santa exchange, he learns Hyunh was separated from his daughter Mai during the Fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, and becomes determined to find Mai and reunite the two. The quest ends up resting on the help of Arnold’s typically selfish admirer Helga, who makes a personal sacrifice that saves the day without taking the credit in a poignant ending. As one of the first pieces of American media to really provide a Vietnamese perspective on the Vietnam War, “Arnold’s Christmas” broke barriers for kids’ TV, and showcased the show’s dedication to children’s storytelling that’s earnest but never saccharine.

“Industry”: “Nutcracker”

Image Credit: Amanda Searle

Crashing out as a new employee at your company’s holiday party is a very common experience surprisingly underrepresented on TV. Thank God for HBO’s “Industry,” which packs in enough drama for the interns of Pierpoint & Co. investment firm into this Season 1 highlight that it almost wholly compensates for the imbalance. Robert (Harry Lawtey) goes on a coke binge and propositions crush Yasmin (Marisa Abela), who goes down on him in the bathroom; VP Greg (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) gets fired after making a scene and running into a glass door. Amid all the tension and partying, “Nutcracker” makes it clear that business never really stops running for these bankers, as Harper (Myha’la) navigates whether to take a bonus from her temperamental boss Eric (Ken Leung), which also serves as hush money to help him cover up his abusive behavior.

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”: “Not a Christmas Story”

Despite its cheeky title, “Not a Christmas Story” very much is a Christmas story — just a Christmas story that takes place in November. Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) and the rest of the staff at WJM get trapped in the office from a snowstorm, and tensions flare as the close proximity brings out everyone’s most annoying qualities. To help brighten the spirits, “Happy Homemaker” host Sue Ann (Betty White) sets a makeshift Christmas dinner using the set for her soon-to-air special — which only proceeds to annoy everyone more, as again, it’s still only November. A prescient metaphor for Christmas’s entrenching and exasperating hold over the entirety of the fall? Maybe, but if not, it’s still a really funny Christmas episode.

“M.A.S.H”: “Dear Sis”

Nothing screams the holidays quite as little as spending them on an active war zone, and “Dear Sis” finds pretty much the entire gang of the 4077th down in the dumps. Nobody is harder on himself than Father Mulcahy (William Christopher), who writes a letter to his sister worrying that he’s useless to the troops. But when a small act of kindness brightens the day of the usually stoic Charles (David Ogden Stiers), Mulcahy gets a toast and a performance of “Dona Nobis Pacem” in his honor. It’s one of the most heartwarming moments in a show that always delicately paired comedy with drama.

“My So-Called Life”: “So-Called Angels”

“My So-Called Life” was a downbeat, highly realistic coming-of-age show about the pressures of high school and finding out who you truly are. “So-Called Angels” adds ghosts and Christmas magic to the formula, which is *wildly *jarring if you’re binging the season, but somehow, the episode makes it work. A Christmas episode that’s also very important to the storyline of the show, “So-Called Angels” sees Rickie (Wilson Cruz) get kicked out of his home and on the streets around Christmastime for being gay. Aided by a mysterious homeless girl who may be a Christmas spirit, his friend Angela (Claire Danes) ultimately finds him and convinces her parents to let him stay at their home. For all its goofiness, “So-Called Angels” still delivers the sincere teen angst that made the show a classic, with a sprinkling of messaging about helping those less fortunate that makes it a bit sweeter than usual.

“The Nanny”: “The Hanukkah Story”

Another rare Hannukkah episode from a mainstream TV show, “The Hannukkah Story” finds Fran (Fran Drescher) excited to celebrate the holiday as an official member of the Sheffield family after marrying Maxwell (Charles Shaughnessy). Unfortunately, Max needs to drive to Boston, and a snowstorm strands him and the kids in the car. It’s a pretty simple episode, with the typical snarky wordplay and fabulous outfits from Fran the show was mostly known for, but also serves as a heartwarming look at sharing old traditions with new loved ones, serving as a highlight of the show’s final season.

“The O.C.”: “The Best Chrismukkah Ever” (Season 1, Episode 13)

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One of the highlights of the near-perfect first season of “The O.C.,” “The Best Chrismukkah Ever” is memorable instantly from the fictional holiday at the center, so simple it’s crazy no show did it before: Chrismukkah, the invention of Adam Brody’s hot nerd Seth Cohen, as a way to merge his father’s Judaism with her mother’s Christian upbringing. Against the backdrop of the celebrations, “The O.C.” packs plenty of the show’s signature fast-paced dialogue and soap opera dramatics, but it also tells a sweet story of Seth’s foster brother Ryan (Ben McKenzie) learning to love the holidays with his new family — leading to a closing shot of a perfectly corny Chrismukkah card that can bring tears to your eyes.

“The Office”: “Christmas Party”

The US version of “The Office” was still figuring itself out when it aired “Christmas Party,” and the Season 2 highlight may in fact be the first great episode the eventual hit comedy ever aired. As the name suggests, it follows the Dunder Mifflin office as they throw a Christmas party, where Jim (John Krasinski) plans to impress crush Pam (Jenna Fisher) with a teapot with a personal letter. But his plans are foiled when Michael (Steve Carrell) turns the exchange into a Yankee Swap that makes for one of the show’s funniest setpieces. Things work out for Jim in the end though, with an ending that furthered along the will-they-won’t-they storyline that propelled the show in the early years.

“Rugrats”: “A Rugrats Chanukah” (Season 4, Episode 1)

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tv - Rugrats (Channukah episode)](https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Rugrats_Chanukah.jpg?w=300) Image Credit: Everett Collection

A groundbreaking special when it aired in 1996, “A Rugrats Chanukah” was one of the first children’s animated programs in the United States to showcase and celebrate a Jewish holiday, introducing many a gentile child to the concept and becoming a staple watch for families to this day. Picking up from the show’s Passover special, “A Rugrats Chanukah” sees Tommy Pickles and his friends reenact the story of the titular holiday, imagining themselves as the main characters, with Tommy as Judah. The funniest and most memorable part of the special may be its subplot, though, which focuses on Tommy’s grandpa Boris as he feuds with his archrival Shlomo over their roles in a synagogue play. The clash of big egos over small stakes is oh so perfectly of the holiday season, but “Rugrats” also includes unexpected adult pathos in their relationship that makes the story work for parents just as much as it does for kids.

“Seinfeld”: “The Strike” (Season 9, Episode 10)

Absolutely nobody on Earth calls this final season “Seinfeld” episode by its actual title. Just say the words “A Festivus for the rest of us” and fans will instantly remember this classic, arguably the last great episode from the groundbreaking sitcom. It’s certainly the best fake holiday TV has ever come up with, a purposefully lackluster rejection of Christmas and the terrors of December with traditions like hanging a bare aluminum pole and performing an “airing of grievances.” The holiday may have traumatized poor young George Contstanza (Jason Alexander) when his father Frank (Jerry Stiller) came up with it, but it gave the cranks and Christmas cynicals of the world a reason to rejoice every year.

“The Simpsons”: “Marge Be Not Proud”

“The Simpsons” started as a Christmas special, as the “Tracey Ullman Show” segment spun off into a 1989 special that eventually foresaw the birth of one of TV’s most beloved and longest-running shows. The best Christmas episode of the show, however, is “Marge Be Not Proud” from Season 7, which focuses on the relatively underexplored dynamic between mother-son pair Marge and Bart. One of the more melancholy episodes of the show, it follows Bart as he betrays Marge’s trust by shoplifting a game at the local department store, causing her to hold him at a polite remove. Through funny setpieces like Bart making a misshapen snowman out of dirty slush to go along with a family snow sculpture, “Marge Be Not Proud” explores the feeling of disappointing your mom as a child, where it feels like the end of the entire world. The ending is deeply moving too, with a bonus kicker joke that perfectly captures the experience of getting a disappointing Christmas gift from a well-meaning parent and having to grin and bear it.

“Taxi”: “A Full House for Christmas”

There’s admittedly not a whole lot of Christmas in this Christmas episode of classic sitcom “Taxi.” But it’s also one of the show’s very best episodes, and a sharply written sitcom episode that’s great for a laugh. Dispatcher Louie (Danny DeVito) gets a Christmas visit from his brother Nick (Richard Foronjy), who cleans out the entire staff with his poker expertise. To get revenge, Louie recruits Alex (Judd Hirsch) to try and beat his brother, in a high-stakes match that is both funny and surprising. Again, there’s not a lot of festive cheer, but it’s a perfect episode of TV to watch at any time of year, including Christmas.

“The X-Files”: “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”

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If you’re tired of watching sitcoms episodes for the holidays, “The X-Files” is here to offer you a spookier alternative. “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” is pretty much your perfect standalone episode of the classic procedural, following Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) as they investigate a haunted house on Christmas Eve, encountering the spectres of an old couple in the process. Simple and completely unconnected to the show’s wider mythology, “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” also offers some prime Mulder/Scully shipping material, where the two swap gifts they swore they wouldn’t get each other, that makes the chilly holiday ghost story a little warmer.

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