Sitcom Christmas Episodes

So I love sitcoms and I love Christmas … so it made sense to round up my favourite festive episodes for the holiday season. This time, I took them from my favourite 5 sitcoms of all time: New Girl, Modern Family, Brooklyn 99, Will & Grace and Friends. Be sure to share your faves in the comments! Ready? Let’s go …

New Girl

1) LAXmas (s4, ep10)

I think this might just be my favourite sitcom Christmas episode of all time! A storm causes chaos at the airport as Jess attempts to go to the UK to visit boyfriend Ryan. Meanwhile, Schmidt and CeeCee try to go to New York. Nick and Winston are attempting to get home to Chicago, while Coach has decided to ditch his family and go to Hawaii.

It’s guest star Billy Eichner who really shines here, for me. His absolutely vile, neverendingly snarky persona as an airport employee while he bumps Jess and her friends up and down the standby list is genuinely hilarious. When the normally unbaitable Jess says in frustration, ‘You want mean? I’ll give you mean! I hope your mother falls down some stairs and hurts parts of herself!’ His reply? ‘I HATE my Mom, back up to 16 and 17’!!

2) The 23rd (s1, ep9)

My other favourite New Girl Christmas episode (at least until LAXmas aired), not least because Schmidt gets to utter the words, ‘Judaism, son!’ Schmidt is upset everyone is going home, so ends up insisting they all come to his office Christmas party. He plays sexy Santa and somehow Winston ends up with a babysitting job. Also, Jess ends up breaking up with boyfriend Paul thanks to Nick, who is forced to witness the whole debacle.

Trying to get Nick to his flight back to Chicago should be easy after all that, but of course it isn’t. Nick ends up doing a detour for Jess’ sake so she can see all the decorations on Candy Cane Lane. For the fifth year in a row, Nick misses his flight. Oops!

MORE: A Structural Breakdown of New Girl Episode, ‘Parking Space’

Modern Family

3) Undeck the Halls (s1, ep10) 

In this episode (and the show’s very first Christmas episode!), The Dunphys have a dilemma. When Claire spots a burn mark on the sofa, she accuses kids Jaley, Alex or Luke of smoking. When none of them will admit to it – and accused of never following through by Claire – Phil threatens to cancel Christmas and of course, hilarity ensues.

Meanwhile, Cameron and Mitchell take their new daughter Lily to get her first picture with Santa at the mall. When they complain to the management that Santa is not jolly enough for the kids, it leads to Santa losing his job. Back at Jay’s, he wants to introduce Manny and Gloria to some American Christmas traditions. In contrast, they want to introduce Jay to some Colombian traditions, especially ‘Innocente!’ (similar to April Fool’s Day).

The whole extended family gets together ahead of Christmas, only to realise various circumstances will prevent them from being together for Christmas Day on December 25. Phil instantly comes up with a plan: they will pair up and perform tasks so they can hold a makeshift emergency (‘Express’) Christmas.

Of course, each of the missions ends in disaster. Jay and Cameron are barely speaking; the tree is in pieces; the angel is ruined; Claire does not have a turkey to cook and Phil is still in shock from somehow being zapped by a stun gun. Nevetheless, the family is brought together when Jay suggests they all go to a Chinese restaurant and celebrate Jewish Christmas. Awww!

MORE: How The Rashomon Story Structure Works in Modern Family episode, ‘Phil’s Sexy Sexy House’ 

Brooklyn 99

5) Yippie Kayak (s3, ep10)

This homage to Die Hard has to be on everyone’s sitcom Christmas list! When Gina, Jake and Charles do some last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve, they end up in a hostage situation in a department store. Meanwhile, Amy, Rosa and Captain Holt go on an Arctic swim to celebrate the festivities, while Terry attempts to enjoy some family time.

Going full John MacClane in the department store, Jake is forced to give himself up and turn the mantle over to Charles to save the day. Unfortunately he completely botches the catchphrase, saying instead: “Yippie kayak other buckets.” I think this is one of my favourite Christmas episodes of any sitcom … but it’s a formiddable list and there’s just SO many good ones here!!!

6) Captain Latvia (s4, ep10)

In this fun episode, Jake attempts to help best friend Charles hunt down the action figure he’s ordered for his newly-adopted son, Nikolaj, ‘Captain Latvia’. Of course, nothing goes smoothly and they somehow end up in the midst of a Latvian criminal ring! All kinds of high jinks ensue, not least both leads having to strip down to their underwear (!).

Meanwhile, back at the precinct, Captain Holt and the rest of the squad are preparing for a Christmas singing competition. Their nemesis team the MTA sound fantastic, while the 99 sounds ‘like garbage’. This all changes when they hear someone singing beautifully in the precinct … only it turns out to be an arrested man in the drunk tank. Against their better judgement, they decide to get him to sing with them, but all does not go as planned.

MORE: A Structural Breakdown of Brooklyn 99 episode, ‘Games Night’

Will & Grace

7) A Little Christmas Queer (s8, ep9)

Will, Grace, Jack and Karen end up at Will’s mother Marilyn’s home for the holidays. Blythe Danner is absolutely perfect as the WASPish and cold Marilyn, both hilarious and poignant. This lends credence to the A story, where Will is upset when she is supportive of his obviously gay nephew, Jordie, when she wasn’t when he was a child.

Meanwhile, Grace reconnects with Will’s estranged brother – and her old flame – Sam. He also has newly adopted daughter, whom catches Karen’s eye. I love the moment when Karen uses a jeweller’s magnifying glass to inspect the little girl’s ring pop: “It’s occluded, the cut is pedestrian and–” [she licks it] “–it’s watermelon!”

8) Jingle Balls (s4, ep12)

Jack has been called home to the mother ship and has a much coveted job at Barney’s. That’s the good news, but the bad news is his boss (played by Parker Posey) is absolutely insane, plus of course Jack screws it all up. While this is ongoing, Will has a new boyfriend, Robert, who is a ballerina. In true Will style, he finds this embarassing and doesn’t want Robert and Grace to meet … but of course Grace has other ideas.

This episode also has a moment with Karen dressed as an S&M Santa. That would normally rocket it straight to #1 – I love Megan Mullally – but Parker Posey is so vile, I think I’m in love with her. (For the duration of this one episode, at least. Karen gets the crown back immediately because, obviously).

Lastly, top marks to Will & Grace for consistently doing extremely childish and yet consistently hilarious Christmas/LGBTQ puns for its episode titles!

MORE: Why It’s Okay To Write Stereotypes For Comedic Effect

Friends

9) The One With The Routine (s6, ep10)

Okay, okay this one is about New Year’s Eve … BUT as the gang say,  ‘Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve‘ is filmed ahead.  Phoebe, Rachel and Chandler also look for presents Monica has bought them as part of the subplot.

Of course, Ross and Monica’s completely off-the-wall, cringey performace is the highlight of the episode. The only weird thing is in the age of social media, this would be MORE likely to get them on the show, not less!

10) The One Where Rachel Quits (s3, ep10)

In this episode, Chandler and Joey convince Rachel to quit the coffee house when Gunther wants her to be retrained. Meanwhile Ross accidentally breaks a little girl’s leg (incidentally played by Good Girls‘ Mae Whitman). He ends up having to take on her cookie-selling duties to try and win her a trip to space camp. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen, so he, Chandler and Joey make her a makeshift space camp at the guys’ apartment.

At the same time, Joey has a job selling Christmas trees, freaking Phoebe out when she realises the old ones end up in the chipper.  At the end of the episode, Monica and Joey surprise Phoebe with all the old trees so they can fulfil their Christmas destiny. Aaah!

MORE: A Structural Breakdown of Friends episode, ‘The One Where No One’s Ready

Happy Christmas (or equivalent) from B2W!