With the Christmas season already here and Christmas day approaching fast, most everybody has already commenced the festive holiday traditions that get them into a yuletide spirit this time of year. Typical activities include: keeping the radio at nonstop Christmas music starting December 1st, spending your Christmas bonus at Walmart so none of the relatives will feel left out of the gift exchange, getting sick of Christmas music by the 12th, and of course, hauling an evergreen tree into the middle of your living room, which you adorn with lights, strips of foil, and little glass balls.
Legend has it that holidays of yore also included caroling, roasting chestnuts, and sending Christmas cards, which in this day and age seems to have been replaced by mass texts and Facebook statuses along the lines of “Merry Xmas! #yule.”
But there’s another tradition I uphold that somehow never quite caught on. I’m not sure why—it’s fun, festive, and funny. You guessed it! Every December I watch the Christmas episodes of my favorite TV shows.
Most people bring out holiday movies to get in a merry mood, but not me. This time of year, I always rely on the sitcoms. While they may not be as deep and thought-provoking as the likes of It’s a Wonderful Life, they still achieve their ultimate goal—putting a smile on the viewers’ faces.
A great example is the Family Ties episode “A Keaton Christmas Carol,” where Alex’s Scrooge-like behavior provokes a visit from the ghosts of Christmas Past and Christmas Future, who bear striking resemblances to his sisters, Jennifer and Mallory. This clip includes my favorite scene, starting at 3:15: in the future, Alex is rich, fat, and bald, and his impoverished family ecstatically grovels at his feet.
Another classic is the one and only Dick Van Dyke Show Christmas episode. Written as a holiday-themed Alan Brady Show, it features the cast doing what they do best—singing, dancing, and being funny, all with a holiday twist. Here’s a small taste of the merriment, featuring actress Rose Marie singing her wish list to Santa. What do you think the perpetually single Sally Rogers wants for Christmas? A husband, of course! This song features one of the best holiday puns I’ve ever heard: “Give me an Adam on Christmas Eve.”
But the sitcom whose holiday episodes really take the fruitcake is Family Matters. In its nine-season run, the series had seven shows for Christmas and five for Halloween, plus the occasional Valentine’s Day. And the stories always fit the spirit of the holiday. The yuletide episodes, for instance, customarily included the singing of a hymn and even occasional allusions to the real Christmas story—the birth of Jesus Christ. I’ve seen a lot of Christmas shows, and Family Matters’ just always seem a cut above the rest. Here’s the full episode of “Christmas is Where the Heart Is,” complete with Dutch subtitles, where Carl and Steve get stuck on the El on their way back from Christmas shopping.
So, perhaps this tradition of watching festive sitcoms won’t catch on with the general public anytime soon, but I’ve been doing it for about ten years now and will probably continue for another ten, if not longer. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without them.
And since you made it to the end of the post, here’s my gift to you—Jo and Natalie from The Facts of Life singing “We Need a Little Christmas” to entertain some inmates. Unfortunately the intro is cut off, but it’s still gobs of fun. Merry Christmas!
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