The Best Christmas and Holiday TV Episodes

The holidays are a time for family, relaxing, and perhaps overindulging in cookies and seasonal drinks. But it's also a time for watching comfort TV. And when it comes to comfort TV, there's nothing like that perfect holiday episode of your favorite show. You know the one, the type filled with the same shenanigans the characters you enjoy always get up to, but everyone comes together at the end of the episode to celebrate the meaning of Christmas. 

It used to be a staple of TV, but it's gotten rarer and rarer by the year. There are, however, still some classics from older shows and some newer episodes you can put in the rotation if you just want to indulge in some holiday cheer. And though some of these episodes aren't exactly happy, they're all a great representation of what the holidays are and what good TV is meant to be.

Shows don't do Christmas episodes like they used to, so we should all be glad Abbott Elementary, a throwback to the must-see TV era of broadcast comedies, exists. The Season 2 installment sees the faculty kick off winter break with Jacob (Chris Perfetti) being a little bit (or maybe a lot) of a scrooge, Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory's (Tyler James Williams) eternal unresolved sexual tension getting some time in the spotlight, and the show managing to be wholesome even when everyone's being everything but. In the end, that's what makes Abbott so great. These characters fit together in a way that makes every episode feel a little bit like the Christmas spirit is alive and well.

Futurama is one of those shows that seems to swing wildly between earnest and serious, and "Xmas Story" is at times, a bit of both. The episode revolves around Fry discovering that Santa Claus is an eight-foot robot who menaces people on Christmas Eve in the year 3000. This isn't exactly a traditional depiction of one of the things that makes Christmas magical, but the episode still manages to be warm and fuzzy when it comes to what Bender, Fry, Leela, and the rest of the gang mean to each other.

Over its groundbreaking run, The X-Files did scary and it did quirky, and this episode is a little bit of both. Lily Tomlin and Edward Asner play star-crossed lovers who committed suicide because they could not live without each other. Now, they haunt this house and trap lovers inside to convince them to also follow through with the same suicide pact. Oh, and Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are staking out the place on yes, Christmas Eve. What could go wrong? It's not your typical holiday episode, but it's still a very nice representation of what made the show work and there's even a bit of holiday spirit there if you squint.

It's hard to put into words how weird this episode is, but let's try listing the things it features and maybe we'll get close: Two different Christmas parties. A busted frozen banana stand. Buster (Tony Hale) operating a crane only to pick up Gob (Will Arnett) from the wreckage and drop him into the bay. Lucille (Jessica Walter) getting high on pot brownies. Three different, and totally inappropriate renditions of "Afternoon Delight." In some ways, it sounds just like an episode of Arrested Development. It's either that or the best Christmas episode ever.

Family Christmas isn't always good, or so 30 Rock is out to prove in this fantastic holiday episode in which Jack's mom (Elaine Stritch) visits to put a damper on the day. She's even enough of a problem she even makes Liz's perfect family turn against each other. At Christmas! Meanwhile, there's an office Christmas party with a stripper, leading Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) to try to explain the real meaning of Christmas. It may not be a very festive episode, but it's very funny and entirely foreseeable; this is a sitcom after all. Plus, doesn't Ludachristmas just sound better than actual Christmas? We'll celebrate that!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer's only Christmas episode, "Amends" is a pretty heavy one that features Angel (David Boreanaz) having visions of the people he's killed — visions that, at some point, try to get him to kill Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) too. Since Angel can't get himself to do that, he opts to kill himself by standing on a hill and waiting for the sun to come up. The sun doesn't come up because of a snowstorm, and after Buffy finds Angel on that hill, the two walk hand in hand together through town. Pretty romantic, right?

Rebecca's (Rachel Bloom) life in California is built on lies, and it all comes crashing down at the worst possible time, Christmas! Not just Christmas, at a holiday event. Meanwhile, Christmas Eve with his mom makes Greg (Santino Fontana) realize he might just be the problematic relative in his family. But before the episode is over both Rebecca and Greg manage to find common ground and lead with love in their relationships with their mothers, and by the end of the episode everyone comes together to celebrate Christmas in California, where it's not that cold!

We could not have a Christmas episode list without an adaptation of Charles Dickens' famous holiday story. This one features Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, and a crashing space liner caught in a cloud belt. It also features a man, Karzan Sardick, played by Michael Gambon, who can control the cloud layer but refuses to help. It is up to the doctor to use time travel to change the past and make him into the kind of man who might want to help, a tall order indeed. But Christmas miracles are a thing, after all.

This one's got a lot of melodrama because it's ER and that's what the show does best. But it's also got a lot of heart, because it's ER, and that's what the show also does best. And it's also got the gang coming together to celebrate Christmas, you know, back when the gang was still mostly together and people hadn't started dying off or leaving. That makes it a mostly cheerful affair, even though this isn't always a cheerful show. It's a reminder that, sometimes, your coworkers can be a kind of family and a show like this one can indeed be comforting.

In typical The Office fashion, this episode is borderline absurd, hasn't really aged well, and yet it's somehow hilarious despite all of that. A newly dumped Michael (Steve Carell) goes to Benihana, where he and Andy (Ed Helms) pick up some waitresses. All good there, at least until they bring the two back to the office's dueling Christmas parties and Michael somehow forgets which girl is his date. Then he decides to use a Sharpie to identify them. As expected, the girls end up leaving. But it's all fine by Michael, or at least he pretends it is. "Bros before hos," he says. This is Christmas, The Office style!

Friends has a lot of great holiday episodes, but perhaps the top spot goes to the one in which Ross (David Schwimmer) tries to teach his son Ben about Hanukkah. Except Ben's a kid, and he just wants Santa Claus. When Ross is unable to get his hands on a Santa suit, instead of just being normal, he goes ahead and invents the Holiday Armadillo — who is apparently Santa's representative for the southern states. And Mexico! But then Chandler (Matthew Perry) shows up with a Santa suit. And Joey (Matt LeBlanc) with a Superman one. And somehow, it all adds up to a great Christmas.

We wouldn't really expect a holiday episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to be in any way traditional, because the show has never been that. Instead, "A Very Sunny Christmas," which is twice as long as a normal episode of the show, sees Frank (Danny DeVito) buy Dee (Kaitlin Olson) and Dennis' (Glenn Howerton) dream gifts for himself, which then results in them embarking on a Christmas Carol scheme to get him back, all while Mac (Rob McElhenney) figures out that he used to rob families on Christmas. Oh, and Charlie's (Charlie Day) mom used to sleep with men dressed as Santa, so there's trauma there. Unpack that. Frank buys them all gifts, which are then stolen. But all is well, as the gang makes up and then throws rocks at trains. A happy ending indeed.

Introducing the best fake holiday ever, Festivus! And it's all because of George Costanza (Jason Alexander), who in typical George form, ends up bringing everyone into his mess. Except this time the mess is a holiday made up by George's dad which includes a Festivus dinner on December 23rd, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, and the "airing of grievances" instead of, you know, decorating a tree, getting people presents, or telling your loved ones what you're thankful about. "Festivus for the rest of us!" indeed.

Rick and Morty is one of those shows that never seems like it's truly heartfelt and then, in the end, it is actually about family deep down. "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation" is one of those episodes that reminds you that everything that's happened, all the adventures these characters have gone on, can all be traced back to the fact that Rick cares. And if caring about your family isn't the spirit of Christmas, then what is?

The first of The O.C.'s Chrismukkah episodes, this is the show's introduction to the holiday invented by a young Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) as a way to celebrate the best of both Christmas and Hannukah. And the hour truly had everything, including a drunk Marissa (Mischa Barton), Summer (Rachel Bilson) in a Wonder Woman costume, and Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) doing a Sylvester Stallone impersonation. If you don't appreciate this episode, then you've got no holiday spirit. For either holiday!

This holiday episode of Schitt's Creek perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the show. Sure, Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) makes big plans, no one really helps, and everything predictably goes wrong. But in the end, the family comes together when it counts and proves that deep down, even when they don't know how to say it, much less how to show it, they truly do love each other. That's why fans fell in love with them, and that's why they made it to where they were at this point in the show. And not to be sentimental or anything, but that's the most magical gift of all.

Not exactly a traditional Christmas episode, but a very Mad Men one that sees Joan (Christina Hendricks) being served with divorce papers, and her and Don (Jon Hamm) bonding over her upbringing, as she explains she was raised to "be admired." It's one of those episodes of the critically acclaimed drama that showcases why the relationship between these two is important but refuses to cross the line — which is perhaps what makes it even more important, in a way. Joan gets a romantic kind of admiration from another man. She gets reassurance from Don. He gets to feel invigorated thanks to the conversation. And the world goes on.

A classic holiday TV special and the series' first full episode, this hour sees Homer fail to get a bonus at work and have to work as a mall Santa to make ends meet. But when Homer is still coming up short on money, he and Bart head to the racetrack on Christmas Eve and bet it all on a dog with a festive name: Santa's Little Helper. When he comes in dead last, the two come home with a new pet, and they all somehow have a merry Christmas anyway. It's The Simpsons at its best.

You can ignore this episode aired in the summer if you just play it when it's mean to be played, at Christmas. This episode sees Ted (Jason Sudeikis) feeling down about the fact that he's far away from his family, only for Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and then the entire team to show him that family isn't just blood, but choice. Also, there's singing, and we all know Hannah Waddingham is great at that! Bonus: Roy (Brent Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple) knock on random strangers' doors on Christmas Eve to try to find a holiday miracle.

It's hard to call this one a festive Christmas, but it is emblematic of what story The Bear has been trying to tell from the beginning: one of family and trying to dig through layers of grief and find your way forward. Set five years before the show's main timeline, this episode focuses on a very particular Berzatto Christmas as it gives us a glimpse of not just Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Natalie (Abby Elliott), but also Michael (Jon Bernthal) and many big-name guest stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk, and Gillian Jacobs.

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