Our favorites are in no particular order. If you would like to purchase these episodes and other Christmas specials, click here.
Friends The One with the Holiday Armadillo, 12/14/00
During the entire episode, Ross wants to explain Hanukah to his kid, but his kid just wants Santa. So Ross decides to buy a Santa costume but he’s too late and all the costumes have been bought. The only costume left is of an Armadillo. Ross buys it. His son asks who he is and he replies that he is Santa’s delegate in all the southern states and Mexico. Ross tries to take advantage of his son’s enthusiasm for the Armadillo custom to tell him about Hanukah, but Chandler arrives in a Santa custom and draws all the attention. When Ross finally gets his son’s attention again and starts to tell him about Hanukah, Joey arrives dressed as Superman…
Bewitched Humbug Not To Be Spoken Here , 12/21/67
This classic Bewitched episode starred the great Charles Lane. Darren (played by Dick York) has to work with a grinchy client, soup guru Mr. Mortimer (Lane). When Mortimer insists they all work late on Christmas Eve, Darren abruptly leaves a dinner meeting to go home to Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and their daughter, Tabitha. That night, Samantha decides to use her magical powers to transform Mortimer to Christmases past and present. Mortimer wakes up the next morning with a change of heart-and a case of his Mortimer soups for the Stephens family.
M*A*S*H Dear Dad, 12/17/72
We can't think of much worse than a Christmas during wartime. Not only are you separated from your friends and loved ones, but the constant threat of death hangs over your head like some kind of twisted mistletoe. Leave it to the surgical staff of the 4077th to wring not only pathos but comedy out of this sorry situation, in the first-season episode "Dear Dad." Framed as a letter Hawkeye Pierce is writing home to his father trying to describe what Christmas is like in Korea, the episode is composed of a number of unforgettable vignettes, including Radar shipping a jeep back to America one piece at a time, a fantastic lecture on sex and morality from Frank Burns, and the climactic scene, in which Hawkeye dresses up as Santa Claus to bring presents to the local children but ends up being whisked to the front line to save the life of a gravely injured soldier.
Growing Pains The Kid, 12/16/86
Ben Seaver decides to bring home a homeless girl on Christmas Eve. When the girl finds out that Ben's dad (Alan Thicke) is a psychiatrist, she tries to leave, but instead ends up spending Christmas Eve with the Seaver's. In the morning, the family wakes up to a big surprise.
The Wonder Years Christmas, 12/14/88
It's Christmas 1968 and Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) is on a mission to find the perfect $6 Christmas gift for the girl next door, Winnie Cooper. Kevin and his brother also want a color television for Christmas but it seems their dad won't budge on that one. This is a great, classic Christmas episode from a series that offered several holiday gems.
The Waltons The Best Christmas12/9/76
A heavy snowstorm may prevent the Walton family from gathering on the Mountain for Christmas Eve. No one is more upset by this than Olivia (Michael Learned), who has convinced herself that this will be the last Christmas in which the whole family will be able to get together. A plethora of unexpected mishaps and eleventh-hour emergencies only serve to deepen Olivia's depression...but the story isn't quite over yet!
The Twilight Zone The Night of the Meek, 12/23/60
This is the eeriest of all Christmas episodes, but a definite classic nonetheless. Art Carney plays a drunken department store Santa in this episode. When he's fired for his drunkenness, he comes across a magic bag that gives out any present that is asked for. The Santa starts giving out presents to everyone and is arrested for giving out what police believes are stolen goods. Once he's released by the police, the department store Santa asks the magic bag for one gift just for him....
The Brady Bunch The Voice of Christmas12/29/69
It's Christmas 1968 and Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) is on a mission to find the perfect $6 Christmas gift for the girl next door, Winnie Cooper. Kevin and his brother also want a color television for Christmas but it seems their dad won't budge on that one. This is a great, classic Christmas episode from a series that offered several holiday gems.
Seinfeld The Strike, 12/18/97
An increase in the minimum wage is enough to finally meet the demands of the striking employees of H&H Bagels, and as such, Kramer announces that after 12 years, he's going back to work. Jerry meets an attractive woman at a party, but when he later tries to date her, she doesn't look nearly as good. Elaine's use of a fake phone number backfires when she loses a card that will entitle her to a free sandwich. George tries to get away with giving away fake donation cards as Christmas gifts at work, and much to his chagrin, his father decides to revive Festivus, a unique holiday he'd invented years earlier.
Happy Days Guess Who's Coming to Christmas 12/17/74
When the gang finds out that Fonzie (Henry Winkler) doesn't have any family to send Christmas with, Richie invites him to spend Christmas with the Cunningham's. But Richie's dad, Howard, doesn't much appreciate how Fonzie tries to take over some of the family's Christmas traditions.
