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Known in Britain as a Christmas Special (but that means something different on this website), the Christmas Episode is a one-off seasonal episode of an ongoing series, typically a comedy or comedy drama. Sometimes the Christmas Episode will be shown in two or three parts over consecutive nights, typically in the build-up to Christmas Day. Only the most popular shows get shown on Christmas Day itself. Note that the Christmas Episode is not part of an ongoing season, unlike most U.S. shows' episodes that take place on Christmas.
Since it is divorced from its parent show and will probably be seen by a wider audience than usual, the Christmas Episode does not usually rely heavily on continuity, generally just using the core characters (and possibly some of the popular secondary characters). However, it is also often used to set up major changes in continuity, through events such as a Christmas wedding or - and this is a popular one for obvious reasons - a Christmas birth. These may then be carried into the next year's season. Alternatively, the Christmas Episode may be the last-ever episode of the series, as happened with the UK version of The Office and Only Fools And Horses (although the latter had more Christmas Episodes commissioned afterwards).
In Britain, a more recent variation is a specially recorded Christmas day message which is then run in competition to the Queen's televised Christmas message (recent years have seen announcements from Ali G and Marge Simpson). However, since this is breaking the Fourth Wall, it is not typically part of an actual story.
During the 1980s and 1990s, British Christmas specials usually took place in some decidedly un-Christmassy part of the world such as Florida ( Only Fools And Horses) or Majorca ( Birds Of A Feather). This has proven unpopular in recent years.
In Soap Operas such as East Enders and Coronation Street it is traditional for the Christmas Episode to be the most depressing of the entire year. Which is saying something as Brit Soaps, especially East Enders, tend to be depressing anyway. It is not uncommon for a long running character to die in Christmas Episodes of this kind, and another occurrence is a disastrous Wedding Day where everything goes wrong and the wedding doesn't occur, or a disastrous Birth where the baby, mother or both die in the process.
See also Christmas Special. Also see You Mean X Mas, where a world where Christmas doesn't exist gets a similar holiday for the purposes of having a Christmas Episode.
Examples
Anime
Note that in Japan, Christmas has roughly the same cultural significance as Valentine's Day does in the West — so Anime Christmas Episodes can have an additional romance theme to them.
- Digimon Adventure 02 used the Christmas episode for a Relationship Upgrade.
- Kaitou Saint Tail. Interestingly, in the manga, the corresponding chapter had nothing to do with Christmas at all.
- Tokyo Mew Mew had a two-parter with a Mew Aqua time bomb on top of the giant city Christmas tree. It also inserted foreshadowing for an event in the Grand Finale that also happened in the manga, but there, went unexplained.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, twice. There were actually three episodes that took place on Christmas, but one was plot-important and didn't focus on the holiday itself... although it did have a Christmas birth.
- The second season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has an episode called "Christmas Eve". It starts out like a Christmas episode up until Nanoha and Fate visit the hospital where Hayate's staying so she won't be alone on Christmas. Little do they know that Hayate's the Morality Pet of their enemies and the mana battery for their Artifact Of Doom...and, well, let's just say It Got Worse.
- The first Megami Sound Stage takes place on Christmas Eve in A's, although strangely enough, it suggests that after Nanoha and Fate visited Hayate, they went to training without any further problems. In the sound stage, Nanoha and Fate discuss topics like believing in Santa and what they do to celebrate Christmas, in addition to their thoughts on the current situation.
- Azumanga Daioh had one of these. Complete with Chiyo-Dad as Santa; courtesy of Sakaki's imagination.
- There is also one in Ninin Ga Shinobuden, in which Kaede shows the Ninjas the true meaning of Christmas. Hilarity Ensues. (Honestly, that episode is one of the funniest of that series, hands down).
- Kamichu! has a Christmas episode. Pretty interesting, considering the show follows the daily life of a Shinto Goddess.
- Crayon Shin Chan had an episode with 3 Christmas themed parts, the first being about a troupe of performers coming to Shin's kindergarten class to put on a play, the second about Shin helping his mother (and her firends) give away some gifts and the third about Shin's parents fretting over how they're going to get their son a Christmas present.
- Keroro Gunsou had an episode where Keroro plots to take over the world at Christmas while everyone's guard is down, but everyone drops out one by one. Eventually he goes to help Kogoro by dressing up as Santa and giving away Christmas presents (so as to get onto Santa's good list and to get a present for Christmas).
- Axis Powers Hetalia had a special with Finland dressing up as Santa and answering fan mail with his puppy Blood-Smeared Flower Egg. France then hijacks the special and runs around molesting other countries and forcing them to strip.
- Pokemon had several (this troper remembers getting a VHS with several packaged on it), and one ended up being banned for containing Jynx, perceived by many to be an offensive caricature (but not before it got released to video).
- Toradora gets a lovely Christmas Episode where all the main school age characters end up alone and probably in tears because they've all been ignored, rejected or rejected someone they did like. Merrrrry Christmas! Ho ho ho!
- Except for Yuusaku. Nobody who's willing to be in that costume could possibly be feeling down.
- School Rumble. Harima uses Tenma's present for Karasuma as transportation.
- Love Hina's was a tearjerker.
- The Death Note manga had a couple of four-panel cartoons with Light and Ryuk. "Since when do shinigami celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ?"
- Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi's Christmas Episode doubled as a Shout Out to Ah My Goddess.
- Ranma 1/2 has one, even though both the Saotomes and Tendos mention that they are Buddhist, though not very devout ones. This effectively makes it more a X-mas event.
- There have also been mentionings of Shinto in the series as well (for example, in one Filler story, Ukyo is revealed to have a part-time job as a Miko), but this makes sense given that, as a whole, the Japanese aren't very religious and, in fact, tend to mix and match the two religions to their personal taste. Also, in Japan, because Christianity is almost non-existent, Christmas is pretty much a secular/commercial holiday that was adopted because the Japanese like it.
- In an early Yu Yu Hakusho manga chapter, Yusuke meets the spirit of a girl who fell ill and died while waiting for her boyfriend, Kenji to show up to meet her on Christmas Eve of the previous year, not knowing that she'd been stood up. When Kenji shows up to meet another girl on this Christmas Eve, she realizes that he never cared for her, and Yusuke takes her out for some fun, enabling her to happily pass on. Yusuke then takes revenge on Kenji by pretending to be one of his other girlfriends; when he tries guessing which one, his current girlfriend gets angry after realizing how unfaithful he is.
Comic Books
- Transformers UK featured an issue where Optimus Prime got dressed in a Santa suit and Starscream wished a kid Merry Christmas. Yeah.
Literature
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who makes a point of having its Christmas Episodes be a strong part of the show's continuity, usually following directly on from the previous season's finale. They're also very Christmassy (although the Killer Santa Robots seem to have been retired). So far they've been: "The Chrismas Invasion", "The Runaway Bride", "Voyage of the Damned", "The Next Doctor", and "The End of Time" (which looks like it's going to double as a regeneration episode).
- Episode 7 of "The Dalek's Master Plan," which was broadcast Christmas Day, had the First Doctor Break The Fourth Wall and wish everyone at home a happy Christmas.
- As mentioned above, the UK version of The Office ended with a special two-part Christmas episode. The show's follow-up Extras also finished with a feature-length Christmas episode.
- The Royle Family had a Christmas Episode after its second season which saw Denise giving birth prematurely. The series finished with its next Christmas Episode, though it did come back for a one-off (non-seasonal) special episode six years later and a seasonal one in 2008.
- Jonathan Creek had three Christmas episodes; the first was a typical howdunnit, but the next two both introduced Creek's new companions.
- For three years (1995-1997), One Foot In The Grave became a series of nothing but Christmas Episodes. A concluding series was broadcast in 2000.
- Over the past several years, WWE has produced a Christmas episode of one of their main shows (either Raw or Smackdown), in the form of a Christmas-themed wrestling show for the troops in the Middle East.
- Like One Foot In The Grave, there was a period when Only Fools And Horses consisted entirely of Christmas Episodes, in this case between 1991 and 1996 (with a three-parter intended to be the finale). The series later had three more Christmas Episodes from 2001 to 2003.
- Only The X Files would set a Christmas episode in a haunted house and only Mulder would think staking out said haunted house is a good way to spend Christmas Eve. (This editor couldn't agree more with Scully's take on shopping just before Christmas: "If I'd heard 'Silent Night' one more time, I was going to start taking hostages.")
- Well if that counts, so does the Supernatural Christmas episode A Very Supernatural Christmas. Evil Santa, sacrifices to gods (and what says Christmas more than watching someone's fingernail be torn off?) and a surprisingly effective ending. Sniff. And a tree decorated with air fresheners and fishing flies.
- Curiously, M*A*S*H had more Christmas Episodes than there were Christmases during the Korean War.
- Casualty and its spin-off Holby City (set on the wards of the same hospital) sometimes celebrate Christmas with a Crossover in which a major disaster requires the entire hospital staff.
- LazyTown featured a Christmas episode in its first season. Robbie Rotten even dressed up as Santa as part of his plot to get rid of Sportacus that week.
- Power Rangers had a Christmas episode in its third and fourth season, as well as a "Video special" named Alpha's Magical Christmas. However, all three are put collectively in the Discontinuity pile.
- Thomas The Tank Engine has had a Christmas episode in nearly each of its seasons.
- Master Blasters ran a Christmas episode in March of 2008.
- Mork And Mindy had a Christmas episode in the first season, appropriately titled"Mork's First Christmas" . Notably, there was no report to Orson at the end, and the ending credits ran over footage of Mork sneaking downstairs on Christmas Eve to wait for Santa.
- 30 Rock has had two Christmas Episodes. The second one was creatively titled "Christmas Special".
- Psych (and this year, Monk) have done Christmas specials, British-style one-offs in between seasons.
- House Christmas Episodes are well-known for being downers but Merry Little Christmas takes the fricking cake. Wilson has just betrayed House to Tritter and gets hated by everyone for it, he and Cuddy try and force House to take the deal (rehab instead of jail) by making him detox and as for House himself? Well, he detoxes nastily, cuts his arm to avoid the pain in his leg, steals a dead patient's drugs, leaves an answer message for his parents in what can be argued as a suicide note, overdoses on his pills by drinking a ton of alcohol, gets left by Wilson in a pool of his own vomit and when he's broken enough to come crawling back to Tritter, Tritter removes the deal anyway. Good times.
- The Bob Newhart Show had one in every season of its run. (Conversely, Newhart only had one.)
- St. Elsewhere actually killed off Santa Claus in its Christmas episode.
- Diff'rent Strokes had two, the first of which was also a Clip Show (in the show's very first season!).
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer used this as the first appearance of season 5's Big Bad.
- Friends had lots. So did Will And Grace.
- The Closer had a Season 3 Christmas-themed episode, aired in December well after the end of the regular season as a two-hour special.
- Scrubs had two: My Own Personal Jesus (season 1), and My Best Day (season 4).
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 had two: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and Santa Claus.
- The latter had inventions in the invention exchange including the Easy Bake Foundry, Mr. Mashed Potato Head, and Patrick Swayze's Roadhouse Board Game.
- Superhuman Samurai Cyber-Squad had one. Kilakon manages to brain fry the team using Christmas lights, Malcom and Jennifer help save the day, Kilakon is defeated, and everyone prompty has their memories of the experience erased by the end.
- Designing Women had one which centered around Mary Jo's son being determined to catch Santa Claus in the act, so Suzanne hired a mall Santa to enter Mary Jo's house (and gave him the key). Big surprise — he robbed Mary Jo blind.
Radio
- Fit the Seventh of ''The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'' was commissioned by the BBC as one of these, but ended up having absolutely nothing to do with Christmas as Douglas Adams simply couldn't think of an idea. (Seeing as it was still advertised as a Christmas special, this may well be a subversion.) It was, instead, used as a way of tying the first two phases together—and, as a result, which one it's actually attached to is rather vague. The LP and CD of the Secondary Phase opens with Fit the Seventh, clearing up the confusion.
Video Games
Web Original
- The first season of lonelygirl15 had one, "Christmas Surprise".
- Homestar Runner has plenty, although for some odd reason Free Country, USA celebrates Decemberween instead of Christmas, where Bubs serves Santa duties as either Doctor Christmas or the enigmatic Decemberween Thnikkaman. In the most recent one, A Death-Defying Decemberween, Homestar announces he's going to sled down the Steep Deep, not so much a hill as a straight drop, and Strong Bad catches him trying to bury a mattress at the base of the hill. Being Strong Bad, he removes the mattress, only for Homestar to make a perfect landing anyway: turns out the mattress was full of hammers, broken glass and candy canes sucked into points, and Homestar was trying to maim himself to keep from having to visit Marzipan's parents. Another notable one is the Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Decemberween special, "Cactus Coffee and the No Tell Motel", which declares that the true meaning of Decemberween involves Eh! Steve's mouth exploding the universe and little blond guys doing tiny, tiny dances.
Webcomics
- Irregular Webcomic regularly has Cthulu related christmas comics (frequantly parodies of Christmas carols).
- XKCD had a very funny Christmas special which only showed prime numbered panels, making it sort of a Noodle Incident.
Western Animation
- The Venture Bros had a special 10-minute Christmas short after its first season.
- The Flintstones celebrated Christmas despite living well before the inception of the holiday or any of the holidays Christmas is based on... or, for that matter, before the year Christ was supposedly born.
- Pinky And The Brain had a Christmas episode, aptly titled "A Pinky and the Brain Christmas," which won an Emmy for "Outstanding Animated Program."
- Invader Zim featured a full half-hour Christmas episode in the form of "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever." (Thankfully, is still referred to as "Christmas" for most of the episode.) Once the series was canceled, it wound up acting as a sort of series finale.
- The Justice League episode "Comfort and Joy" was, of course, Christmas-themed. Interestingly, it was the only one-parter episode of the series.
- Martian Manhunter spends Christmas with the Kents, Hawkgirl & Green Lantern go to a bar in another planet and The Flash fights a villain. No Batman and Wonder Woman in sight...
- And Flash vs. the Ultra-Humanite is the best JLA Christmas piece ever.
- Despite being shown during late April, the Transformers Animated episode "Human Error" occurred during Christmas. Sari introduces the Autobots to Christmas, the Autobots indulge in the Christmas spirit, presents are exchanged and oilnog is drunk...and then it starts getting weird.
- Oddly enough. Ben 10 managed to have a Christmas episode despite the series occurring over the course of summer vacation. It involves magic, a Christmas-themed amusement park, and the main character's grandfather being mistaken for Santa Claus. We couldn't make something like that up if we tried, folks.
- The episode “Operation: NAUGHTY” in Codename: Kids Next Door is . . . well, unconventional as far as Christmas Episodes go. It features a Christmas-themed X-Men Shout Out (including an elf named “Wintergreen” with “claws of solid peppermintium”), a prominent Ship Tease, and comic-book-style narration. Yeah...
- Both Batman The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures had Christmas episodes: "Christmas With the Joker" and "Holiday Knights", respectively.
- Batman The Brave And The Bold had one as well, "Invasion of the Secret Santas!", which included a sadder interpretation of the deaths of Batman's parents.
- Kim Possible had a Christmas episode, complete with a Show Within A Show Christmas special: The Six Tasks of Snowman Hank, of which Ron and Drakken both turned out to be fans, with lots of
Cocaine snow-fueled wackiness. And singing. And dancing. And mistletoe.
- Danny Phantom had "The Fright Before Christmas" with 85% more rhyming.
- Jackie Chan Adventures which featured the baddies vs. the heroes who's protecting Santa Claus with the help of his maximum security elves.
- The Simpsons has had several. Considering that the cast never gets any older, this gets a bit weird.
- OK OK, let's just say every series is out of continuity with the one before it! You've got to make it work somehow.
- Their very first episode was a Christmas episode!
- Even one of the Tracey Ullman Show shorts has a Christmas theme.
- The Darkwing Duck episode It's a Wonderful Leaf. Green Thumb Super Villain Bushroot turns all the Christmas trees in Saint Canard against their owners.
- Fairly Odd Parents had a Christmas episode where Timmy wishes for it to be Christmas everyday. Unfortunately, the other holidays aren't too happy about this...
- Plus they got a new one for season six, "Merry Wishmas".
- X Men Evolution has one where Scott and Rogue (who has a crush on him) are the only students left at the mansion during the holidays. The plot involves them chasing rumors of an "angel" (no, not that one!) who's been performing miraculous rescues. It all culminates in a big Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming as the characters celebrate in their own way.
- Rugrats had two Christmas episodes, a Passover episode, a Hannukah episode, and a Kwanzaa episode. Top that!
- And who can forget the heart warming Critter's Christmas Special of South Park fame? It ends on such a special note, all the characters have grown and live happily ever after except for Kyle, who dies of AIDs three weeks later.
- South Park has done a few Christmas episodes before, most of them featuring Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.
- In fact, South Park itself was based on a Christmas-themed animated short made by series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone called "Jesus vs. Frosty". Years after its creation a Fox executive saw the short and commissioned another one called "Jesus vs. Santa" which became popular on the internet and was the impetus to the creation of the series.
- It's a Wonderful Tiny Toon Christmas Special starred Buster Bunny in the Wonderful Life trope.
- Mario's animated shows had two: "Koopa Klaus" and "The Night Before Cave Christmas".
- Donkey Kong Country had an episode focusing on a very similar holiday, the Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights. (Maybe they called it that because the writers were non-denominational.)
- Superjail did a Christmas episode starring a Littlest Cancer Patient. It was appropriately horrifying, but - as opposed to 99% of the rest of the show - quite the Tear Jerker at the same time.
- Taz Mania had the episode "No Time For Christmas". Among the highlights were the Ho Yay mistletoe scene, Digeri Dingo showing his soft side near the end and that one crystal teardrop.
- The Proud Family had a Kwanzaa episode.
- 6teen has actually had 3 different Christmas episodes, one each season, even though they never get any older.
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