Sharon must confront her own lack of generosity after she is chosen to give a gift to her nemesis, Nina, for the holidays. Meanwhile, Josh learns more about the Spitzs' Jewish heritage, Sharon's mom is stuck with overtime work, and a strange cousin comes to visit.
Tropes:
- Agony of the Feet: Connor drops Sharon’s heavy gift for Nina right on his foot.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Throughout the episode, Connor imitates his grandfather’s Irish accent.Sharon: I hate to say this, but you sound like a Russian leprechaun with his mouth full.
- Calling the Old Woman Out: Adam calls out his mom for yelling at their cousin Jerry and making him feel bad for his quirky obsession with the outdoors.
- Christmas Episode: Half and half with a Hanukkah Episode. While Sharon and the rest of the family are celebrating Christmas, Josh decides to connect with his Jewish roots and celebrate Hanukkah.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: While snow covers the ground the entire episode, it doesn’t start actively snowing until right as the Spitz family sits down to eat their Christmas Eve dinner.
- From Bad to Worse: With Helen having to work on Christmas Eve, her cousin Jerry showing up unexpectedly, and Josh refusing to celebrate anything other than Hanukkah, the Spitzs’ “perfect” Christmas is already not living up to expectations. However, everyone being at each other’s throats only leads to things getting worse until the whole family is driven apart.
- Handing Over The Crapsack: Sharon is about to give Nina a bag filled with $5 worth of pennies before her guilt makes her reconsider.
- Hanukkah Episode: Half and half with a Christmas Episode. While Sharon and the rest of the family are celebrating Christmas, Josh decides to connect with his Jewish roots and celebrate Hanukkah.
- Hypocrite: Josh calls Sharon out for being one when she criticizes him for not sticking to their family traditions and he points out that she’s changing their dinner tradition by making them eat a tofurkey.
- Lethal Chef: Josh’s attempts to make latkes result in him burning them to a crisp and creating a huge mess in the kitchen.
- Long-Lost Uncle Aesop: Helen’s eccentric cousin Jerry’s presence in this episode seems to mostly be to help teach the Spitz family that just because someone might think differently than you do, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong and that efforts should be made to try to include all your loved ones in your traditions, even if that means compromising.
- My New Gift Is Lame: The gift basket Sharon gets from Nina, while initially looking impressive, is filled with junk Nina obviously got for free along with a re-gifted toy that Maria had given her the year before.
- Rule of Three: The Spitz family has three Christmas Eve traditions: decorating the tree, singing Christmas carols, and baking cookies.
- Secret Santa: Sharon’s class draws names for Secret Santas and Sharon is disappointed to have pulled her Evil Former Friend Nina.
- True Meaning of Christmas: Sharon learns that her strict adherence to her family’s Christmas traditions made act selfishly and forget that Christmas is about spending time with your loved ones rather than making everything perfect.
