Bill makes his front yard a Christmas village for the kids — but his plan to keep the decorations up after the holiday season makes everyone uneasy and makes Bill the target to a 20-something slacker who's taking advantage of him and corrupting Bobby by making him drink beer.
Tropes:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Wally. He pretended be Bill’s friend and acted as if he saw him like a father. This was solely to take advantage of his belongings (such as his car, his money, and his bounce house), and so he can get away with being a Jerkass to Bill’s neighbors.
- Christmas Episode: The third of these, with the episode spanning from just before Christmas to around President's Day.
- Corruption of a Minor: Wally encourages the underage Bobby, Connie, and Joseph to get drunk because he thinks it's funny.
- Helicopter Parents: Hank spends most of the episode treating Bobby more like a little kid than a growing preteen and not getting why Bobby would not like that in the slightest. His blocking of the TV Guide channel is the last straw for Bobby, leading him to accept Wally's offer to drink beer. Even his punishment of making Bobby work off the resulting hangover by doing every chore in the house feels more a case of Disproportionate Retribution than something actually deserved.
- Jerkass: Wally; he takes advantage of Bill's generosity and want of any sort of companionship, and tempts three teenagers to get drunk.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After Hank scolds Bill for allowing Wally and his friends to have free reign of the neighborhood without any consequences, Bill tries talking to Wally about he and his friends picking up their trash, not bothering the neighbors, and not stealing Hank's power tools. Wally responds that Bill is just like his dad, who never had any confidence and him, and walks out of the house disappointed. In reality, Wally figures out that the jig is up, and although he knew Bill was too naïve to see Wally as the freeloader and thief he is, he concludes that it would be Hank who would eventually call the cops on him, and his rap sheet would send him to prison.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Wally's criminal ways get the better of him when he's busted for shopping with Bill's credit cards.
- Like a Son to Me: Bill comes to see Wally as this, believing that all he needs is a little guidance from someone who's willing to show him some sympathy. In reality, Wally is just a freeloader who just happened to find the latest mark in his scheme to mooch off until they get wise to his con.
- Mall Santa: Bill gets the idea to become one when he's told that he can gift toys to the kids who've been sending letters to Santa that're still sitting at the back of the post office since he can't be there personally to give the toys to the kids or that the mailman delivering them won't wear a Santa costume. He then proceeds to turn his entire yard into Santa's workshop and manages to get a date with one of the parents of the kids he's giving the toys away to, but he naturally takes it too far by keeping the Christmas decorations up all the way up to Valentine's Day and dressing as the Santa the entire time, which naturally creeps out and drives away the woman that he was dating, especially since his Santa outfit is now stained, faded and dirty, which leads him to finally wash it, only for him to manage to turn its white highlights pink and shrink it, setting up the rest of the episode when he meets Wally in the laundromat.
- Rage Breaking Point: Hank for the most part tries to ignore Wally and his friends mooching off of Bill and littering the neighborhood since at least Bill isn't lonely. However, when Wally gets Bobby, Joseph, and Connie drunk, Hank finally snaps and yells at Bill to take down his Christmas decorations and to get rid of Wally as he's nothing more than just a freeloading criminal.
- Sanity Slippage: The very instant Bill meets up with a woman, he keeps the whole Christmas theme going well into the new year. Which ultimately drives off his potential love interest and brings in Wally.
- Second-Face Smoke: Bobby, Joseph, and Connie leave Bill's bouncy-castle after Hank angrily yells at them to go home. Hank grabs Wally and furiously orders him to "get the hell out of here!" Wally responds by defiantly blowing cigarette smoke in Hank's face.
- Special Guest: Ryan Phillippe as Wally.
- Take a Third Option: When Wally is arrested, Bill has to make the choice of bailing him out, or sending him off to jail. Bill choses the Army.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: Wally and his freeloading friends mooch off of Bill because they know he's too lonely to ask them to leave, even if all they do is drink beer and smoke cigarettes he paid for.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: When Wally is busted for driving Bill's stolen car and trying to buy stuff with his stolen credit card, Bill manages to keep Wally from going to jail by convincing the judge that the Army can help him sort out his life.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Wally tempts Bobby, Joseph and Connie to get drunk. They do it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Hank's refusal to let Bobby watch the Christmas Smackdown, and later blocking the TV Guide is ultimately what makes Bobby take Wally up on drinking in Bill's bounce house; he even specifically jokes about it when Connie initially has doubts, questioning if it was because "beer isn't TV-14".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: While Bobby is punished for getting drunk, it's not shown how Joseph's and Connie's parents reacted. While it can be presumed that Connie was likely punished offscreen in a similar manner to Bobby, Joseph may have gotten away with it given Dale's usual attitude towards him.
