WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!
- Anvilicious: It has a thumpingly unsubtle Motherhood Is Superior message, ranging from the sci-fi angle where the futuristic tree harvestors are outwitted and captured by motherly instinct to the fantasy angle where the tree people reject males (even the Doctor) as their vessel because "You are weak", but accept females - Madge in particular - as "the mothership". British journalist Caitlin Moran figured that having spent the day corralling the family and making Christmas dinner for everyone, mothers would appreciate the boost "Yeah, we're the USS Enterprise".
- Heartwarming Moments: "We always set a place for you. It's Christmas, you moron."
- Narm: "Humany-wumany"? Really?
- The Scrappy: Madge Arwell is not well liked by the fandom for having an inconsistent characterisation, surprisingly bad performance by the usually hilarious Claire Skinner, and the Anvilicious moral being centred on her.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Androzani Miners, especially Bill Bailey's, are generally well liked for their hilarious interactions but are barely in the episode for 4 minutes and leave little impact on the paper thin plot.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Many consider the premise of the episode to be a perfect opportunity to explore matters of grief and the real-life struggle of breaking the bad news to their kids that a parent isn't coming home (especially during the holidays), but ends up being ruined by the "fairy tale" ending of the climax's events saving the husband and sparing the family the trauma in lieu of a holiday happy ending.
