*Noddy Holder voice* IT’S BLOGMAS! We’re now only five precious sleeps away from Christmas and to mark the occasion, ‘moon child’ will be posting a special festive post every day until the big day, with a special fiction blog post on the 25th – so, stay tuned! Today (December 20th) marks the first post of Blogmas and to kick things off, here is my first festive article of the season, a countdown of the top five best Christmas TV specials:
Published by CultNoise magazine.
One of the best things about Christmas – aside from Christmas trees, festive songs, decorations, Christmas films, gift giving, hot chocolate, Christmas dinner, shopping, being with loved ones, and a million other things – is Christmas TV episodes of our favourite shows! The Christmas period wouldn’t be the same without everyone in TV from Sheldon Cooper to Chandler Bing taking part (sometimes reluctantly) in some yuletide cheer. So, here is our pick of the top 5 Christmas TV episodes:
The Big Bang Theory – The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis
From way back when in Season 2 in 2009, this Christmas special of Big Bang is a (relatively) oldie but goodie. In this episode, Leonard accidentally sets up Penny with another physicist at the university and is forced to see someone else with the woman we all know he should be with. While Sheldon stresses out in typical Sheldon Cooper ‘I’m not crazy, my mother had me tested’ style over gift giving, Penny faces heartbreak at Christmas when she finds out new boyfriend Dave has a wife, and subsequently has a ‘moment’ with Leonard when he comforts her, as we all shout ‘Just kiss him!’ at our TV screens. As the trio, Leonard, Penny and Sheldon, are untied on Christmas Day, Sheldon becomes hysterical when he receives his special Leonard Nimoy gift from Penny, and we see a very rare, albeit awkward, Sheldon Cooper hug.
Friends – The One with Christmas in Tulsa
In this classic festive special of Friends, Chandler is forced to work in Tulsa on Christmas Day while the rest of the gang are feeling gloomy without him back in New York. When the group talk to Chandler over loud speaker on the phone, they realise that Chandler is alone in his office with a young attractive female colleague (who happens to be the runner-up Miss Oklahoma) and Monica is immediately suspicious. Meanwhile, Chandler reminisces on his relationship with Monica and we see some of our favourite Mondler moments, and Chandler also flashes back to previous Christmases with the gang. But the episode does have a happy ending when Chandler realises what’s really important and returns home announcing he has quit the job that kept him away from his beloved wife and his friends. Good for you Chandler, stick it to the man!
Father Ted – A Christmassy Ted
The kitschy ’90s comedy equivalent of The IT Crowd, Father Ted is next on our line up with the 1996 Christmas special. The 55-minute long episode sees Father Ted winning a Golden Cleric award for getting a group of priests out of an embarrassing situation (they were all lost in the huge lingerie section of a department store, not exactly appropriate for men of the cloth) and a rogue thief posing as a fellow priest manages to con his way into the Parochial House in a bid to steal the prize. Between Dougal covering himself in glitter while making Christmas cards and being bewildered by flashing tree lights, and Mrs Doyle having a crisis over receiving a tea-maker when she “likes the misery” of making the tea, this Christmas special of the satirical comedy is a must-watch this festive season.
How I Met Your Mother – How Lily Stole Christmas
As Marshal and Lily are reunited in this holiday episode of How I Met Your Mother, Lily finds out that Ted called Lily a bad word during her break-up with Marshall, a word censored by future Ted and renamed ‘Grinch’. Offended by Ted’s insult, Lily decides to ‘steal Christmas’ by taking her renowned Christmas display away from the apartment. Ted then tries to convince Lily to bring Christmas back for the sake of Marshall (who is like a big kid during the holidays), as Barney falls ill and Robin has to take care of him over the festive period. For Christmas fun in Ted’s typical back-and-forth, overlapping storytelling style, this episode of How I Met Your Mother is one of the best.
Mrs Browns Boys – Mammy’s Tickled Pink
The comedy phenomenon, Brendan O’Carroll’s creation Mrs Browns Boys is set to head back to our screens for more Christmassy episodes this year. But in the meantime, we can revel in ‘Mammy’s Tickled Pink’. In this episode, Agnes Brown has lost her usual festive spirit and is feeling depressed as her son Trevor is unable to return home from the missions, Mrs Nicholson is pressuring her daughter Maria and her husband, Agnes’s son, Dermot to spend Christmas with her instead of at the Browns, and it feels like everyone is leaving her at the most special time of year. But, as Agnes herself says, everything always works out the way it’s supposed to, and Mammy Brown gets the merry, warm and fuzzy (and hilarious) Christmas she was hoping for. Mrs Browns Boys is the new essential tradition at Christmas as the gang have us crying one minute, and crying with laughter the next.
What are your favourite Christmas TV episodes? Let me know in the comment section below.
sophie. 