Christmas Specials from popular sitcoms usually bring a smile to the faces of fans, but in some cases the episodes are awkward, don’t fit the holiday spirit or are overall poorly written.
Regardless of whether one is watching a traditional hallmark movie or a favorite Disney Christmas episode, the feeling that comes when watching it is nothing short of magical. However, the episodes listed below are ones that left audiences confused, frustrated, indifferent, or a mixture of them all.
Friends: The One With the Holiday Armadillo
Friends is one of the most commonly known sitcoms of the past few decades. Despite the infamous one-liners and heartwarming storylines that people still mention to this day, some episodes don’t live up to the show’s hype. “The One With the Holiday Armadillo” is a perfect example. This episode mainly follows Ross trying to convince his son that Hanukkah is a fun holiday. He goes to great lengths to educate his son about their family’s background, becoming a holiday armadillo in the process. Despite Ross’s somewhat obsessive nature about Judaism in this episode, we rarely hear him or Monica mention their faith throughout the series, making this plot somewhat out of place.
Suite Life on Deck: A London Carol
Who can resist the crazy antics of Disney’s iconic twins. The Suite Life shows were known for their holiday-themed episodes whether about one of the character’s birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, or anything else.
Despite that, this episode was a miss, because it follows London through her Christmas past, present, and future, just like in the classic A Christmas Carol. Even though this episode does have Christmas spirit, it lacks originality. The whole script is a carbon copy of A Christmas Carol just with a dash of Suite life. Instead of having a unique and original holiday episode the writers took the easy way out.
Full House: A Very Tanner Christmas
Full House is one show that is known for being a traditional sitcom. With its warm family dynamic, heartfelt teachable moments, and fun-filled episodes there is no shortage of love and entertainment throughout this series (and its spinoff). But in the season 6 holiday episode, the episode has more of a melancholy tone than ever. With Danny missing Vicki, Aunt Becky feeling homesick without her white Christmas in Nebraska, and DJ worrying about her relationship with Steve once he heads off to college, this episode needs a high dose of cheer, stat.
Hannah Montana: Killing Me Softly With His Height
Early 2000s Disney Channel shows are known for their nostalgia-inducing holiday episodes. This includes this mid 2000s hit, Hannah Montana, but its season 3 Christmas episode hit a sour note. Despite the episode being filled with an abundance of holiday cheer, the main storyline follows Miley having a crush on Oliver’s friend Conner, but then feeling conflicted because he’s shorter than her.
For a show targeted to younger audiences, this plot is concerning since it focuses on Miley’s somewhat shallow preferences, even poking fun at it for the majority of the episode. This didn’t feel like a Christmas episode and the elf jokes in toward Conner were just cheap and frankly rude.
The Goldbergs: Han Ukkah Solo
There aren’t many shows as sitcom-esque as The Goldbergs. Focusing on the real-life events of Adam Goldberg, this retelling through a TV family is a treat for audiences, but the Season 4 holiday episode was just not right.
Throughout the episode, we see everyone’s favorite “smother” Beverly Goldberg tries to convince Erika to write the best Hanukkah song to add to their school’s holiday pageant. On top of her expected obsessive behavior, Adam starts to realize that the things he loved as a child are not as good as he remembers. Overall this episode had the perfect recipe for a typical Goldbergs episode, but the holiday feel was lost in too much madness.
Victorious: A Christmas Tori
This three-season series surprisingly had only one holiday episode. This one episode had beautiful holiday costumes and a great finishing number, but that’s about it.
Throughout the episode, the audience follows the gang as they try to find one another perfect secret gifts. The fans watch as a frantic Tori tries to find the perfect gift for Andre, and ends up making him a ceramic guitar. After seeing other people’s gifts she realizes her gift isn’t as personal. Surprisingly enough, not, Jade ends up being Tori’s secret Santa and helps her find the perfect gift. In the end, this episode was all over the place like a typical Victorious episode, but it showcased which characters really knew one another and which were more focused on themselves (…Tori).
The Office: Christmas Wishes
With so many Christmas episodes, one from The Office had to make it onto this list. Season 8’s offering just doesn’t quite cut it for festive, funny cheer. Between a lackluster storyline revolving around Erin’s jealousy, and Jim and Dwight trying to convincingly prank themselves, in an attempt to frame the other and win a double Christmas bonus, the episode lacks in both holiday cheer and overall interest.
Fresh Prince: Will’s Christmas Show
In the second holiday episode of The Fresh Prince, the audience follows Will and the rest of the Banks family to their skiing vacation in Utah. Even though this episode had a couple of iconic moments (e.g. audiences being introduced to the Carlton dance), this episode did not fully emulate the show.
Throughout the episode, we see more random hijinks than in others, and the plotline feels scattered for a show that runs about 23-minutes. In this one episode, we see the family adjust to vacationing together, find out that Viv’s sister Janice is pregnant, and the kids get robbed while the adults are out. The majority of this episode felt busy and packed so it left little time for the expected Christmas cheer.
Friends: The One With The Routine
No, it’s not a mistake, Friends is on this list twice. When it comes to holiday episodes in this 90s hit Thanksgiving is the shining star, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that a couple of their Christmas episodes fell short in comparison.
This episode follows Monica, Ross, and Joey at the taping of Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve. Meanwhile, Chandler, Phoebe, and Rachel search the apartment for the gifts that Monica bought for the bunch. Even though this was the Christmas episode for Season 6, it fell flat because, though the subplot focused on the gifts, it felt more like a New Year’s episode in the end.
Glee: Previously Unaired Christmas
Season 5 of this musical comedy was not as well received by gleeks everywhere, and that can also be said for this holiday episode. Even though in the opening scene, Jane Lynch talks about how horrid the episode was that they kept it in a vault for a year, audiences weren’t prepared for the zaniness to come. The storylines centered around the Glee Club entering an annual tree trimming competition, Kitty thinking she’s not good enough to play the Virgin Mary, and Kurt, Rachel and Santana getting roofied and robbed by a sexy Santa Claus. This episode might have had great covers, but as a whole, it was more confusing than enjoyable.
