All The Simpsons Christmas episodes, ranked

Thirty-four years in the past this month, The Simpsons started with a Christmas particular. Most TV reveals would have bowed out gracefully by now, however The Simpsons goes on and on, maybe to survive us all.

There have been some nice Simpsons Christmas tales over the previous three many years, but additionally some actually horrible vacation tales. For this checklist of all The Simpsons Christmas episodes, we tried to focus solely on the episodes the place Christmas is a focus. That’s why episodes like Skinner’s Sense of Snow didn’t make the reduce. A few of these episodes characterize the perfect that the present has to supply, whereas others convey out the worst elements of the sequence’ lengthy years of decline. However for the Christmas episodes which can be nice, it was all price it.

16. Manger Issues

Season 32, Episode 16

About the one factor intelligent on this episode is the title’s play on Stranger Issues. That is really the 700th episode of the sequence, which, in concept, would have been a great place for a Christmas episode to bookend the present. This can be a Christmas story, however it’s one with too many similarities to the tales that had already been completed earlier than.

When Homer embarrasses Marge at his energy plant vacation social gathering, she kicks him out of the home and he mooches off the Flanders household for some time. Every part is fairly uninspired at this level within the present’s life span, however this might have been enjoyable to observe if it was even the slightest bit humorous. As an alternative, it’s one other instance that The Simpsons simply isn’t the present that it was once, and it hasn’t been for a really very long time.

15. Bobby, It’s Chilly Exterior

Season 31, Episode 10

This present actually has to attempt exhausting to waste a visitor look by Kelsey Grammer as Bart’s nemesis, Sideshow Bob. However this Christmas episode does precisely that by bringing Bob again to Springfield to play Santa Claus at a mall. Bob can be compelled to show that he isn’t the one stealing presents from Springfield’s residents, which leads everybody to the identical one who is behind nearly the entire city’s issues: Mr. Burns.

There’s some very uninspired storytelling on this episode. The one factor that it actually has going for it’s that it’s not the worst Simpsons Christmas episode.

14. Kill Gil, Volumes I & II

Season 18, Episode 9

Bizarrely, this episode of The Simpsons performs extra like a Household Man story, full with Homer’s feud with the Grinch-like Grumple, which appears to echo Peter’s ongoing struggle with the enormous hen on the rival present. This episode additionally makes the grave tactical error of centering a narrative round Springfield’s resident unhappy sack, Gil Gunderson.

Some would argue that Gil is best in small doses. However the actual reality is that Gil’s a poor man’s substitute for the late Phil Hartman’s Simpsons characters. Having Gil transfer in with the Simpsons for any size of time was excruciating to observe, even when they took him in as an act of Christmas charity. Gil merely gained’t depart, and Marge is an excessive amount of of a pushover to ask him to. That’s pathetic, however it’s not humorous.

13. She Of Little Religion

Season 13, Episode 6

Lisa episodes are probably the most preachy of all Simpsons tales, and customarily, they’re not very humorous. Bear in mind the time when a whole episode was constructed round Lisa’s resolution to grow to be a vegetarian? That is like that, besides Lisa turns into a Buddhist.

The one actual laughs within the episode come when the household tries to bribe Lisa again to Christianity throughout Christmas with the promise of the horse that she’s all the time wished. The reveal of the “pony” is the spotlight of the episode. The remainder of the episode is like discovering coal in your stocking.

12. ‘Tis the thirtieth Season

Season 30, Episode 10

Episodes like this one actually make The Simpsons look like it’s run out of steam. That is as a lot a Black Friday episode as it’s a Christmas story, because the household’s efforts to get a brand new high-definition TV are thwarted. To cheer up Marge, the household pretends to be comfortable throughout their vacation journey to a fifth-rate Disneyland knockoff.

Many of the jokes are fairly pedestrian and barely chuckle-worthy. What saves this episode from the trash heap is that the household really does get an ideal Christmas second on the finish throughout dinner at Moe’s Tavern. The present wants extra scenes like that.

11. The Nightmare After Krustmas

Season 28, Episode 10

There was a time when The Simpsons may pull off Krusty the Clown-centric episodes, however it wasn’t season 28. That is the episode the place Krusty’s shtick about being an unfunny clown will get even much less humorous when he converts to Christianity and he loses what’s left of his humorousness. The writers of the episode appear to suppose that they’re saying one thing profound about faith, however it’s the dying of comedy as carried out.

A minimum of there are some enjoyable scenes of Maggie dealing with off with the Elf on the Shelf parody, Gnome in Your Dwelling. This episode may have used extra of that, and fewer Krusty.

10. Simpsons Christmas Tales

Season 17, Episode 9

The Simpsons has had so many nice Halloween anthologies {that a} Christmas anthology was overdue by season 17. Sadly, this one was undercooked, with lackluster jokes and an unimaginative Simpsons tackle the Nativity.

When The Simpsons isn’t humorous, it may be an actual chore to observe. And there’s not sufficient laughter on this one to make it rank any larger.

9. White Christmas Blues

Season 25, Episode 8

Airbnb wasn’t fairly as massive in 2013 as it’s as we speak, however it will have been becoming for this episode through which the Simpsons household quickly takes on boarders as a result of Springfield is the one metropolis within the nation to get snow on Christmas. Having so many different individuals round was Marge’s thought, and he or she’s the primary one who will get pushed to her limits by their presence.

This can be a very middle-of-the highway episode that has some redemptive worth when the Simpsons’ company serenade Marge with Christmas carols and when Lisa realizes that she’s been giving items for the improper purpose. However as a Christmas story, that is nothing particular.

8. The Battle Earlier than Christmas

Season 22, Episode 8

The Battle Earlier than Christmas was one other Christmas anthology episode, however this one had higher segments than Simpsons Christmas Tales. The present’s ultimate phase, a sequence with the Simpsons characters portrayed as live-action puppets, memorably options Katy Perry guest-starring as herself.

Perry brings a number of pleasure to that phase, in addition to one of many raciest jokes in Simpsons’ historical past when Moe’s lips go to an surprising place on her physique.

7. Grift of the Magi

Season 11, Episode 9

This episode actually takes the great distance round to get to the purpose. It’s fairly convoluted, with an harm to Bart resulting in a sequence of occasions the place the native mob pretends to make the varsity wheelchair accessible, after which bankrupts Springfield Elementary as a  end result. Child First Industries then takes over the varsity and makes use of it as a testing floor for the corporate’s subsequent massive toy, Funzos.

What’s notable about this episode is that the late Gary Coleman visitor stars as himself, a safety guard for Child First who finally sides with Bart and Lisa when the Funzos turn into an evil plot. The Coleman scenes are the one time that this episode really feels enjoyable. With out him, it will have been loads additional down on the checklist.

6. Marge Be Not Proud

Season 7, Episode 11

Imagine it or not, this was solely the second time that The Simpsons even tried a Christmas story. And as nearly all the time occurs, Bart ruins the vacation festivities. The important thing distinction this time is that Bart is caught shoplifting a online game, and Marge’s disappointment in him is so profound that she shuns Bart and retains him at an emotional distance.

That hurts Bart way over some other punishment may. And when he can’t get the love he wants from his mom, Bart tries to get it from Milhouse’s mother. The climax for the episode can be an impressed second as Bart is compelled to mislead Marge about loving her lackluster Christmas reward, as a result of if he had proven something aside from gratitude, it may have jeopardized their reconciliation.

5. ‘Tis The Fifteenth Season

Season 15, Episode 7

That is an episode that will get to parody each A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Homer, after as soon as once more screwing up Christmas for the household via his selfishness, has a Dickens-like epiphany abut Christmas and a need to alter for the higher. Nevertheless, Homer’s newfound status for being the nicest man on the town rankles the present champion, Ned Flanders.

As a part of Homer’s misguided thought that everybody could be happier in the event that they went with out Christmas presents, he pulls a Grinch and steals all of them earlier than Ned helps him out of the jam that he created. The hilarious parodies of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials are simply the frosting on this vacation cupcake.

4. Holidays Of Future Handed

Season 23, Episode 9

Think about if the Simpsons household aged in actual time. Maintaining the characters frozen in time is a luxurious solely animation can take. However the present has sometimes proven us what the way forward for the Simpsons may seem like. In Holidays of Future Handed, Bart and Lisa are dad and mom, with Maggie quickly to comply with. This episode additionally gave Bart and Lisa a uncommon alternative to replicate on their lives and bond over their shared difficulties with parenting.

It additionally helps that this is among the funnier late-stage Simpsons episodes, as the longer term world it envisions isn’t fairly the one which we reside in now.

3. I Received’t Be Dwelling for Christmas

Season 26, Episode 9

This episode tends to be underrated amongst Simpsons followers, and the plot is somewhat skinny. However the idea of Marge kicking Homer out on Christmas has some actual heft to it versus the same story in Manger Issues a couple of seasons later. Marge is offended with Homer as a result of he got here residence too late on Christmas Eve and missed spending time together with his household. Homer really had a authentic purpose to take action, past his fender bender on the best way residence. After dropping in on Moe’s Tavern, Homer felt compelled to remain longer when Moe instructed him how depressed he was. What Moe didn’t inform Homer was that the clocks have been deliberately set incorrectly so Homer would keep longer.

There’s some actual pathos about Homer’s lonely Christmas with out his household, in addition to a glimpse of different Springfield residents who haven’t any household to name their very own. Trendy Simpsons doesn’t all the time have these human moments, so it was a refreshing contact right here.

2. Miracle On Evergreen Terrace

Season 9, Episode 10

Bart ruins Christmas once more when he by chance burns down the household Christmas tree and the entire presents together with it. He compounds his crime by hiding the proof and blaming a burglar. The city of Springfield actually comes via for the Simpsons of their hour of want, solely to ruthlessly activate them as soon as Bart confesses the reality.

The most effective components of this episode function the whole household as social outcasts in Springfield. However since this present not often follows any continuity in any respect, it takes a shortcut to getting issues again to regular that leaves the Simpsons even worse off than they have been earlier than.

1. Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fireplace

Season 1, Episode 1

This wasn’t initially speculated to be the primary episode of The Simpsons, however Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fireplace ended up premiering in December 1989 a month earlier than the total weekly sequence started. The household’s personalities are so unformed right here in comparison with what they turned later within the present, however the storytelling additionally feels extra actual. At Christmastime, Homer’s funds are taxed to their restrict, and he takes a second job as a mall Santa within the hope of saving his household’s Christmas.

A part of this mess was Bart’s fault for getting a tattoo, –and an costly tattoo elimination. However Bart actually appreciates his dad on this episode, and there are terrific bonding moments between them as they make one final guess to salvage Christmas. The guess fails, however Homer and Bart soak up an deserted greyhound, Santa’s Little Helper, who seems to be the reward that everybody within the household really wished. It’s not simply the very best Simpsons Christmas episode — it’s top-of-the-line episodes that the present has ever produced.

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