The Worst Sitcom Christmas Episodes

‘Tis the season when sitcoms trot out their holiday editions, but not every Christmas-themed episode makes our days merry and bright. “Just wondering what sitcom Christmas specials you guys consider to be the worst, since it's officially the season for binge watching crap like this,” wrote u/UniqueUsernam02o4i in the r/Sitcom subreddit. As usual, Reddit has opinions. 

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A sleigh full of upvotes goes to u/Food-and-Wine, who wrote, “Alf, man. A little girl dies of cancer. Fuuuuck, too deep for a sitcom!” u/mario_salami_petrino agreed: “Not to mention the episode was based on a real little girl.” Happy holidays, everybody! 

Next up for Cringe-mas? Here’s a suggestion from u/Penarol1916. “The Growing Pains one where Ben Seaver has to talk one of Jason’s patients out of killing himself by jumping down their chimney.” At least Ben got a puppy for Christmas. The holiday hound was never mentioned again, so maybe it jumped down the chimney instead.

Even more than individual episodes, r/Sitcom Redditors went off on holiday sitcom tropes. “For me the worst are any that deal with Santa,” says u/Infamous-Lab-8136. “Unless it's a sitcom not aimed at being on during family time it either ruins the secret of Santa for kids or does the dumb, "maybe Santa is real?" thing somehow at the end.” For instance, check out Urkel knowing just who delivered a mysterious bicycle on Family Matters.

Another example is the Brady Bunch episode where the department store Santa somehow restores Carol’s voice for Christmas. But that’s not why u/FineWashables nominated the episode. Instead, it’s a hate-watch in the category of “Any Christmas episode that’s used as an excuse for one of the actors to sing. Carol Brady comes immediately to mind, but there were so many others.” u/Electrical-Pie-8192 couldn’t agree more: “Singing episodes are the worst!”

Another holiday sitcom tradition that Redditors love to hate is the lazy Scrooge episode. “Anything where they parody A Christmas Carol,” got tons of upvotes for u/TonyTheSwisher.

“There’s been so many adaptations of A Christmas Carol,” groaned u/five-potatos-high, “and I simply have no more interest in hearing/seeing that story again.” Don’t tell sitcom producers, since this appears to be a lethargic go-to at this time of year. TV comedies that have adapted the Dickens tale include (deep breath) The Odd Couple, Family Ties, Roseanne, Boy Meets World, Great News and Saved By the Bell. 

Let’s end on one more miserable note, courtesy of u/Character_Air_8660, who offered this lump of coal in our TV stocking: “The first ‘Married...with Children’ Christmas episode (1987) where Michael Faustino (David's brother) played the six-year-old kid who saw Santa plummet to his death in the Bundy backyard, AL and Peg stealing ALL the gifts from the knapsack and Marcy yelling at them for NOT caring about the holiday…”

“I actually really enjoyed that one,” wrote u/jgoloboy, “because the Bundys were so perfectly awful.”