It may sound preposterous but The Simpsons is still making episodes going 32 seasons strong now. That means people still watch it, so with this being the holiday season and all of the episodes being on Disney+ (and the newest season’s episodes on Hulu), perhaps a list of the many Christmas Specials the show has produced over the years might help.
Not all episodes that are considered “Christmas” episodes actually fit the holiday, however, so in an effort to aid viewers this list helps to identify which episodes have anything to do with Christmas.
Bart ruins Christmas by getting a tattoo, making Marge spend all their Christmas funds to have it removed the day Homer learns that Mr.Burns isn’t giving them a Christmas bonus. Homer takes up a job as a mall Santa in to earn some money to try to give the kids a halfway decent holiday. It’s hard not to think about how far things have come from the show’s humble beginnings. The Simpsons was more sardonic and low-key when it started, with subtler humor and being far more grounded in reality than the show would eventually become.
The first couple seasons of the Simpsons had a much larger focus on the family’s financial struggles. Still, the episode is about trying to give one’s family a happy holiday against all odds, which is a very real struggle and speaks to Homer’s more selfless side, which can be less apparent in later seasons.
When Bart wants a very Mortal Kombat-esque video game for Christmas and makes several attempts to get a copy, he’s given the idea to shoplift it from the local store by his school bullies. He gets caught and is banned from the store, which proves troublesome when his family tries to get their family photos at that same store.
This one explores Bart’s psyche, giving viewers a look at what motivates his rebellious spirit as well as his undying love for his family. It’s an episode that portrays Bart not as a chaotic menace, but rather a confused kid trying to navigate his way through society, and that above anything else, what Bart wants most for Christmas is his family’s love and acceptance.
Bart causes a Christmas catastrophe when he accidentally burns down the tree and all the presents underneath it. He lies to his distraught family and tells them that they were robbed instead, and once word gets around town of the “robbery” things begin to snowball.
While putting a heavier focus on the zany antics of the people of Springfield, this episode is still really about Bart coming to terms with his follies and being honest. Things wrap up nicely with the family being happy just to have each other despite the horrible Christmas they have.
Homer gets a baseball card for Bart as part of his Christmas bonus, and it ends up being worth a hefty chunk of change. The Simpson family then sets out to spend the money to have an extravagant Christmas, and the family becomes angry at Homer when he blows most of the money on a pointless gift for himself.
This episode is not only about Christmas, but it’s about the spirit of the holiday itself as Homer comes to terms with it and how this affects those around him. It’s in line with the other Christmas specials where a specific member of the family has a transformative experience over the holiday season. However, as with most of Homer’s transformative experiences, the lesson gets perverted and undone by the time the credits roll.
Taking after the much-beloved Treehouse of Horror episodes that The Simpsons has done for Halloween each season, this Christmas episode is an anthology episode comprised of three non-canonical mini-segments.
The anthology format works really well for The Simpsons because it allows them to break the already-tenuous rules the show has laid out for itself without fear of having to pull a last-minute deus ex machina to get back to status quo for the next episode.
In another anthology episode, the Simpson family members all go to sleep the night before Christmas angry at each other. Each segment is a dream one of the members of the family is having. The individual dream sequences vary in how much they actually have to do with Christmas. There are some funny moments, in particular the Muppet Show-mocking puppet sequence that caps the episode off.
In this episode, viewers are given a vision of what Christmas is like for the Simpson family 30 years in the future. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, now living out their own lives, are able to return to the house on Evergreen Terrace to spend the holiday as a united family for the first time in a long time. As Maggie has a rough trip home, Bart and Lisa both deal with their struggles of forming a meaningful connection with their children.
While this isn’t the first episode of The Simpsons to play with the idea of what life would be like in the future, it is the first to insinuate that these events are how things actually turn out for the Simpsons. The episode was originally written as a potential series finale since contract negotiations weren’t going very smoothly with the cast. The episode has a sincere emotional element that’s occasionally missing. It leaves moments for characters to have honest conversations with each other, giving viewers sweet moments of a family that loves each other, even between Homer and his father. It would have served as a fitting finale of the show since it would have bookended things, with the show starting and finishing on a Christmas episode.
Homer stops by Moe’s Tavern on the way home from work on Christmas Eve after crashing his car, and Moe convinces Homer to stay for a few drinks out of pity. As a result, Homer gets home extra late, and Marge kicks him to the curb. Despite all of Homer’s complaints about his family throughout the show, he realizes that more than anything he would rather spend his time with them than be left on his own, which is a lovely message for the holiday. While it’s clear Homer cares for his family, a lot of his hijinks are so selfish and disregarding of their well-being that it helps reiterate once in a while where his priorities really are.
Somebody’s stealing all of the USPS packages and the townspeople of Springfield want to know who. Meanwhile, Sideshow Bob has been hired to work as a Santa Claus for the local Christmas Market, and it doesn’t take long for him to be implicated as the package thief.
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