25 Classic Christmas TV Episodes

Christmas is a time when loved one gather together and appreciate all they have … then turn on the television for some good, old fashioned binge-watching.

There’s no shortage of Christmas TV episodes, as just about any series that’s been on for a year or more generally attempts at some holiday themed programming. Now, making a Christmas episode that stands the test of time? That’s a little more challenging.

Below, we’ve assembled 25 of our favorite Christmas TV show episodes. In many cases, writers opted to stick with the tried and true “remember what the holiday is all about” type storylines. Others took the opportunity to campaign against the commercialization of Christmas.

READ MORE: 10 Worst Rock Covers of Christmas Songs

It should come as no surprise that many of the episodes deal with family dynamics, both good (The Brady Bunch) and not so good (Roseanne).

While Christmas is a time of celebration, it can also be a time of intense stress. Pressure to find the perfect gifts string throughout several of these episodes plots, while holiday travel anxiety plays an important role in the holidays Golden Girls episode (it also features a gun-toting Santa, but we’ll let you read about that later).

Still, perhaps the most-used trope in holiday TV episodes is that of a character who seems destined to spend Christmas alone. Happy Days, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi are just some of the classic series which utilized this narrative.

Read about these episodes and more below, including a Baywatch Christmas episode we still can’t fully wrap our head around.