TV's Best Christmas Episodes

If it's true that the best comedy comes from pain, it would only make sense that there are big laughs to be mined from the holiday season. There's a wellspring of comedy in the pursed-lipped smiles that belie the frustration of traffic jams, mobbed department stores, culinary disasters, and familial donnybrooks. That's why the Christmas episode has become such a staple of the sitcom; when it's done well, it can lead to hilarious and sweet moments. But since the Christmas episode has become as perfunctory as the celebration itself can be, the shows can end up resembling something like a steaming lump of coal. Rare missteps for otherwise winning series can happen when a Christmas episode is attempted. The following, though, are the Christmas episodes that made our nice list.