TV's Best Christmas Episodes

Often, holiday-themed episodes are cloying, forcing their characters, no matter how curmudgeonly, to display uncharacteristic flashes of warmth. The best examples of the Christmas sitcom deal with how maddeningly obligatory it is, and how intermittently our Christmas spirit spikes and plummets through the season. It's no wonder the Seinfeld episode "The Strike" became so culturally resonant. It gave rise to the Festivus holiday, as introduced by George Costanza (Jason Alexander), with its austere aluminum Festivus pole and a dinner including the annual Airing of the Grievances.