'SNL' Is Re-Gifting This Year

While the Christmas season is certainly something to celebrate, there is one downside to it: there are no new television episodes. Which is a huge bummer. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I'm like, "Why even bother if there's nothing to keep me going until 8 pm tonight?" So while there might not be any new episodes till the new year, at least channels are filling their airwaves with tons of Christmas cheer — like NBC who is airing their annual Saturday Night Live Christmas special. The word "special" makes it sound very exciting, but should you clear your entire social calendar to tune into the new 2014 SNL Christmas special, which is bound to be chock full of holiday cheer? There's an easy answer for this, and it boils down tohow many times you have seen the Schewddy Balls sketch. If you've seen Alec Baldwin's innuendo-palooza upwards of twenty times, feel free to skip this SNL Christmas. This isn't a brand new Monday night edition of SNL; this Christmas special, like SNL Christmas specials of the past, are simply clip shows full of sketches from all the Christmas episodes of SNL past. So while this 2014 edition is certainly new for this year, it won't really differ a whole lot from like the 2013 or 2012 edition. Every year SNL adds one — maybe two, if we're lucky — stand-out holiday sketches to its library. If you tuned into the Amy Adams & One Direction episode last Saturday night, you know that episode didn't even produce one mediocre Christmas sketch, let alone a great one. But then again, nothing will ever live up to the epic digital short, "(Do It On My) Twin Bed," of SNL Christmas 2013.

(Side note: During the Thanksgiving episode with Cameron Diaz, Li'l Baby Aidy says "we're doing this all again" during "Back Home Ballers." I took that to mean that The Ya Girls were coming back to do it all again, and we would be treated to another delightful back home musical number. We were not treated to that, and Amy Adams can sing, too. I feel robbed of all holiday cheer with that giant missed opportunity.) But I know what you're really wondering: Will you get anything new and exciting with this episode that you haven't seen a hundred or so times before? Probably not. You'll get your standard Schewddy Balls, which premiered in 1998 during Season 24, and is still going strong all the way to the current 40th season. There will probably be a Drunk Uncle appearance. Maybe if SNL Santa thinks we're really good, we'll get Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake's Wrappinville. So, if you happen to be home Monday night at 8 pm and need some background noise for your own wrapping extravaganza, the SNL Christmas special is a safe bet. And honestly, does Schweddy Balls ever really get old? Image: Dana Edelson/NBC