Entertainment
9 TV Episodes To Watch When You Finally Get Sick Of Christmas, From Festivus To Vampire Depression
Christmas is here! And while obviously 'tis the time of cheer, love, family and so on, after a while, the intensity of Christmas gets to be well... just that. Intense. Stress abounds when you have family, food, booze and holiday traditions in place and sometimes one just needs a break from all the holiday spirit. So while we've spent quite a bit of time recalling the best Christmas-themed episodes of some of our favorite shows, how about the episodes to watch if you need to get away from the Christmas and holiday spirit? Here are some of the best anti-Christmas episodes from television new and old.
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Seinfeld — "The Strike"
Who wants to pretend not to be offended by racist or drunk relatives when you can celebrate Festivus, the holiday where you air grievances about all the people in your life. Now that’s a tradition I enjoy every holiday season.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer — "Amends"
Angel wants to kill himself thanks to the First Evil but snow falls in Sunnydale and he is unable to burn from the sun. Sure the fact that he and Buffy get to walk hand in hand on the street during the day is sweet, it doesn’t change the fact that the entire episode follows Angel wanting to end his life after being haunted by the people he murdered as Angelus.
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Community — "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"
The episode starts out being adorable, Abed and the rest of the gang is in claymation and their on a journey to find the meaning of Christmas! But Abed’s mental health comes into question as the claymation is just an image in his own head. And while the final message of the episode is this line from Abed ”he meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning. And it can mean whatever we want,” it still opens the door to Abed’s future problems with the gang and his own imagination.
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The X-Files — "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas"
None of The X-Files’ Christmas episodes are particularly cheery despite the constant sexual tension between Moulder and Scully. So this episode involving two ghosts who want to kill any couple that enters their mansion in the same way they died definitely fits the bill, even though the episode ends on a somewhat happy note.
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Six Feet Under — "Pilot"
In the very first episode of Six Feet Under on Christmas Eve, the Fisher family’s patriarch gets in a car accident and dies. That’s how the series begins. It’s super light-hearted.
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Veronica Mars — "An Echolls Family Christmas"
Veronica investigates a case of someone stealing cash from a poker game involving her new biker buddy Weevil, her psycho ex-friend (with whom she later falls in love) Logan, and her ex-boyfriend Duncan. And then later Logan’s father gets stabbed. Happy holidays from Neptune!
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Mad Men — "Christmas Waltz"
Otherwise known as the downfall of Lane Pryce. This is the episode that not only explored the world of the Hare Krishna’s, but also saw the suicide of Pryce after his misdeeds in the company and the subsequent failure pushed him to the breaking point.
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It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia — "A Very Sunny Christmas"
This show is completely messed up. Its Christmas special is no different.
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Pushing Daisies — "Corpsicle"
In the series' Season 1 finale, Chuck discovers Ned's connection to her father's death and refuses to go with home with him, opting to stay with Olive. Plus a creepy man who has a heightened sense of smell tries to figure out why Chuck smells different than most people, aka like Death. Also look at the title of the episode. Gross.
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