Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The Christmas season is here and that means one major thing for TV devotees: re-watching all of your favorite festive sitcom episodes! In celebration of the season and the tradition of TV comedies getting all holly jolly for one episode a year, Decider presents our very first Sitcom Advent Calendar. Every day leading up to Christmas, Decider’s resident sitcom elf Brett White will share one holiday-themed sitcom episode for you to stream to make your days merry and bright.
Decider’s Sitcom Advent Calendar Day 5
Step By Step, “Christmas Story”
Season 3, Episode 11
Original Airdate: December 10, 1993
Written By: Brian Bird and John Wierick
Directed By: Patrick Duffy
In Step By Step’s first Christmas installment, the Foster/Lambert kids’ avarice pushes Frank and Carol to break into a toy store on Christmas Eve with “the intent to purchase.” If only the kids had listened to Cody, the chill cousin who lives in a van and knows that the true meaning of Christmas is tricking out the driveway with snow launchers.
Christmas Trope Count: 13 (All About Christmas, Decorating Indoors, Last Minute Shopping, Carolers/Choir, Cops & Crime, Christmas Ain’t About Presents, Fake Snow, Celeb Guest, Christmas Morning Present-Fest, Decorating Outdoors, Stranded Christmas, Grumpy Stranger, Carols)
Holiday episodes mean pulling out the big guns, and in the world of sitcoms, it doesn’t get bigger than Don Knotts. The legendary physical comedian hams it up big time as Deputy Feif (not Fife), and the kids’ selflessness (after they tear into their presents, mind you) warms his grumpy old heart.
Christmas Carol Count: 4 (“Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” “Silent Night,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem”)
A Second Helping: “Too Many Santas” (Season 7, Episode 10)
Day 1: Full House, “A Very Tanner Christmas”
Day 2: How I Met Your Mother, “How Lily Stole Christmas”
Day 3: The Golden Girls, “‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas”
Day 4: Black-ish, “Black Santa/White Christmas”
