Decider’s Sitcom Advent Calendar Day 6: Brad And Randy Get On Santa’s Naughty List In ‘Home Improvement’

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.

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Decider’s Sitcom Advent Calendar Day 6

Home Improvement, “Yule Better Watch Out”

Season 1, Episode 12
Original Airdate: December 17, 1991
Written By: Billy Riback
Directed By: John Pasquin

A family sitcom featuring a patriarch that is all about over-the-top projects, three rambunctious boys, and a sidekick that wears flannel year-round? Home Improvement was designed to have A+ Christmas episodes, and Season 1’s “Yule Better Watch Out” proves that to be true! Jill deals with Christmas pageant drama, Tim devises the ultimate Christmas lights setup, and Brad and Randy try to convince Mark that Santa… is dead!

Christmas Trope Count: 8 (All About Christmas, Perfect Gift, Santa Believer, Play/Pageant, Mistletoe Joke, Santa Is Real, Decorating Outdoors, Carols)

This episodes has my all-time absolute favorite Christmas trope: Santa Is Real. By and large, sitcoms take place in a lightly heightened version of our humdrum reality. And then some sitcoms, for just one lonely episode in December, establish that a magical bearded being is 100% real. So yeah, that Santa may look and sound an awful lot like Wilson, but it somehow is not!

Christmas Carol Count: 1 (“Jingle Bells”)

A Second Helping: “Twas the Blight Before Christmas” (Season 3, Episode 12) 

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”
Day 5: Step By Step, “Christmas Story”

Watch Home Improvement's "Yule Better Watch Out" on Hulu