Decider’s Sitcom Advent Calendar Day 17: ‘That Girl’ Spends A Cozy Christmas With ‘Charlie Brown’s’ Linus

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 17

That Girl, “Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid”

Season 1, Episode 16
Original Airdate: December 22, 1966
Written By: James L. Brooks
Directed By: John Erman

This hidden holiday gem recounts a Christmas from Ann Marie’s past, one spent all alone at a boarding school with one little boy whose parents couldn’t make it back to him. This one’s sweet, cozy, heartfelt, and co-stars the kid actor that voiced Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Christmas Trope Count: 6 (All About Christmas, Decorating Indoors, Play/Pageant, Mall Santa/Elves, Stranded Christmas, Carols)

You gotta love a good Stranded Christmas episode, and this episode is actually the precursor to another all-alone-on-Christmas episode, The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s “Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid II.” Yeah, this episode is so good that it spawned an equally good sequel on a totally different show (both written by Brooks, of course)!

Christmas Carol Count: 6 (“Deck the Halls,” “Jingle Bells,” “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Carol of the Bells”)

A Second Helping: “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, You’re Under Arrest” (Season 2, Episode 15)

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”
Day 6: Home Improvement, “Yule Better Watch Out”
Day 7: Fresh Off the Boat, “The Real Santa”
Day 8: Cheers, “Christmas Cheers”
Day 9: Family Matters, “Have Yourself A Merry Winslow Christmas”
Day 10: The Odd Couple, “Scrooge Gets An Oscar”
Day 11: The Office, “Christmas Party”
Day 12: Friends, “The One with the Holiday Armadillo”
Day 13: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Captain Latvia”
Day 14: 3rd Rock from the Sun, “Jolly Old St. Dick”
Day 15: Will & Grace, “All About Christmas Eve”
Day 16: The Bob Newhart Show, “I’m Dreaming of a Slight Christmas”

Watch That Girl's "Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid" on Hulu