It seems the only requisite for a series to have a Christmas episode is to be on the air during the month of December.
Magnum P.I., Without a Trace, even Walker, Texas Ranger had at least one Christmas episode during their runs. Special Christmas episodes are more commons for sitcoms, but that didn’t stop ER from having 15 during its 15 seasons, or Ally McBeal from having one in each of its five seasons (and two during its third and fourth seasons – I recommend the great “Saving Santa” episode from 1999 in which a department store is taken to court for replacing a plumper, older Santa with a younger, thinner one.)
30 Rock, one of my favourite shows of 2013 (and ever), had five Christmas episodes in its seven-season run – there was no Christmas episode in Season 1, presumably because the new show was building the foundation for the rest of the season, or maybe producers thought the show would be cancelled before Christmas, and no Christmas special for Season 6, which started in January to accommodate Tina Fey’s maternity leave.
I wouldn’t describe 30 Rock with any of the adjectives usually reserved for Christmas – heartwarming, cheerful, merry, jolly. Maybe “naughty.” It was an often cynical, always sarcastic show about a show that quickly became much more than that: a realist mirror onto society, race, gender, politics and business. Even around Christmastime, 30 Rock found a way to say something about the holiday, whether it was about family or consumerism or the stress of it all.
Here are 30 Rock‘s five Christmas episodes, ranked:
Chris Hanna 