25 best Christmas TV episodes to watch this holiday season

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It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia -“A Very Sunny Christmas”

It’s not a real holiday special if it doesn’t include an animated elf singing about the true meaning of Christmas! If it’s an It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia holiday special, then it might include a naked elf, and lots of swearing, blood, and animated violence!

The Paddy’s gang is gearing up for the holiday season, and even though they usually end up disappointed by their crappy Christmases, this year they’re determined to have a memorable holiday filled with Christmas joy. But they wouldn’t be them if they didn’t indulge in a little bit of trickery!

Charlie and Mac mock Dennis and Dee for their hatred of Christmas, which they blame on Frank being a bad gift giver. It’s not that he was bad at getting them good gifts, it’s that he would buy the things they wanted the most, but for himself, so he could rub it in their faces. They decide to teach him a lesson and track down his old business partner, who Frank screwed out of millions, and convince him to pretend to be a ghost who haunts Frank.

Clearly, Dennis and Dee don’t know Frank very well, because he tries to kill Eugene when he finds him in the apartment. Luckily, his kids burst in and make him watch a home movie to really hammer in their point that he was a terrible dad at Christmastime. The video shows the kids opening up gifts that are just empty boxes as Frank laughs at them. They then bring him to their old office, sew him to the couch, and make him listen to his former co-workers gossiping about him (until he slips out of his clothes and walks out naked).

It looks like Dennis and Dee weren’t the only ones with questionable parents, either. When Mac and Charlie find some of Mac’s favorite toys from past Christmases, Charlie finds out that Mac’s family used to break into people’s houses to steal their presents, which Mac thought was just a regular tradition in their neighborhood. Charlie’s mom wasn’t much better — he remembers Santa coming over on Christmas morning to give him presents and then he would “cheer up” his mom. Mac has to break the news to him that his mom was actually just prostituting herself out for Christmas presents.

Plenty more drama happens in the 43-minute Christmas special, so you’ll just have to watch it on your own to figure out just how dysfunctional of a Christmas the gang had!