One of the greatest network TV episodes ever. Great script, great effects, clever, funny--what an inspired show.

Watching it a second time now. I think I appreciate it a lot more this time. It's still a Christmas episode, but it's pretty good for a Christmas episode.

I liked the ep, but I can understand how ppl wouldn't like it. I don't understand how anyone can be a fan of the show and shut the episode off halfway though. C'mon, the show has earned 22 minutes of your attention.

Man, Abed cut Britta to her core. +1 to team awesome episode.

Not to mention, you don't know where the writers are going to take it with these episodes as a foundation. Good ep imo.

what is this....

watched the xmas episode a 2nd time (the first time i was pretty drunk). i definitely enjoyed it more but it still isn't a favorite episode of mine or anything.

i thought the singing was fine, it's part of the wonka/xmas-special theme. britta was def the worst singer. the ending song was pretty good, imo, as well as annie's "ooh let me" song early on.

i can see what dids meant by annie sounding more like alison brie than annie, i definitely agree. i felt like that was also true to a lesser extent with troy. everyone else i thought was passable, with pierce/chang/duncan being the best.

i don't watch lost, so i didn't get the joke. i also didn't really get the MJ's dad joke, unless it's just a general joke that MJ's dad must have really ****ed up when raising MJ as opposed to a specific joke on an incident or story about MJ's dad.

He said it was a metaphor for "lack of payoff" because Lost started so well and introduced a lot of interesting questions, then either ignored those questions or answered them in a ******ed way, culimating in two crappy seasons to end the show.

It's widely known that Joe Jackson repeatedly abused his children both emotionally and physically. And since beating the crap out of your kids *never* leads to those kids growing up with messed up psychologies and turning into child molesters themselves () then who could *possibly* think MJ was guilty of all those kiddie rapings.

ah, thanks for clearing that up!

I thought Winger was way worse than Britta at the singing stuff.

My happiness increased when I stopped trying to understand the tastes of other TV posters.

One of my favorite moments in the whole episode was when Britta was like "Ooh, Abed, are you going to kick me out for that?" and Abed looks back and says "No, not for that," and you know by his look that he already knows she's going to get the boot, and it's just a matter of us finding out when and why.

i never had a problem with the reaching in this thread until this episode. you guys really are super fanboys... which i guess is good, b/c i need people like you to fight for this show to stay on the air

+1. Jeez.

Sepinwall/The Onion A.V Club/Paste magazine critic/etc all loved it. I'm not saying "OOOO CRITICS AGREE WITH ME YOU'RE WRONG", just that the fact that multiple critics have voiced a similar opinion to ours means we're probably at least not crazy for liking this.

After seeing a bunch of negative opinions here, I went around to look at some reviews because of the exact thing you posted- I genuinely loved the episode, but I was curious if it was just because I'm a fan of 99% of the stuff this show does.

Anyone who didn't like this is episode has no soul and is probably a douchebag, obv.

Why do you want a show you don't enjoy watching to stay on the air?

read the thread clown, i love this show, i just think this episode was bad and you guys are such rabid fans that you are reaching a ton

I'm like 99% sure you just need a hug.

We are reaching because we don't have your exact sense of humor and taste?

Dont you see, the majority of us, and the critics, are reaching but he is the one who is right when it comes to judging the ep

There is nothing wrong with diverging opinions. This forum would be ******ed without them. However when you find yourself as a minority you need to either accept that fact or come up with some awesome reasons why you are right and others arent. Simply saying people are reaching rabid fanboys is doing neither.

I kinda thought Abed was a little more personable, perhaps because in his mind he is. META.

Shirley has an incredible voice.

I'm kind of blown away how creative the writers have been thus far in the series. They've taken a lot of risks and it's been flawless. I haven't seen a show like this in that respect. I am not much of a connoisseur though.

Come with me
And walk with me
And see what we can find

Accompany me
On a journey with me
Through the wonderland in my mind

Love that song a lot.

Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. I applaud the show for doing something original.

But let's just focus on what I liked, and move on.

Abed's theme song

Pierce and Troy had a couple interactions that I liked.
"You really expect me to tarnish the high five for that?"
"Don't relax Pierce any lower."

Abed: If I can find the real meaning of Christmas, everything will go back to normal.
Jeff: Asterisk

Good joke.

Also really liked Shirley's joke, "As a modern Christian, I've learned to be sensitive to other cultures' jealousies."

Only joke that completely fell flat for me was Abed's "Cave of Frozen Peas" thing. That one didn't work at all for me.