TV's 5 Best Christmas Food Moments, from 30 Rock to Gilmore Girls
2012 NBCUniversal, Inc.
Forget about gathering 'round the tree — sometimes the best holiday traditions include sitting together around the TV. When the weather outside is frightful, watching hilarious Christmas movie scenes with your family or tuning in for special holiday-themed episodes of television is great if you don't love football. Plus, seeing dysfunctional families fighting at their dinner tables might just make you realize yours isn't so bad.
Below, we've highlighted five Christmas — and a few Chrismukkah, aka Christmas and Hanukkah — episodes that we want to cozy up and watch this year, including 30 Rock's Ludachristmas, The Office's Benihana celebration and much more. And while you're at it, start planning your own feast with our best Christmas recipes.
Dysfunctional family drama is always a big Christmas-dinner TV trope, but 30 Rock took it to the next level when two families sat down for a weird holiday meal together. Jack's mother, Colleen, stirs up trouble with Liz and her family at a diner, saying that it appears that Mitch, Liz's brother, is the Lemons' favorite child. The drunken family argument escalates into a screaming match, but really it's what Colleen wanted all along — lots of Christmas drama. In addition to that, the TGS annual Ludachristmas party is canceled by Kenneth, who just wants everyone to know the true meaning of the holiday.
When you think of Christmas meals, slicing a holiday ham, roast beef or turkey probably comes to mind. On The Office, it meant watching food fly around at Benihana. Andy, Dwight and Jim all take Michael to the teppanyaki restaurant to distract him from thinking about his ex, but it ends up being more trouble than help. Dwight fails at showing off his Japanese knife skills, then Michael can't tell two waitresses apart to ask one of them out, making for even more trouble when he invites them both to the rival Christmas parties back at Dunder-Mifflin. And this isn't even the silliest Christmas episode from the series!
3. The O.C. – "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't"
Creating Chrismukkah — aka the "greatest superholiday known to mankind," according to Seth Cohen — means that the traditions of Christmas and Hanukkah come together for a combined feast. In The O.C.'s second season, Seth tries to put together a small Chrismukkah dinner, but somehow the guest list gets out of control. There is plenty of drama when Lindsay finds out at dinner who her real father is, but luckily Summer comes in to save the day with a Chrismukkah miracle. We also were introduced to the amazing Yamaclaus in this episode.
Have you heard of the Holiday Armadillo? He's here to help explain Hanukkah, the festival of lights, to young kids — at least Ross' son, Ben, who only knows about Christmas. Unfortunately neither the Holiday Armadillo nor Chandler-as-Santa ends up at the Christmas or Hanukkah table for dinner. This episode also featured Chandler's many attempts to slide a host some bribe money to get into a restaurant before his theater plans.
On Gilmore Girls, nine times out of 10, storylines are about food, and the Christmas episode is no exception. In Season 1, Lorelai is upset that she wasn't invited to her parents' annual Christmas party because she loves all the festive foods, so Luke cheers her up with a Santa burger — and to this day we can't tell if it was decorated with mashed potatoes or whipped cream for the beard. However, things take a solemn and emotional turn when Lorelai finds out her father, Richard, was rushed to the hospital during the party, so Luke shuts down the diner to stay by her side.