Every Simpsons Christmas Special - Ranked

This just feels like an afterthought; as if they’d committed to airing a Christmas themed episode that year but then couldn’t write one. It chucks a lot of vague Christmas stories at you for no real reason. A few of the modern Treehouse Of Horrors have the same feel: slapdash, wonky, and worst of all not particularly funny.

Krusty is the thread running through these stories, and it at least has that thematic link that separates it from the other two segmented offerings. But 22 Short Films About Springfield it certainly ain’t, and what they end up going after is Krusty’s religion.

Despite the fact Krusty’s daughter hasn’t featured since her solitary appearance in Season 12’s Insane Clown Poppy, the episode is built around her here, 14 seasons later. She’s been raised Christian and wants to celebrate Christmas, to which Jewish Krusty reluctantly agrees. Marge offers to host, then gets lost in a weird Elf On The Shelf parody with Maggie.

Lovejoy is trying to drum up extra parishioners in one of the side stories, which ends up linking him in too. All a bit too cobbled together to do anything. At least there’s no Gil.