Summary

• Seinfeld Christmas episodes lack holiday cheer but deliver big laughs with unconventional narratives and unlikeable characters.
• The best Seinfeld Christmas episodes showcase the show's quirks, including the fake holiday "Festivus," and embrace a "no lessons" rule.
• These episodes are refreshing and hilarious takes on the festive season, showcasing Seinfeld's innovative approach to sitcoms.

While most sitcoms feature holiday specials, the best Seinfeld Christmas and New Year's episodes show why the series is renowned for its innovative approach to the genre. Audiences came to know Seinfeld as "the show about nothing," consistently pushing the envelope with its unconventional narratives. It was also a show that was not afraid to allow its characters to be completely unlikeable people. This meant the Seinfeld Christmas episodes did not have a lot of holiday cheer, but still delivered big laughs.

Across its 9 seasons, the best Seinfeld Christmas episodes are full of quirks that the show is known for, including the fake holiday "Festivus." The holiday season doesn't stop Kramer from putting out his hilarious antics, or George from embracing his self-centered ways. While the best sitcoms usually see their protagonists band together to create a memorable holiday season full of lessons about friendship and found family, Seinfeld sticks to its "no lessons" rule, making its holiday episodes a refreshing and hilarious take on the festive season.

Seinfeld is available to stream on Netflix.

The Red Dot

Season 3, Episode 12 (Christmas Episode)

The season 3 Seinfeld Christmas episode doesn't include a lot of holiday cheer, but it does include some gift-giving in the form of a cashmere sweater with a minor flaw that ends up being more trouble than it's worth. When Elaine gets George a job at her publishing company, George reciprocates by buying her a beautiful cashmere sweater for Christmas. The only catch: he got it at a discount because it has a "red dot" on it. Elaine is infuriated and returns the sweater to him.

George gets into a brief fling with the cleaner, who he gives the sweater, but upon seeing the red dot is incensed and gets him fired. He eventually tries to give it to Elaine's boyfriend during his drunken rampage, to the same result. This episode is one of many Seinfeld episodes that could be controversial if released today, as a major plotline involves Elaine's alcoholic boyfriend relapsing after Jerry accidentally gives him a vodka cranberry at Elaine's office Christmas party. It's one of the many times Seinfeld made light of darker, more adult themes. Luckily, Elaine's ex seems to recover as he's later at Jerry's show with a non-alcoholic drink.

The Pick

Season 4, Episode 13 (Christmas Episode)

In one of the funniest and best Seinfeld Christmas episodes, Elaine takes Kramer up on his offer to take her Christmas photos, only to be humiliated by a certain wardrobe malfunction that Kramer failed to recognize. She ends up sending the illicit Christmas card to her entire office, her relatives, her underage nephew, and her morally conservative boyfriend. People around the office eventually start calling her "Nip." Other plots see Jerry getting broken up with after his date thought she saw him picking his nose in the car.

Newman steals the episode with his 13-second cameo during which he's asked if he notices anything strange about the photo. He immediately identifies the issue, is thanked for his services, and he exits. Kramer is eventually gotten back for his Christmas card photo when he's asked to be a Calvin Klein underwear model, and his first photo sees him exposing himself accidentally.

The Mom And Pop Store

Season 6, Episode 8 (Christmas Episode)

Plotwise, "The Mom and Pop Store" is one of the zanier Seinfeld episodes, but it remains one of the best Seinfeld holiday episodes. Elaine wins a radio contest for her boss Mr. Pitt, which secures him the honor of holding the Woody Woodpecker balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Jerry inadvertently sabotages Pitt's dream of marching in the parade when he crashes Tim Whatley's party and knocks a pendant off a ledge, puncturing the balloon.

However, one of the best things about the episode has nothing to do with the holidays. There is a storyline involving George buying a car because he thinks it once belonged to actor Jon Voight. This leads to some hilarious attempts from George to corroborate this fact, including an eventual cameo from Voight where he has an unexpected run-in with Kramer. It is a wonderful example of just how outlandish Seinfeld was willing to be.

The Race

Season 6, Episode 10 (Christmas Episode)

This Seinfeld Christmas episode was nominated for a Director's Guild Award, showing its high quality. In the installment, Jerry, a lifelong Superman fan, is finally dating a woman named Lois. The problem is that her boss is Duncan Meyer, Jerry's arch-nemesis from high school. He challenges Jerry to a rematch of a childhood footrace, which Jerry reluctantly accepts to prevent Duncan from punishing Lois for Jerry's past. What makes this episode stand out from the rest, however, is the hilarious Christmas-themed storyline in which Kramer's newfound interest in communist literature jeopardizes his holiday gig as a mall Santa.

It's certainly one of the smartest episodes that Seinfeld has ever written. It's unrivaled in terms of pop culture references and has a satirical edge thanks to its careful lampooning of Cold War paranoia. Jerry breaks the fourth wall for the first and only time in Seinfeld's history and makes numerous Adventures of Superman references. It's an episode that is sharpened by its satirical edge, and it's one of the best Seinfeld holiday specials.

The Gum

Season 7, Episode 10 (Christmas Episode)

Kramer reopens the historic Alex Theater with the help of his friend Lloyd Braun who recently suffered a mental collapse from derailing the David Dinkins reelection campaign in a previous episode. This installment, oddly enough, also involves an Elaine wardrobe mishap, and, much like "The Andrea Doria," "The Gum" makes hardly any mention of the holidays. A cashier wishes George a Merry Christmas as his car catches fire, and Kramer does the same when offering George his car to borrow anytime he wants.

The season 7 Seinfeld Christmas episode shows it never lost its sharpness even seven years in, as its plot is definitively one of the most involved. It is a wonderful example of the show's brilliant writing in terms of having seemingly separate storylines that converge in unexpected and hilarious ways. Every misfortune that occurs is connected to earlier actions, proving why Seinfeld is so acclaimed.

The Andrea Doria

Season 8, Episode 10 (Christmas Episode)

The thrust of the plot in this episode involves George's effort to convince the tenant association to choose him over a survivor of the Andrea Doria shipwreck. Other narrative threads see Jerry taking over Newman's job so that Newman can get transferred to Hawaii, but Jerry does his job so well that they realize Newman isn't doing the route and doesn't get the transfer.

It may not include a lot of holiday references, but because it was set to air on December 19, the production crew hastily added Christmas decorations to the Monk's Cafe set. Nonetheless, it's too funny not to stand out as one of the best Seinfeld holiday episodes. Once again, the writing shines with four separate but hilarious plotlines, including Elaine dating a "bad breaker-upper" and Kramer trusting vets to cure his cough, leading to him inadvertently acting like a dog.

The Millennium

Season 8, Episode 20 (New Years Episode)

Kramer and Newman find out that they are each planning Millennium New Year's Eve parties for December 31, 1999. They eventually agree to join forces and call their party the "Newmanium." The B-plot of the installment sees George attempting to get fired from his job in increasingly drastic ways, but his superiors somehow see his actions as grand gestures that end up helping the company. Meanwhile, Elaine tries to run a store out of business and gets Kramer involved with her scheme. Finally, Jerry and his girlfriend Valerie get into a complicated situation involving her stepmother and speed dial numbers.

The Seinfeld New Year's episode contains one of the most disputed lines of dialogue in Seinfeld history. When Jerry explains to Newman that the actual millennium begins in 2001, since there was no year zero, he taunts him for having planned his party one year "late." Newman's party is actually one year early, since December 31, 2000, would be the technical millennium New Year's Eve. In classic Seinfeld fashion, everything comes full circle and most of the plots end up being woven together. This installment certainly highlights the brilliance of the series' writing and narrative structure, seeing everyone's story intertwine in the most comical ways.

The Strike

Season 9, Episode 10 (Christmas Episode)

The season 9 Seinfeld Christmas episode is titled "The Strike," but though has become known as the "Festivus" episode, and is one of the most beloved of the entire series. Frank Costanza invented his own holiday, Festivus, which includes such rituals as the "feats of strength" and "airing of grievances." The holiday comes in handy when George needs an excuse for faking donations to a fake charity as his Christmas gift to his office colleagues. He blames the fake donations on the fact that he doesn't celebrate Christmas — he celebrates Festivus.

George invites his boss to take place in the festivities to prove he's telling the truth. "The Strike" remains one of the very best Seinfeld Christmas episodes because of the legacy it has led. The holiday of Festivus has been adopted by the public, celebrated on December 23rd, as an ironic secular counterpart to Christmas and Hannukah. There's even a book, published in 2005 by Daniel O'Keefe, titled The Real Festivus: The True Story Behind America's Favorite Made-up Holiday. Not to mention, Festivus has inspired a lot of Seinfeld ancillary material and merchandise, proving this episode has stood the test of time as one of the most memorable and iconic.

• 

  Seinfeld

  Summary:

  Seinfeld stars Jerry Seinfeld as a stand-up comedian whose life in New York City is made even more chaotic by his quirky group of friends who join him in wrestling with life's most perplexing yet often trivial questions. Often described as "a show about nothing," Seinfeld mines the humor in life's mundane situations like waiting in line, searching for a lost item, or the trials and tribulations of dating. Co-starring is Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Jerry's ex-girlfriend and current platonic pal, Elaine Benes; Jason Alexander as George Costanza, Jerry's neurotic hard-luck best friend; and Michael Richards as Jerry's eccentric neighbor, Kramer.

  Release Date:

  1989-07-05

  Cast:

  Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, Michael Richards

  Genres:

  Comedy

  Seasons:

  9

  Franchise:

  Seinfeld

  Story By:

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Writers:

  Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David

  Network:

  NBC

  Streaming Service(s):

  Netflix

  Directors:

  Jason Alexander

  Showrunner:

  Larry David

  Season List:

  Seinfeld - Season 1, Seinfeld - Season 2, Seinfeld - Season 3, Seinfeld - Season 4, Seinfeld - Season 5, Seinfeld - Season 6, Seinfeld - Season 7, Seinfeld - Season 8, Seinfeld - Season 9