Summary

• The Rick & Morty Christmas episodes are unconventional but memorable, subverting television conventions while still maintaining a festive theme.
• The Christmas specials are darker than most Halloween episodes of other shows, offering absurdity and silliness.
• Each Christmas episode has been unique and highly memorable, showcasing the show's ability to deliver unique and entertaining holiday-themed plots.

The Rick & Morty Christmas episodes have never fit the expected holiday special format, though they manage to be both fitting for the season and among the most memorable episodes of the show since its debut in 2013. Rick & Morty has never played into television conventions when there are audience expectations to warp beyond recognition. The anarchic animated comedy has been subverting sci-fi television clichés and family sitcom tropes alike for seven seasons, offering darkly comic spins on familiar conventions. TV show holiday specials are no exception, although the Christmas episodes of Rick & Morty never let festive parody supersede their bombastic plot lines.

The Christmas episodes that Rick and Morty have starred in are darker than most other shows' Halloween outings. Whether they are violent, surreally silly, or just barely related to the season, all of Rick & Morty’s Yuletide outings have shifted the definition of the phrase “holiday special” to include more absurdity than even South Park and Family Guy have offered. From seasons 1 to 7, there have only been 4 Rick & Morty Christmas specials so far, though each is incredibly memorable.

"Anatomy Park"

Season 1, Episode 3

The season 1 Rick & Morty Christmas episode "Anatomy Park" sees parody both Fantastic Voyage and Jurassic Park, as the show sends Morty inside the body of a vagrant, wherein Rick had set up a microscopic theme park. The episode is as gross and silly as it sounds and has much of the show’s cruder early-season humor, feeling like a South Park episode as much as a Rick & Morty holiday special.

However, while gross jokes about Morty’s short-lived love interest and her unfortunate anatomy show that the series has grown a lot since its early outings, there is a lot to love in "Anatomy Park." Jerry’s uncomfortable family reunion might be the most cringeworthy comedy the show has pulled off to date, while Morty’s attempts to escape the titular theme park make this Christmas episode of Rick & Morty as gory as the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror segments.

"Rattlestar Ricklactica"

Season 4, Episode 5

"Rattlestar Ricklactica" sees the series return to the Yuletide setting for another bizarre adventure. The season 4 Rick & Morty Christmas episode centers around Morty’s attempts to make up for accidentally killing a space snake. Things soon spiral out of his control and the episode eventually devolves into a time-traveling adventure that just about remembers it's Christmas before the stroy ends. While a lot of Rick & Morty’s critically beloved later outings are more thoughtful and poignant character studies, "Rattlestar Ricklactica" succeeds precisely because the episode offers nothing in the way of nuance, added depth, or insight into the show’s cast.

Instead, the supremely silly sight of Rick & Morty’s Langoliers-inspired Time Cops laying a beatdown on a prehistoric snake as it discovers tools makes this season 4 outing a critical favorite. "Rattlestar Ricklactica" uses its festive setting to tell the sort of bizarre, freewheeling story that Rick & Morty’s earlier seasons typically indulged in. Rick & Morty wisely opted to use the show’s Christmas episode as an opportunity to reset and revisit some supremely silly earlier characters in an entirely unnecessary plot, but all the funnier for its silliness.

"Never Ricking Morty"

Season 4, Episode 6

Although "Never Ricking Morty" arrived in May 2020 (and even featured one of television's earliest COVID references), the second Ricky & Morty Christmas episode in season 4 does have a few connections to the holiday. One early scene sees a minor character reminisce about an imagined Christmas with Rick, and the last scene sees Jesus himself appear on Rick & Morty.

The scenes are all in service of a meta-plot about trying to crash the story engine of the series, but the presence of Jesus as a literal Deus Ex Machina means that this season 4 outing just about qualifies as a Christmas episode for the show. Most sitcoms have dozens of festive episodes and never feature a cameo from the man who is the reason for the season — for example, The Simpsons’ Christmas episodes include a total of 0 appearances for Jesus, outside of Bart standing in for him.

"Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation"

Season 6, Episode 10

The season 6 finale was another Rick & Morty Christmas episode, and as always, the festive holiday wasn't the main focus — although it was more plot-centric than it ever has been before. In "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation," the reason Rick has been so nice to Morty for several episodes is explained. It turns out "Rick" was a robot designed by the real Rick to be a better grandfather to Morty. This isn't selfless though, as the pre-programmed positivity is to keep Morty and the family deceived, so Rick can focus on hunting down Rick Prime.

The story starts with Morty getting a real lightsaber from Robot Rick on Christmas Day, and it is then that he discovers the truth about his real grandfather. As with all the Rick and Morty Christmas specials, it was the holiday that started the plot, but then things quickly sidetrack - this time because Morty drops the lightsaber perfectly vertically, and it begins burrowing toward the center of the earth.

The are a surprising number of festively appropriate near-Hallmark moments as Robot Rick plays Xmas games with the Smiths to try and out himself as an android. While it's still primarily focused on being a raunchy sci-fi comedy, the season 6 finale is still one of the most Christmassy Rick & Morty Christmas episodes so far.

Will Rick & Morty Make Another Christmas Episode?

Whether Rick & Morty’s writers will ever revisit Christmas is tough to predict, given the show's unusual approach to holiday specials. As proven by the decision to air a Thanksgiving special during July, Rick & Morty is unafraid of viewers being annoyed by the ill-fitting air dates of its episodes and is therefore unlikely to avoid Christmas solely due to the time of year that the show returns to the air. However, Rick & Morty is also growing more self-serious and serialized in its storytelling.

The comparatively light-hearted japes of its existing Christmas episodes could be ill-suited to its now darker tone. As such, it is tough to guess whether Rick & Morty will hire another Christmas special or not. The show will likely only revisit Christmas if the writers of Rick & Morty have an idea they want to run with that subverts the holiday season just like before. However, given how much the show’s creators like to mess with television conventions and delve into the theme of family, another Rick & Morty Christmas episode seems like an inevitability.

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  Rick and Morty

  Summary:

  Rick and Morty is an adventure/Sci-Fi animated series that follows the intergalactic, inter-dimensional adventures of super-genius Rick Sanchez and his less-than-average grandson Morty Smith. Rick's daughter, Beth, his granddaughter, Summer, and his hated stepson, Jerry, also take center stage more often than not. Hailing from creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, the series blends comedy with science fiction as a way of exploring a wide variety of themes aimed at an adult audience.

  Cast:

  Spencer Grammer, Kari Wahlgren, Chris Parnell, Sarah Chalke, Justin Roiland, Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden

  Genres:

  Animation, Adventure, Comedy

  Rating:

  TV-MA

  Release Date:

  2013-12-02

  Seasons:

  7

  Writers:

  Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland, Tom Kauffman, Eric Acosta

  Network:

  Cartoon Network

  Streaming Service(s):

  Hulu

  Franchise(s):

  Rick and Morty

  Directors:

  Dan Harmon, Ryan Ridley, Lee Hardcastle

  Showrunner:

  Dan Harmon

  Season List:

  Rick and Morty - Season 1, Rick and Morty - Season 2, Rick and Morty - Season 3, Rick and Morty - Season 4, Rick and Morty - Season 5, Rick and Morty - Season 6, Rick and Morty - Season 7

  Creator(s):

  Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon