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We’re approaching the holiday movie season, time to snuggle up with warm drinks and warm blankets to watch heartwarming films. While there are hundreds of holiday films to enjoy, a few dozen have become annual contenders for repeat views. From older classics like Miracle on 34th Street to modern favorites like Elf to more warped entries like Bad Santa, we all have our favorites.
But with streaming making it much easier to revisit favorite TV shows, beloved seasonal episodes have become a shorter and sweeter way to pack in the cheer. To help expand your repertoire of viewing choices, we’ve matched nine classic films with holiday TV episodes that hit the same notes.
- If you like Miracle on 34th Street, watch The Twilight Zone’s “Night of the Meek”
- If you like A Christmas Carol, watch The Andy Griffith Show’s “Christmas Story”
- If you like A Christmas Story or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, watch The Goldbergs’ “A Christmas Story”
- If you like Santa vs. The Martians, watch Futurama’s “Xmas Story”
- If you like The Nightmare Before Christmas, watch The X-Files’ “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”
- If you like Silent Night, Deadly Night, watch Bones’ “The Santa in the Slush”
- If you like Home Alone, watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s “The Pontiac Bandit Returns”
- If you like Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, watch Community’s “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”
- If you like Love Actually, watch Ted Lasso’s “Carol of the Bells”
If you like Miracle on 34th Street, watch The Twilight Zone’s “Night of the Meek”
- Season 2, Episode 11
- Streaming on Tubi, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video
The Twilight Zone dares to ask, what if the intoxicated Santa at the start of Miracle on 34th Street was given another chance? Even though this show first aired 65 years ago, the themes resonate today.
In “Night of the Meek,” Henry Corwin, a down-on-his-luck alcoholic, is making a few extra dollars as a department store Santa. He laments the “hungry kids and shabby people” in his poor neighborhood who won’t get their Christmas wishes. After he is fired for being inebriated, he finds a bag of presents that changes his life.
If you like A Christmas Carol, watch The Andy Griffith Show’s “Christmas Story”
- Season 1, Episode 11
- Streaming on Paramount+, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, and Pluto TV
This gem, also from 1960, is hokey and sweet. After Sheriff Andy and his deputy Barney clear the town’s jail so they can attend Andy’s Christmas Eve party, the town Scrooge drags in a moonshiner for the crime of cutting into his legal liquor profits. Andy and Barney rally for a solution that won’t send Scrooge tattling on them to higher authorities.
While the stuck-in-time town of Mayberry is about as realistic as a ceramic Christmas village, Andy’s girlfriend Ellie’s rendition of “Away in a Manger” will melt the iciest of hearts.
If you like A Christmas Story or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, watch The Goldbergs’ “A Christmas Story”
- Season 3, Episode 10
- Streaming on Hulu and Disney+
The Goldbergs depicts the 1980s just as tenderly as A Christmas Story portrays the 1940s. The storyline of this episode features Bev’s obsession with adding oomph to her family’s Hanukkah traditions after a neighbor’s Christmas celebration leaves her feeling inadequate.
“Super Hannukah,” complete with a Hanukkah bush, adds sparkle, but Bev’s dad pushes back on the loss of tradition. Meanwhile, the two sons get a little too inspired by the film.
If you like Santa vs. The Martians, watch Futurama’s “Xmas Story”
- Season 2, Episode 8
- Streaming on Hulu and Disney+
So you like your Santa stories weird? Futurama’s got you. In its first holiday episode, Fry learns that the meaning of Christmas in the year 3000 is about loved ones and tokens of appreciation, much like Christmas in the 21st century.
But it’s also about avoiding the highly judgmental Robot Santa at all costs. Due to a programming error, Robot Santa (voiced by John Goodman in this initial appearance) deems almost all beings “naughty” and exacts murderous punishment.
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If you like The Nightmare Before Christmas, watch The X-Files’ “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”
- Season 6, Episode 6
- Streaming on Hulu and Disney+
This standalone episode of The X-Files is a spooky delight for those who prefer to leave their Halloween decorations up. On Christmas Eve, Mulder tricks Scully into exploring a haunted house. The house locks them inside and begins warping their sense of reality with doors opening to brick walls and a disturbingly familiar set of corpses.
They eventually meet the ghostly inhabitants (played by Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin) and things get much worse, but even more entertaining. This one isn’t for younger family members.
If you like Silent Night, Deadly Night, watch Bones’ “The Santa in the Slush”
- Season 3, Episode 9
- Streaming on Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video
In this oddly heartwarming episode, FBI special agent Seeley Booth and forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan and her team investigate a decaying corpse found in a sewer dressed as Santa. Their investigation leads them to interrogate a cadre of rent-a-Santas while dealing with their own family-related holiday challenges.
Plus, there’s a pretty sweet mistletoe moment for Booth-Bones shippers.
If you like Home Alone, watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s “The Pontiac Bandit Returns”
- Season 2, Episode 10
- Streaming on Peacock and Netflix
Watching the Wet Bandits get their due from an 8-year-old kid’s booby-traps is as cathartic a Christmas experience as they come, but what if you secretly wanted the bandits to win?
In this second appearance by one of the all-time great guest characters, car thief Doug Judy (played by Craig Robinson) returns to taunt his best frenemy, Detective Jake Peralta, with his cons and coolness. While the more holiday-centered action is relegated to the B and C plots, all the vibes are full of good cheer.
If you like Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, watch Community’s “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”
- Season 2, Episode 11
- Streaming on Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, and Tubi
This wildly creative episode is a bona fide classic. Just as college classes are ending for winter break, Abed begins seeing the world as stop-motion animation. His erratic behavior leads to threats of expulsion and an intervention by Professor Ian Duncan (played by John Oliver) and his friends.
The group plays along to get to the heart of Abed’s disassociation, traveling into Abed’s mind, a Christmas wonderland reminiscent of stop-motion classics from the 1960s. It’s sad, goofy, funny, and heartfelt, all the hallmarks of Community at its best.
If you like Love Actually, watch Ted Lasso’s “Carol of the Bells”
- Season 2, Episode 4
- Streaming on Apple TV
This heartwarming episode is often cited as what we lost with streaming and shorter series runs: “filler” episodes that don’t advance the plot but leisurely allow us to just hang out with beloved characters.
Three storylines wrap around one another (much like the interwoven tales of Love Actually). Ted, missing his son in the United States, is cheered by giving out gifts with AFC Richmond owner Rebecca. Meanwhile, Keely and Roy determinedly find a dentist to help Roy’s niece with her halitosis (and end with an homage to Love Actually).
The rest of the team wholesomely celebrates at Higgins’s home, sharing traditional dishes and a distinct lack of the problematic behavior that makes Love Actually a divisive classic.