The 12 best Christmas sketches on 'Saturday Night Live'
When it comes finding the funny in Christmas, Saturday Night Live has a winning formula. The show's sketches tend to fit in one of these categories: a recurring character is put into a holiday environment, a popular movie/series is given a Christmas-themed parody or cast members sing unique Christmas carols.
Ahead of the 12 days of Christmas, we present the 12 best Christmas-themed sketches on SNL, in no particular order.
1. I Wish it Was Christmas Today
Watch A Song from SNL: I Wish It Was Christmas Today II from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com
Come for Tracy Morgan's uninterrupted eye contact with the camera. Stay for the song Horatio Sanz has performed more than once on the show. This one's from 2001.
2. Glengarry Glen Christmas
Obviously, Alec Baldwin stars in this 2005 Glengarry Glen Ross parody, motivating his fellow elves to "Always Be Cobbling." However, he really wants to say "Closing," and winds up adorably flubbing the line.
3. Mister Robinson's Neighborhood: Christmas
Watch Mister Robinson's Neighborhood: Christmas from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com
Eddie Murphy, in his recurring Mister Robin's-spoof character, explains to children in 1984 how he creates a "small business" with a Santa suit, a bell and a Salvation Army bucket. "With this little operation, I figure I'll be taking about 3- or 4-hundred dollars a day."
4. SNL's A Charlie Brown Christmas
What if You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, was rewritten as You're a Rat Bastard, Charlie Brown, and starred Al Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edie Falco, Michael Keaton and Larry David? You have this sketch, featuring great celebrity impressions from 2013's SNL regulars.
5. Christmastime for the Jews
Watch TV Funhouse: Christmastime for the Jews from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com
Remember the animated TV Funhouse? In this SNL sketch from 2005, Darlene Love sings about Jews taking over the town while the "gentiles gather around the Christmas tree." Activities include: seeing Fiddler on the Roof with actual Jewish actors, watching a Daily Show reruns and getting drunk in Chinatown.
6. Wrappinville Cold Open
Justin Timberlake's recurring "-ville" character, who sings in costume to promote a store, is consistently silly. Save for the "sack his deck," joke, this 2013 bit of JT dressed in wrapping paper with Jimmy Fallon as a gift bag is another fun version of the sketch. However, it doesn't compare to Omeletville.
7. D*** in a Box
Watch SNL Digital Short: D*** in a Box from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com
And if you want a better gift-wrap sketch from Timberlake, this is the video you're looking for. It's a classic "Digital Short" from 2006 about, well, you know. You probably remember the tune.
8. Drunk Uncle and Drunker Uncle on Christmas
Watch Weekend Update: Drunk Uncle and Drunker Uncle on Christmas from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com
Bobby Moynihan's Drunk Uncle has talked about the holidays in other sketches, but in this 2013 Weekend Update bit he's joined by John Goodman's "Drunker Uncle." Sing all together now: "Get out of my glass, and into my mouth."
9. Two A-holes Buying a Christmas Tree
Jason Sudeikis and Kristen Wiig's gum-chewing, self-absorbed couple don't know what they want in 2005. Maybe a 50-foot Christmas tree? Oh, and you look like a rabbit. The characters have also hilariously failed at other Christmas activities.
10. Christmas Serial
A spot-on parody of podcast Serial, this 2014 sketch is a little insider, but genius. It has Cecily Strong as host Sarah Koenig, investigating the "outlandish" story of world-traveling gift-giver Kris Kringle, the same way the real Koenig talks about convicted murderer Adnan Syed in the show.
11. (Do It On My) Twin Bed
The 2013 song, which was nominated for an Emmy, is all about coming home for the holidays and hooking up on your childhood bed. The SNL girls sing, "Let's do it on my twin bed. You're not gonna like it. But it's the only option where we can get it poppin'." By the way, didja hear Aunt Ruth is dead?
12. Christmas Sing-a-long
In this sketch from last year, Cecily Strong and host Chris Hemsworth want to sing a very specific Christmas song... a depressing ballad called Debra's Time from a Broadway show no one has heard of. Theater nerds will love this one.