Christmas in Peekskill: Ranking the Facts of Life Holiday Episodes

[TMC]

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The Worst

“It’s a Wonderful Christmas”

Season 9

I never warmed to Cloris Leachman as Beverly Ann, who replaced Charlotte Rae’s Edna Garrett in Season eight. And this episode focuses mainly on her character, when she becomes convinced that she hasn’t made a difference in anyone’s life. “I wish I never came to Peeksill,” she laments (me too!), and cue the It’s a Wonderful Life pastiche. It’s a trope that can work if done right, as it did on Laverne & Shirley and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. But here it just feels by the numbers. Not even Pippa’s punk rock makeover can save it.

Slightly Better

“Post-Christmas Card”

Season 8

Technically this is an after-Christmas episode that opens with Blair and Jo un-decorating the Christmas tree and discussing New Year’s resolutions.

Then Natalie gets an unexpected “present” – a pre-approved credit card with $3,000 in available funds, ready to spend. Blair talks her into charging 50 bucks for a fancy appointment book, and then the floodgate opens. The holiday references are over after the first scene, but it’s still a more enjoyable show than the last one.

Worth Watching

“Christmas Baby”

Season 7

The highlight here is Marj Dusay in one of her occasional guest appearances as Monica Warner, Blair’s mother.

This is the climax of a story arc that began when Monica discovers she’s pregnant in her forties, after being recently divorced. She goes into labor on Christmas Eve, disrupting everyone’s plans but in a most delightful way.

Adding narration by the newborn was a bit too cutesy for me, but there are some tender moments along the way that resonate, including when Blair asks Mrs. Garrett to say a prayer that everything will turn out all right. She is reluctant to ask herself, she confesses, because it’s been a while since she last prayed (a line that is noteworthy from Lisa Whelchel, whose Christian faith is well known). “If you have something to ask, it’s okay,” Mrs. Garrett responds, “God’s listening.”

I always appreciate when God gets an occasional shout-out in a Christmas show.

When viewers spend seven years with a group of characters, as fans of this series have by the time this episode aired, there’s something rewarding about sharing a happy milestone in their lives. Here we get a Christmas celebration and a new baby – that’s 23 minutes well spent.

A Holiday Tradition

“The Christmas Show”

Season 5

Jo plans to visit her mother on Christmas, but then her mother takes a second job in Florida over the holidays, leaving Jo, in Tootie’s words, “stuck here with Mrs. Garrett.” Edna doesn’t take too kindly to that sentiment. The other girls hatch a plan to get Jo to Florida, in a way that won’t wound her stubborn pride.

This is the most “Christmas-y” of the show’s five holiday episodes, especially in how Edna’s Edibles looks charming decked out for the season.

But it’s the always intriguing Blair-Jo dynamic that makes this one a winner. For me, and I guess to most fans, their relationship is the show, and the main reason why it lasted so long. There’s nothing new about the pampered snobby rich girl vs. the tough kid from the streets bit – but this is as well as it was done in the classic TV era.

They are two young women with nothing in common who started as bitter enemies, then over the course of nearly a decade found that they had more in common than they knew. The final scene delivers all the heartwarming feels viewers want in a holiday show.

A Classic

“Christmas in the Big House”

Season 6

I probably like this one more than most, because I’m a sucker for sitcoms that present a musical episode. Blair and her country club friends decide to help the less fortunate by putting on a show for the underprivileged boys residing in the Nickleby House. But on the day of the event Blair discovers that the Nickleby House is actually the recreation hall at a men’s prison, so when the assistant warden arrives to pick her up, she refuses to go. After Jo, Tootie, Natalie and Mrs. Garrett decide to make the trip, Blair reluctantly joins them, but refuses to perform.

This is the kind of situation and the kind of impromptu holiday show that could only exist on TV – Jo and Natalie’s duet on “We Need a Little Christmas” would have real convicts asking to return to their cells. Mrs. Garrett fares better singing “O Holy Night,” but Tootie’s shimmying, strutting version of “Jingle Bell Rock” is just embarrassing.

After that number the girls are ready to leave, but the assistant warden says he promised the men more show, and asks if they can think up an encore. They can’t, until Mrs. Garrett reminds them that they are the only Christmas those men are going to have this year. Blair, at last, stands up. “I’ll go….it’s my turn, isn’t it?” And she walks silently onto the stage and performs a lovely a capella cover of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

And in that moment the episode is transformed into something special. Maybe those who watched her on The Mickey Mouse Club knew Lisa Whelchel could sing, but I didn’t, so the beauty of that performance was a revelation, and it never fails to put me in the proper holiday spirit.

[80s Dude]

I would rate "It's a Wonderful Christmas" near the top and "Christmas in the Big House" at the bottom.

[Kasey]

I reviewed all of these on IMDB before Xmas along with my Top 75 Xmas episodes and my Ten Worst. "Christmas in the Big House" was my worst Classic TV Xmas episode. The girls are great but they can't sing or dance.

[jeansntshirtguy]

Season 5’s “The Christmas Show” is a tradition for me. Such a nicely written episode. And yes, Edna’s Edibles decked out in Christmas decor was simply charming and cozy.

[TMC]

Episode 310: The Facts of Life, The Nanny, Carol Burnett & Mama’s Family | Best Holiday Episodes!

What's the best Christmas episode of The Facts of Life? Let's find out! If you grew up in the 80s, tuning in to the special “Holiday” episodes of our favorite shows was a winter ritual. Susan and Sharon bring that tradition home as they dive into the “Best Holiday Episodes” of three favorite 80’s and 90s TV shows -- The Facts of Life, Mama’s Family and The Nanny. Musical numbers, mixed-up gifts, screwed-up travel plans -- and lots of hot cocoa!

The Conversation

• GO FIGURE -- Not a lot of Hanukkah or Kwanza episodes back in the 80s.
• Why did it take FIVE SEASONS before Facts of Life finally did a Christmas episode?
• S5, EP12 “The Christmas Show” - directed by Asaad Kelada.
• In S6, EP13 “Christmas in the Big House” -- Blair organizes a charity Christmas show for what she thinks is an orphanage -- but it turns out to be a men’s prison!
• Mickey Mouse Club veteran former Mousketeer Lisa Whelchel shows off her singing skills! Heck, all the ladies get to sing!
• NO ROOM AT THE INN? In the third Facts of Life Christmas episode, Blair’s mom gives birth -- It’s a Christmas baby episode!
• IS IT A WONDERFUL SHOW? Cloris Leachman gets center stage in the fourth -- and final -- Facts of Life Christmas episode, S9, EP10 “It’s A Wonderful Christmas”.
• Mama’s Family S6, EP14 “Mama Gets Goosed” -- The family is horrified when they meet their dinner -- a live goose that Mama plans to kill and cook for Christmas!
• The Nanny got a jump on Christmas episodes in S1, EP8 -- where complications from a gift Mr. Sheffield gives to Fran ends up fulfilling Gracie’s only Christmas wish!
• S3, EP14 “Oy To The World” -- The Nanny’s one and only ANIMATED EPISODE!
• S6, EP 10 “The Hanukkah Story” -- Susan and Sharon BOTH loved this Nanny episode where cultures clash when Fran tries to teach the Sheffields the importance of Hanukkah.
• PLUS -- BONUS HOLIDAY EPISODES from The Carol Burnett Show! - Alan Alda, star of the M*A*S*H TV show hit, sings with Carol! And plays one of Mama’s sons and Eunice’s brother in “The Family” in a hilarious, homecoming Christmas sketch.
• But is that a better episode than the Christmas special with incredibly famous opera stars, Eileen Farrell, Marily Horne and a surprise guest star Bob Hope?
• AND -- A BIG THANK YOU to our PATREON MEMBERS! We’ll tell you about NEW PERKS coming your way in 2025!

So, join Susan and Sharon as they talk Ray Charles, Community, dreidels, Alan Alda, vegetarian Christmas dinners, talking dogs, opera, “Big Spender”, Bob Hope -- and confessional confessions!

[BestTVever]

There is something about Jo and Natilie's performance in the Big House Xmas show that makes me watch it every year. I like to watch it only for that performance.

It is odd it took 5 seasons for a Xmas show.