Episodes of comfort, joy, and tears

This episode is a stuffed stocking of funny, as Lois has a "Mommie Dearest" breakdown when Christmas doesn't go smoothly. Lois wants Stewie to play the baby Jesus, which doesn't sit well with the murderous tyke. Peter, meanwhile, delivers the holiday message: "Merry Christmas to all and to all shut the hell up."

Oh yeah, Aaron Sorkin could make you cry if he tried - and didn't try too hard. This episode gets it close to right, as Josh (Bradley Whitford) wrestles with post-traumatic stress with a psychotherapist, and C.J. (Allison Janney) deals with a painting in the White House that has connections to the Holocaust. "Noel" was one of the two episodes that won Whitford an Emmy that year, and you can see why.

Ross (David Schwimmer) is trying to get his son, Ben, excited about Hanukkah, but the kid's more taken with Santa Claus. But when the store is out of Santa costumes, the Holiday Armadillo is born, with Ross telling the enthralled Ben all about the Maccabees. It's a sweet moment, until Chandler (Matthew Perry) shows up as Santa and the Holiday Armadillo gets demoted.

Hourlong episodes of "The Office" often drag, but this one was strong from start to finish. Dueling party planning committees, Michael (Steve Carell) getting dumped and marking two Asian waitresses so he can tell them apart, Dwight throwing his cellphone off the roof of the building in a bout of paranoia. The halls of "The Office" were decked with inspired lunacy.

TEEN ANGST TIE:

This "My So-Called Life" was sappy, but it was earned sappiness. Rickie (Wilson Cruz) leaves home after getting beaten up and ultimately winds up on the streets on Christmas. Angela (Claire Danes) goes in search of Rickie, and meets a mysterious woman - yup, an angel - played by Juliana Hatfield.

The tortured relationship between Buffy and Angel played like an opera in this episode, which ends with a magical snowstorm that protects the suicidal Angel from the sun.

This was the two-part series finale, too, and it was pitch perfect. The Tim-Dawn connection is resolved, and David Brent (Ricky Gervais), too, finds some romantic closure. The pathos is as thick as ever, as the special picks up at a reunion three years after the documentary aired and Brent was laid off; but a modicum of joy ensues.

Larry eats the Christmas cookies for Cheryl's family's Nativity scene, which is bad enough. And funny enough. But then his efforts to right the situation, involving a human Nativity scene in the driveway, go awry, complete with rude comments about the Virgin Mary.

Mary's deep into the holiday spirit, but she gets stuck working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Cut to her dancing alone in the office and chatting with a stranger over a transmitter. Best line: When Rhoda asks Mary, "Why don't you hang out panty hose? They hold more."

The Fishers are struggling with their respective neuroses a year after Nathaniel's death, while Nate deals with his dire diagnosis, all while hosting a biker funeral. The widow gives Nate a symbolic gift: her late husband's motorcycle, which Nate rides to "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

"The Draft Dodger" 1976

This Norman Lear sitcom was funny, sad, shocking, political, and ahead of its time, and both of these Christmas episodes continue to have power. The 1973 episode finds the normally excited Edith (Jean Stapleton) in an off mood, straining to be merry. Turns out she may have breast cancer. The 1976 episode has Archie (Carroll O'Connor) playing Christmas host to both a draft-dodging friend of Mike's and a buddy who lost his son in Vietnam.

Does this walk the line of good taste? Oh yeah. It's "South Park." The kids bar Kyle from Christmas games because he's a Jew. Kyle's mother doesn't want her son in a Nativity play. Poor Kyle suggests that everyone sing the scatological and non-denominational "Mr. Hankey Song," but no one is interested. Ultimately, the town parents insist that the kids' pageant be stripped of religious symbolism. The result: an abominable Philip Glass minimalist production.

The series' only Christmas episode aired during the first season. Ben Weaver is a Scrooge who gets a moonshiner thrown in jail on the holiday. But Ben secretly doesn't want to spend Christmas alone, either, and Andy comes to the rescue. The best scene: The moonshiner, Andy, and their families singing "Away in a Manger" at the courthouse, while Ben watches from a window.

INVENTED-HOLIDAY TIE:

The always ironic and always sincere Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) beautifully captures a bi-religious spirit. Seth's holiday was eight days of small gifts, followed by one day of many gifts, with Christmas Day at home with takeout Chinese. What could be bad?

The Festivus episode of "Seinfeld" lays out the holiday "for the rest of us." Among the rituals: An aluminum pole, a post-meal wrestling match, and the "Airing of Grievances," during which each person tells the others how they've disappointed him or her.

This episode does what so many episodes of "M*A*S*H" did, and what every Christmas story should do: It made you laugh and cry. This was the first in a series of episodes that had characters writing letters home. Hawkeye describes Christmas at the 4077th in all its mad glory. Radar sends a jeep home in pieces, Henry delivers his monthly sex and morals lecture, and - here's the kind of image that makes "M*A*S*H" so timely - Hawkeye shows up on the front line in a Santa outfit.