I’m Bummed ‘Parks and Recreation’ Never Did a Great Christmas Episode

A sitcom doesn’t have to have an all-time great Christmas episode in order to make it into the TV comedy pantheon. Whether or not a show spent one episode a season decking the halls is a totally minor factor into how good a show is. In the grand scheme of things, a great Christmas sitcom episode is like a thoughtful gift from a co-worker. Sure, you like each other and see each other all the time, but you are by no means required to exchange gifts–and if they get you something, hey, that’s nice!

Still, when you look at the comedies considered to be the greatest of all time, they all kinda do have a perfect Christmas episode in their lineup. I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls, Frasier, The Office, Bob’s Burgers–all those shows have episodes you should absolutely stream every December. And then there’s Parks and Recreation, one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 21st century and a perennial favorite of Netflix subscribers everywhere. Type-A empathy machine Leslie Knope would be the perfect Christmas protagonist and Libertarian grouch Ron Swanson would be the perfect scrooge. The Christmas episode practically writes itself–so why doesn’t Parks and Recreation have a truly great Christmas episode?

Parks and Recreation does have three Christmas episodes: Season 2’s “Christmas Scandal,” Season 4’s “Citizen Knope,” and Season 5’s “Ron and Diane.” The problem I have, call me a nitpicking nutcracker with too much festive fussiness, is that none of these episodes are overwhelmingly, relentlessly, undeniably Christmasy. In all three episodes, the holiday is mainly used as set decoration and material for the B and C plots. The main plots in “Christmas Scandal” and “Citizen Knope” focus on Leslie temporarily not being able to do her job because of various scandals (none of which involve stolen presents or a candy shortage). “Ron and Diane” is a great dissection of Leslie and Ron’s friendship, but it’s another episode that refuses to give us what we all want: Nick Offerman in a damn Santa suit.

These episodes aren’t total grinches, though. They do have minor holiday plots, like April and Mark (remember him?) trying to find perfect gifts for Andy and Ann, or the Parks Department banding together to make Leslie a gingerbread replica of the office and then volunteering to run her campaign. “Ron and Diane” has the least Christmasy A-plot (Leslie fights to keep Tammy from messing up Ron’s new relationship with Diane) but the most Christmasy subplots (Jerry throw’s an elaborate yet quaint Christmas party that his Parks Department bullies try to sneak into). “Ron and Diane” also has this:

The problem is that that’s the most concentrated blast of Christmas cheer we get from Leslie in all three episodes! Otherwise, she’s relegated to the non-Christmasy plots. She brawls in a dumpster, drops her pants on live TV, and gets hooked on PCP (the Pawnee Parks Committee) but almost all of her Christmas feels are kept offscreen. That’s what keeps all three of those episodes from going from great episodes to great Christmas episodes.

Leslie and the entire Parks Department could have been forced to work on Christmas (like in Mary Tyler Moore and Cheers), but none of these episodes actually take place on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Parks and Recreation could have totally done a Christmas Carol riff like many sitcoms have in the past. Maybe they couldn’t do an actual dream sequence considering the show’s mockumentary style, but they could have put on a show! Ron as Scrooge; Leslie as Bob Cratchit; Ann, Andy, and April as the three ghosts. It would’ve worked! What if Ben’s stop-motion ambitions produced something like a Parks version of Community’s brilliant Rankin/Bass homage. Instead, we just got a quick glimpse of marshmallow Ron Swanson.

He’s perfect, but it’s Christmas and we wanted more.

And just to keep this holly jolly harangue going, I’m still a little bummed that the Parks and Rec Christmas episodes we got didn’t even have anything to really latch onto. Hot take for a cold night: Seinfeld and Friends never had a truly great Christmas episode, but they did give us Festivus and the Holiday Armadillo–two oddball pop culture artifacts that get tweeted about every single year. Parks gave the internet waffle culture, Jean-Ralphio, Li’l Sebastian, Duke Silver, and–most importantly–”treat yo’self.” The show delivered moment after moment, and I just wish any of those moments were Christmas related.

If ever there was a show that coulda done a great Christmas episode, it was Parks. Every episode emphasized the importance of found family and taught lessons of empathy and selflessness. Every episode, especially when the show hit its stride in Season 3, was like a warm hug, 20 minutes spent with characters you really like who also–and this is shockingly rare in TV comedies–really like each other, deep down. But y’know, maybe that’s why Parks and Recreation never felt the need to go all-in on an over-the-top Christmas episode–one where a snowstorm traps the gang in the office or Leslie challenges the library to a sing-off competition or one where Santa is proven to be real and living in a trailer outside Pawnee. Maybe Parks and Recreation never did a crazy Christmas episode because every single episode of the series is packed with the kind of sentiment and warmth that most shows only trotted out for their lone holiday installment. Maybe in a way, every Parks and Rec episode is a Christmas episode.

I think that’s it…. but still, I woulda liked to have seen Santa Swanson.

Stream Parks and Recreation "Christmas Scandal" on Netflix

Stream Parks and Recreation "Citizen Knope" on Netflix

Stream Parks and Recreation "Ron and Diane" on Netflix