Just out of curiousity, I thought I'd poll to see which holiday episode was the most popular. If you have a particular reason as to why you chose a specific one, be sure to post.

I choose HIWTHI just because I like the more serious tone. I do like the other two as well, but this one rates as one of my fav eps, period.

Hard to choose between SG and HIWTHI, but decided on SG because of the poignancy of the ending - it was one of the first signs that it was Clark that Lois loved. (well aside from her "Lois Lane Kent" confession in HoL which the writers evilly insisted on ignoring for the first half of S2.) That final scene at the window!

I agree with Lisa, though that the A plot of HISWTHI is better (although much silliness in both eps)

Close contest:) The brief telepathic moment between L & C in HIWTHI was wonderful (not to say Wow!)

But one of the things I felt let down about (for no good reason) was that Lois and her dad didn't sing a Xmas carol at the end - the episode was partly about her reconnecting with her father, and I thought their singing together would have said so much. Not to mention that Teri Hatcher has a very good voice, and Harve Presnell a remarkable one.

c.

Season's Greedings for me. Cause it's fun and the end is all awww! I do like the others as well, but that one's my fav. Actually, it ranks pretty high on my list of favorites even including all the other eps.

Season's Greedings for me. I just loved the ending. And according to his commentary, Dean wanted an added scene where he actually did show up at his parents home with family and friends all around. Wouldn't that have been great?

I don't think I realized that HIWTHI was a Christmas ep until it was mentioned here. (Odd, too, because I liked it a lot. I'll have to watch it again.)

I want a Space Rat! I love Mindy Church, but couldn't possibly vote for HIWTHI because of Baby Gunderson. I prefer to believe that she never existed - no writer could possibly have cashed a paycheck in good conscience knowing that such a character came from his or her pen.

Oh, yeah Baby Gunderson is right up there with Denny Crane's inflatable Shirley.

c.

Somehow, I like TTNBM, because it shows Clark's determination, and how the connection between them is stronger than magic.

I must be the grinchiest person here - I'm the only one who voted that I didn't like any of the episodes. I like bits and pieces of them, don't get me wrong. But there's not a single episode among them which I would deliberately watch from start to finish.

I like the end of SG and the tender sickbed scene(s) in HIWTHI. I tried to watch TTNBM but it just didn't hold my interest at all.

If death was not an option, I guess I'd pick HIWTHI. Unless Dean would somehow find out and then I'd pick SG so I wouldn't hurt his feelings.

Bah. Humbug.

Actually, Sue, I didn't particularly care for any of the three episodes myself--but I chose Season's Greedings, simply because it was in season two, and I liked that better than three or four.

I didn't want to choose "I didn't like any of them," because I DID like them, but none of the Christmas eps are among my all-time favorite LnC episodes. I totally get what you mean about liking parts of the episodes too.

HIWTHI is my fave but I also LOVE the ending of SG. I didn't really enjoy TTNBM.

There's actually isn't any episode in the entire series I watch from start to finish. I also just go through to my fave parts.

Jackie

I haven't voted, simply because I can't decide. Now, if you had asked which episode I liked least, that would have been easy. I can't stand Mxyl... Whatever. I hated the character in the comics, when I used to read them. And my hatred carried over into the TV series. (There are limits to the extent to which my disbelief will extend, and Mxyl... Thingy goes well past them, out of the solar system, and into the next galaxy. )

Now, that's just my personal opinion, and I have a hard time explaining it. Also, I know that the episode and character both have fans. Please take my opinion with the huge pinch of salt it so rightly deserves. Rational or no, though, TTNBM is definitely my least favourite of the three episodes.

I'm torn between the other two episodes, though. I love the angst in Home Is Where The Hurt Is, and I would have liked to have seen that expanded on. (Clark recovered from the kryptonite mighty quickly, don't you think?)

Baby Gunderson... Mercifully I had blocked her out of my mind -- until I read some of the posts here and remembered her. Yes, that was silly. So were Abs In A Bottle. (That was that episode, wasn't it?)

Oh, how lovely the ending is of Seasons Greedings! But... there are silly moments in that episode, too. Yes, the episode has a good message, but... Lois acting as a little kid and pouting, and Clark scoffing all the sweeties... Neither did much for me.

So, for me, SG and HIWTHI tie for favourite.

Carol said: Now, I read this and I thought... what? Yes, Carol is right, the whole reconnecting thing was a very important part of that episode. But, Lois and her dad singing a carol together at the end of the episode...?

Maybe this is a cultural thing, but the very idea of it makes me think of the lump of Cheddar that is hardening at the back of my fridge: cheesy, in the worst possible way!

Certainly, I never burst into spontaneous song with my dad at Christmas. (Since I can barely sing and he couldn't sing at all, that is surely a blessing for the whole world.)

Do people burst into impromptu song in North America? For the most restrained English person, I think that's only likely to happen after a lot of alcohol. And I would certainly have never drunk the amount of alcohol required in the presence of my parents!

Just curious.

Chris

Home Is Where The Hurt Is because it's the least sickly sweet and it has a virus and kryptonite.

Yvonne

Yeah that's really a 'friends activity.' <ahem> Not that I ever did such shenanigans in college or... :p


Yep! I get a deadly activity, some unstable family visits, and some cuteness on the fire escape at the very end.

JD

I honestly can't decide between them. They all have their good (and bad) moments.

I have to agree with Chris on the cheesiness of singing carols. I had the same kneejerk reaction when I read Carol's post. All I could think of was that if it had happened, I'd have been cringing on the sofa and would have had to turn the sound off.

So maybe it is a cultural thing at that. Or, maybe it's just one of my own personal bugbears. I tend to squirm anyway at scenes where people are performing. I simply cannot bear to watch scenes in a show where the kids are acting in a school play for instance.

This kind of thing was always such a traumatic experience for me as a kid because I was so shy and went into cold sweats if asked to perform in front of an audience, that I think it's scarred me for life and I can't bear to watch others make fools of themselves - even if they are only acting.

LabRat

I don't think Christmas caroling in and of itself is cheesy--but some situations in which people might burst with carols coming out of their mouths really ARE.

For instance, I have no problem walking around a nursing home (or a friend's neighborhood) with a group of people--be they friends or people from church, or just a group of family members--singing Christmas carols. I also have no problem singing them with family on a quiet Christmas Even night.

But having Lois and Sam burst into song at the end of HIWTHI, just as a plot device? Definitely cheesy.

Agreed. And it's so quotable.

"I love your parents! They're just so... not insane."

Etc. etc.

alcyone

I blame it all on my UK grandfather and mother - they played piano, and, well what can I say - the sheet music for those carols is still in the piano bench

crawling back into my hole, but grabbing the cheese as I go

But cranking up the angst level in HIWTHI - now that would be cringe-inducing, processed cheese- cheesy

As a way of establishing my bah-humbug cred, can I add that I avoid shopping malls at this time of the year because of the blasting carols, don't watch Xmas specials on TV, and avoid Xmas fanfic?

And that the Grinch is my hero? And Die Hard 2 is my favourite Xmas movie?

And that I own a 'free Rudolph' t-shirt?

c.

I'm not a huge fan of Xmas episodes of any show, but I quite like Season's Greedings for its sheer silliness.

Incidentally, the all-time clunker of Xmas episodes is now on line... Yes, the Star Wars Holiday Special has made it to Youtube:



It really is as bad as everyone said...

I had no idea Mxyl was from the comics. I thought he was based on "Rumplestiltskin". Shows how much I know. Yet another instance of how I learn things about this series to this day despite its having been off the air for quite a while.

Okay, now that reminds me that HIWTHI *was* a Christmas episode. I guess I should amend my previous statement. I liked parts of HIWTHI.


Yeah, that doesn’t make sense since he couldn’t rescue Luthor when he fell to his death. In one of my fics, I made it so he reached down deep inside himself and found the strength to rescue Lois and his parents and found the power where none should have existed. Then, too, I’d imagine different chunks of kryptonite might emit different amounts of radiation.


I have… <Giggles> But then my dad could sing, and I still can. Yes, I can see this happening at Christmas time in America. If it happened at other times though, I’d think someone had been hitting the sauce. But if you come from a musical family, it’s not terribly unusual for someone to pull out a guitar or sit down at the piano so everyone can sing along.

But I don’t think this would have worked on the show very well because it was never established that Sam had any musical talent. Now if Lois had started singing a bit, I would have found that believable. But I can see that she would have been more singing softly to herself than to be ‘performing’. I sing all the time - softly. Maybe it’s a musical thing - not so much a cultural thing.


Exactly. I hope it’s not too cheesy because this week I’ll be playing the piano for a church function - all Christmas carols. Last year I sang a solo.

Like I said… musical family.

Nancy, I am SOOO jealous right now! My allergies have been dreadful since MARCH, and I haven't been able to string together more than a few bars since weeks before that.

I too, come from a musical family. My grandfather's father directed choirs in Holland, my grandfather directed the choir at church for many years, my father played trumpet in high school, and I'm your basic all-round musician as a rather large hobby. I have two trumpets (my brother uses the brass one for school, and I keep the silver one), three recorders (sopranino, soprano, and alto), a broken clarinet, a guitar, and an electric piano--and that's not counting the real piano and electric organ my family have downstairs.

But to get back on topic, I still think a Christmas duet between Lois & Sam Lane would've been a bit over-the-top during HIWTHI. The caroling worked in the Mxyzptlk episode, because it actually had a purpose--to get everybody thinking of something other than their dispair.

If I were the fast-forwarding type, I might fast-forward through parts of all three Christmas episodes, but when I set out to watch an episode of a show I like, the only thing I skip are the commercials.

I voted for HIWTHI, for the same reasons that Yvonne mentioned.

I voted for "Season's Greedings". I just love how they're all acting like children; just the memory of that episode gives me the giggles.

But I liked the other episodes too - though I can't remember TTNBM very well, it's been years. Strangely, however, I liked Baby Gunderson, whereas I found the telepathy thing very silly.

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Telepathy thing?

I think Anna might mean the connection between Lois and Clark? When she hears him call her name when he wakes from his fever?

LabRat

One thing I found disconcerting in HIWTHI was Lois snuggling up beside Superman as he was fighting the K virus. Her dad was right there, so what Lois did seemed really odd because although she was engaged to Clark Kent and supposedly crazy about him, there she was stretched out beside Superman. Why not just tell Sam the secret and have done with it? That bit was a disconnect for me.

And oddly, the carol singing in the Mxy ep I did find cheesy. But then I was never a Mxy fan - very tedious twerp. In fact the whole ep, with the replay thing was tedious. So maybe the carol singing was part of that.

But SG and HIWTHI both had lots of great moments, especially SG which had some genuine surprises, like Clark showing up at Lois's door at the end. And have I mentioned the window scene? - oh I have? Ah. Well, let me mention it again One of the most beautiful moments in the whole series.

c.

I, too, come from a musical family, but I'm British, so what we don't do is gather around the piano in an organised fashion and sing carols with big cheesy grins on our faces. What we *do* do is break into impromptu song while we're washing up, or cooking, cleaning, etc. We might attempt a bit of harmony just for a giggle, or we might try a bit of friendly sabotage on someone else's song. Anyone who can play the piano in the family will probably sit down at some point over Christmas and bash through a few carols purely for their own enjoyment. And, of course, anyone who goes to church or sings in a choir will sing carols galore at this time of year - well, except my choir, which is a symphonic choir so doesn't do carols very often. Alas.

Yvonne

Oh yes, never anything organised, just random sort of happening - a child picking out a carol with one hand, an adult singing a few bars while cleaning up, or my grandmother banging out Joy to the World with a boogie beat.

Me, I can't carry a tune - the gene passed me by.

c,

Yeah, that's what I mean. The whole scene with the mumbling of names and the other listening and waking up... I don't remember exactly what had happened, but it had made me cringe.

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Well, I didn't vote at all. It has been (ten?) years since I saw 'HIWTHI', and I can't recall it at all. I can't remember having watched 'It was the night before Mxymas' at all. But I like "SG".

So, I feel like I'm lacking the basis for a valid vote.

SG for me. I laugh just as hard every time I watch it. It's absolutely hilarious!

Definately SG for me, it was the start of lois's relisation that she liked clark more than just friends. That he would always be their for her, even giving up christmas with his family.

I voted for SG, because I really love the end of this episodes. You can see that Lois has a lot of feelings for Clark.

Barb

definitely 'Seasons Greedings' for me. I love olmost everything in this ep from the little dance Clark does ''lois is in trouble'' :p
and Lois' fake voice and ofcourse the ending!!
I just really love the ending!!!!!!!!