“Friends” spent years making Christmas episodes, and critics have finally ranked them. The result is a list that admits its own flaws. The ranking, titled “All 10 Friends Christmas Episodes, Ranked,” argues that the show’s holiday installments were generally less focused than its Thanksgiving counterparts, often weighed down by unrelated plotlines that diluted whatever holiday spirit they managed to muster.
But the ranking also insists that the best Christmas episodes worked because the show’s unconventional cast subverted the genre automatically. One character struggles to find her family. Another actor rings in the New Year ahead of schedule. A dad competes with his son for Hanukkah traditions. When “Friends” tapped into what made it special all year round, it could deliver a Christmas episode as strange, sweet, and funny as the best of the subgenre on television.
The List’s Own Admissions
The ranking opens by noting that “Friends” episodes set during Christmas often extended into New Year’s celebrations, and it includes those episodes anyway. It also defends its inclusion of “The One with the Monkey” — technically a New Year’s episode — because it feels like a timid first swing at the Christmas story the show would later knock out of the park.
“The One with the Monkey” is Season 1, Episode 10. Rachel’s boyfriend Paolo is out of town, and the group, resentfully single, agrees to a no-dates dinner party. Chandler proposes it. Their willpower buckles one by one until only Ross stands alone, with his new monkey, Marcel. The ranking calls Phoebe’s storyline the strongest element, a sweet, emotionally compelling whirlwind romance with David that makes his eventual return to the series especially welcome. Maggie Wheeler joins as Chandler’s grating on-and-off girlfriend, Janice, delivering a reliably hilarious performance.
The episode’s problem, the ranking argues, is that it is too heavy on guest stars and its gimmicky monkey. It is far too light on the relationships between the friends themselves. When the party ends in heartbreak, the writers don’t have enough setup for the core characters to land a sweet ending. Instead, they bail with a cheap, out-of-left-field gag where Joey kisses Chandler.
The Ranking’s Low Point
The ranking places “The One with Christmas in Tulsa” at number 9, arguing that it should actually sit above “The One with the Monkey.” The reasoning is that “The Monkey” is only debatably a Christmas episode, remembered for early-run awkwardness and obvious gimmicks. “Christmas in Tulsa,” despite being a real Christmas episode with nearly nine seasons of practice behind it, is regarded as one of the worst “Friends” episodes of all time.
The ranking defends the episode against one criticism. Clip shows were common when networks ordered more than 20 episodes per season, a way to fill schedules while keeping costs down. Before streaming and YouTube made every moment instantly available, they were actually enjoyable to watch. Now, the ranking argues, they are pretty unsatisfying — so much so that you could skip them entirely on a rewatch.
But the ranking pushes “Christmas in Tulsa” beyond a disappointing product of its time. The Wendy-Chandler-Monica nonsense, involving Courteney Cox and Selma Blair, is underwritten and manufactured jealousy. The mishearing of “She’s just below me” is particularly groan-worthy. The episode got Chandler out of Tulsa, but the ranking finds it hard to forgive that this is the last Christmas episode of the series.
Better, Still Wobbly
“The One with the Inappropriate Sister” lands at number 8. The ranking calls it far better than the previous two entries, but still leaving a lot to be desired as far as Christmas episodes go. The holidays are so peripheral to its overall vibe that the ranking nearly left it out for the same reason it decided to omit “The One with Monica’s Boots.”
The episode deals with Rachel’s significant other’s weird relative. Rachel’s potential new boyfriend, Danny, invites his sister, Krista, to spend the holidays with him. The whole friend group watches their uncomfortably physically comfortable relationship, leading to Rachel dumping him in disgust. It is a strange choice of plot for a Christmas episode — though unintentionally creepy plots are not entirely uncommon for “Friends.” It is even stranger that this is not the worst-aged episode about visiting relatives in the show’s history, the ranking notes, coughing up “The One with Ross and Monica’s Cousin” as the example.
Newbern and Lauren do a great job of selling that their dynamic is as innocent to them as it is obviously gross to everyone around them. Longtime “Friends” fans, usually pretty good about taking the show on its own terms, find it still pretty funny. Phoebe’s descent from the spirit of giving to the spirit of vengeance is evergreen. The real comedic drag is the Joey-Chandler-Ross storyline, in which Ross tries to help Joey write a screenplay.
What Works Best
The ranking suggests the show’s best Christmas episodes succeed when they focus on the friends themselves rather than guest stars. The group’s unconventional makeup subverts the genre automatically. Here is what the ranking points to as the ingredients of a successful “Friends” Christmas:
- A character struggling to find her family
- An actor hired to ring in the New Year ahead of schedule
- A dad competing with his son for Hanukkah traditions
- The group’s unconventional makeup subverting the genre automatically
The ranking does not name a top episode. It simply argues that when “Friends” tapped into what made it special all year round, it could deliver a Christmas episode as strange, sweet, and funny as the best of the subgenre on television.
A Ranking Worth Watching
The ranking’s honesty is part of its appeal. It admits the show’s worst Christmas episode is also a clip show, and that the worst-rated episode here is unfairly maligned because viewers can now instantly replay any joke instead of watching it once. That self-awareness is a small pleasure in itself.
It is also a reminder that the show’s strength has never been its Christmas framing. It has always been the group itself, and the ranking’s best episodes prove that the friends need no holiday excuse to be strange, sweet, and funny.
“When ‘Friends’ tapped into the qualities that make it special all year round, it could deliver a Christmas episode that was as strange, sweet, and funny as the best of the subgenre on television.”
The ranking is a good starting point for anyone who wants to revisit the show’s holiday catalog. It offers a clear sense of which episodes to prioritize and which to skip. But the real lesson may be simpler: the best “Friends” is always the one with the friends.
Source material: “All 10 Friends Christmas Episodes, Ranked,” TVLine.
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