I Won't Be Home for Christmas (The Simpsons)

"I Won't Be Home for Christmas"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 26
Directed by	Mark Kirkland
Written by	Al Jean
Original air date	December 7, 2014 (2014-12-07)
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	Reindeer meat does not taste like chicken.
Couch gag	There is a message that reads; “Now for obligatory Frozen reference”, before cutting to a snow couch, where Lisa, appearing as Frozen’s Elsa, is sitting. Bart hits her with a snowball and she immediately creates a giant ice palace, with Bart stuck at the top. Homer appears as Olaf, and bites his own nose, disappointed to discover it is simply a carrot.

"I Won't Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas-themed episode of the 26th season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, and the 561st episode of the series. The episode aired on December 7, 2014. It is the seventeenth Christmas episode of the show.

Plot

The episode begins with Comic Book Guy and Kumiko Albertson watching the Star Wars Cosmic Special, with Jeffrey in shock that the special is worse than he remembers, and Kumiko stating he has every right to be angry at it.

Homer plans to fulfill Marge's wishes by leaving work on time and arriving home to celebrate Christmas with his family. However, he stops on the way home for a drink at Moe's, and when he says it's time for him to get home Moe convinces him to stay out all night on Christmas Eve at his bar when Moe admits to being lonely and depressed. Homer loses track of time and when he finally gets home, Marge is enraged at him and kicks him out, saying she does not want him in the house on Christmas. Homer then leaves on an odyssey through a deserted and chilly Springfield, with Moe compounding his sadness by avoiding him when Homer shows up to try and talk to him (and to add insult to injury, Homer's car gets towed with his cell phone frozen inside it). When Marge frankly tells Bart and Lisa she is not inclined to forgive Homer, Moe climbs down the 742 Evergreen Terrace chimney for some reason and tells Marge the truth about why Homer was out late on Christmas Eve. Marge tries to call Homer, but as he lost his phone, she ends up going out to look for him. Homer ends up at the miserable local movie theatre to watch a depressing Life is Beautiful-type of film around other lost souls like Kirk Van Houten, the Crazy Cat Lady, and of course Gil.

After Marge searches through the city and Homer ends up at a depressing party for mall workers, they each have epiphanies: Homer says that being without his family at Christmas is much worse than being with them, and Marge says that she shouldn't always assume Homer is doing stupid things for no reasons. The two finally reconcile and look forward to a happy new year.

The final scene shows footage from the next episode The Man Who Came to Be Dinner.

Reception

The episode received an audience of 6.52 million, making it the most watched show on Fox that night. Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B-, saying "The very first Simpsons was a Christmas episode. It aired 25 years ago this week. That “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” is about as affecting as that first episode is instructive. The ragged charms of “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” were the uneven result of a show that didn’t know what it was. The moderate pleasure to be gleaned from “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” comes from a show trying to wring some heart and laughs from a quarter-century of well-trod territory. The pleasures aren’t inconsiderable, but they’re effortful."