A Muppet Family Christmas: The Perfect Holiday Special

Featuring the original MCU (Muppet Cinematic Universe)

The Swedish Chef resolves to cook Big Bird and serve him as Christmas dinner in what can only be described as the greatest holiday special in television history: A Muppet Family Christmas.

The 1987 special takes us into the home of Fozzie’s mother, who’s about to leave for a warm, quiet Christmas in Malibu. Doc and Sprocket arrive as scheduled, as they’ve rented her house so they can enjoy their own peaceful holiday. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement for these two parties, because who doesn’t want to just get away from everything once in a while?

But little do these unsuspecting souls realize that a relentless, carol-singing juggernaut is headed their way. Fozzie is coming home, and he’s brought all his friends.

Chaos ensues the instant the Muppets slip across the icy patch at the doorstep, and it never lets up. You could even say it snowballs.

Fozzie befriends a comic snowman. The Electric Mayhem rocks out to “Jingle Bell Rock.” The Sesame Street gang arrives and makes themselves at home. Bert and Ernie teach Doc a new form of small talk. Statler and Waldorf also show up, because of course they’re friends with Fozzie’s mother. Kermit and Robin take a trip down to Fraggle Rock. Big Bird warms the heart of his would-be executioner. Miss Piggy braves a snowstorm to make a suitably dramatic entrance.

And it all ends with a packed, lively home full of warmth and friendship—the entire Muppet extended family united under one roof.

A Muppet Family Christmas juggles silliness, heart, music, good clean fun, self-deprecation, and even crossovers to amuse the whole family, not just the little ones (though they’re the top priority). This is the very definition of all-ages entertainment, which, much like the holidays, is about bringing people together.

The chaos of the season isn’t to be avoided; it’s to be embraced. Its disparate strands create a special kind of harmony, resulting in, say, a Fraggle giving a gift to a frog … or Cookie Monster impressing Animal with his cookie-devouring skills … or Doc venturing out into the cold to help a pig he’s never even met … or Big Bird and the Swedish Chef singing away their differences in the kitchen while the Swedish Chef decides on a last-minute change of dinner plans—because when we’re free to just be who we are, we have a way of working things out with each other.

Jerry Juhl, who wrote this special, once said, “Kermit is the eye in the middle of the hurricane. And, you know, he’s always in control. Sometimes just barely, but he’s always in control. And the interesting thing about it, of course, is that he created the hurricane.”

That hurricane is on full display in A Muppet Family Christmas, and it’s the perfect representation of how holiday gatherings should be: a whole bunch of wildly different people coming together as a happy family. Malibu’s got nothing on that.

And the perfect special concludes with the perfect finishing touch. Jim Henson himself cameos as he and Sprocket clean the dishes. Because someone’s got to do it.

Thanks, Jim.