Our take
A familiar story of the unappreciated mother walking out, and the show has told versions of it before. What saves it is the inversion: the family manages perfectly well, and that is what tips her into festive sabotage. The night-time raid on the decorations is the highlight, the pottery-class gift is genuinely touching, and the closing twist is pure Family Guy. Fine, not a classic.
What happens
This year Lois wants everyone to pitch in with Christmas, and she wants a present from the heart. She hands out lists of chores with a 24-hour deadline, and Peter fails at every one, taking the family to a strip mall and coming home with nothing for Christmas at all. Furious, Lois announces that she is spending the holidays in Cabo with her cousins, but actually checks into a motel from which she can spy on the house, fully expecting the family to fall apart and beg her to come back. Instead Peter gets the lights up, much too brightly for Quagmire next door, throws himself into the season and grows closer to the children, and soon the local news is filming them having a snowball fight on the front lawn. Livid, Lois decides to ruin their Christmas, sneaking into the house at night to sabotage the decorations while being distracted again and again by the chores piling up. When she comes back from her supposed holiday she finds the heartfelt present the family made her all along, a bowl from a pottery class, with a note that moves her to tears, and the episode ends with her in hospital.
Can the kids watch it?
Not for children: Fox rated it TV-14 and it has the show's usual crude, sexual and violent jokes; no BBFC rating was found.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Seth MacFarlane as Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin, Quagmire and Tom Tucker
- Alex Borstein as Lois Griffin
- Seth Green as Chris Griffin
- Mila Kunis as Meg
- Mike Henry as Cleveland Brown
- Patrick Warburton as Joe
Writer
- Damien Fahey