Our take
A holiday answer to the Halloween anthologies, and as patchy as that suggests. The segments get weaker as they go, but there are solid laughs along the way, and the Martha Stewart story has the warmest idea. The ending is the oddity. Katy Perry acting opposite felt puppets of the whole cast is so strange it is almost worth the wait, and it makes this the most unusual Christmas episode the show has made.
What happens
Four Christmas tales, each rooted in the family's own worries and plans for the holiday. In Bart's story he travels to the North Pole in a riff on The Polar Express, which turns into a story of office politics among Santa's workforce. Marge, fed up that she is the only one in the house with any festive spirit, writes to Martha Claus, voiced by Martha Stewart, who arrives to turn the house into the perfect North Pole chalet. The flawless decorations only show Marge that it is Homer and the children who make Christmas special. Another story sends Marge off to war, borrowing from Inglourious Basterds. In the last, the family try to slip away for a tropical Christmas in Hawaii, but surprise visitors delay them: Mr Burns, and Moe's new girlfriend, Katy Perry, who appears in person in a live-action sequence alongside puppet versions of the family.
Can the kids watch it?
Fine for most children from about eight.