All the ‘SNL’ Christmas sketches you need to re-watch on YouTube tonight
That special time of year is finally here, where the Saturday Night Live (SNL) stage becomes flooded with bright red poinsettias as the cast cranks out some amazing holiday sketches & shorts, leaving us as jolly as Santa Claus himself.
Even though SNL is back to performing live shows from Studio 8H amidst a global pandemic, there’s also plenty of amazing Christmas sketches on YouTube from past seasons for you to re-watch tonight!
Bring It On Down To Wrappinville
Fans were all stoked to learn Jimmy Fallon would be returning to Studio 8H to host 2013’s Christmas episode, with singer & bromantic partner Justin Timberlake joining as the musical guest.
While we all were expecting another familiar political cold-open, we were happy to see Timberlake resurrect his character of “guy who dresses in an overly-sized costume who sings outside to promote a strange product”, with Fallon taking his side as two giant pieces of gift wrapping, creating new lyrics to familiar songs such as “Roll Out”, “Someone that I Used to Know”, and “It’s Tricky”.
I Wish It Was Christmas Today
Starting with their version in 2000, SNL performers Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan, and Horatio Sans found a way to incorporate this catchy jingle in many different SNL segments over the years, even making an appearance last year on The Tonight Show with a surprise addition to the band, Ariana Grande, nearly twenty years after its birth.
‘I don’t care what your mama says’, go check out this video or ALL of them.
Twas The Night Before Christmas
Host John Malkovich hilariously read this timeless short-story to a small audience of children in 2008, almost in a way that made you feel like you dropped off your kids at their uncle’s for a sleepover. . . an uncle which they, for good reason, only see during the holidays.
Malkovich reads the story while explaining to the children its problematic content, from Santa “breaking an entering” to the illogical science of a flying sled. He thinks he’s doing them a favor when really his cynical take on the fable leaves the kids as sad as a post-shopping savings account.
The Kissing Family
While there have been multiple iterations of this classic sketch that features an overly affectionate family, it’s likely that this series of kissing skits hit its apex when host Paul Rudd came to visit SNL during Christmas.
Notable recurring characters to the family, known as the Vogelchecks, were cast members Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Fred Armisen.
The sketch involves the family kissing each other in extreme ways, allowing the power of physical comedy to drive this vehicle of insanity.
Can’t imagine this sketch getting resurrected during the era of coronavirus. . .
Schweddy Balls
Easily one of the most influential SNL Christmas sketches, “Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls” in 1998 served up audiences with laughs that were almost as delicious as “Pete’s Schweddy Balls” themselves.
The sketch stars cast members Molly Shannon & Ana Gasteyer as two monotone NPR radio hosts, enjoying the taste of some delicious treats in the shape of, well, balls, as delivered by the character of Pete Schweddy (host Alec Baldwin).
The sexual innuendos were brilliantly written, and the skit lives on in the pantheon of holiday SNL sketches.
SNL TV Funhouse: Charlie Brown Christmas
Look, we won’t even begin to look into how SNL secured the rights to do this. We’re just glad that they did!
The cartoon short, nearly exact in its animation to the original Charles Swartz classic, is a hilarious retelling of the Peanuts gang realizing they have superpowers just by collectively waving their hands in the air like they did when they brought back to life Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
Uh . . . turning Peppermint Patty and friend Marcie into a pair of lesbian models, anyone?
Santa’s My Boyfriend
This 2006 sketch seems to be the opener to every SNL Christmas Collection Special we see, and that’s fine by us.
Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph star as three ladies who are pleasantly decorating their Christmas tree, who suddenly break out into song once they discover that they have something in common. . .
They’re all dating Santa Claus.
It’s a short, innocent enough skit that highlights the singing talent of these three female leads, giving us a Christmas carol that should have been more prominent today than it actually is.
