User Reviews

The two families decide to stay home this year. They usually visit family and don't spend this holiday together. It sounds good and everything goes smoothly. Lots of last minute Christmas shopping. There is ice skating for the kids and Christmas Eve caroling to look forward to. The problem? Lucy and Viv's families each have different traditions. From what is served for Christmas dinner and when to when presents are opened and who passes them out to how stockings are hung , the story that's read and how to decorate the Christmas tree and the kind of tree and decorations used. It's initially enough to make Lucy and Viv change their minds and go to their families but the kids talk them out of that. Lucy and Viv are able to compromise about most of it . They start decorating their own trees but a mishap leads to a fight and tearing at one another's tree and criticizing how each celebrate. It's funny but not in the Christmas spirit. They suddenly hear the Caroling down the street and feel ashamed of themselves. They quickly combine the two trees and mix in both decorating styles and clean up the mess . By the time the their kids arrive with the young caroling singers Viv and Lucy have made peace.

I always enjoyed this holiday episode it's not too serious and raises a very real situation with people having different ways to celebrate and finding middle ground.

We begin with everyone in both families happy that they are spending Christmas together for the first time. Usually they go their separate ways to be with distant members of their own families--which considering that they almost never see them, sounds like a good thing.

That was the start of this really dumb Christmas episode. I don't see how the kids would be all excited to spend Christmas with the same four other people they see every day in their home. A trip to visit someone else sounds much better. Especially true for teenage Chris--how much fun does she plan to have with her grade-school brother and his friend of the same age? We see Lucy buying her Christmas turkey while Viv comes in right after buying the Christmas tree. Now I may not be an expert on these matters, but it seems to me a most unusual thing to have someone bring their full-sized Christmas tree--real and painted white--inside the butcher shop, but that's what Viv did.

The ladies immediately begin a quarrel that lasts through most of the episode. They totally disagree on what color of tree, type of ornaments, main dish to have for Christmas dinner, what time to eat the meal, when to open presents...everything. Even after they get all mad and decide to go their separate ways for Christmas, and the kids desire to do things at home jars them back into the Christmas spirit, Lucy and Viv immediately let one small accident take them back into a big fight, leading to the ultimate ruination of both of their trees, and more.

A couple of Carols from the two boys and a group of other boys finishes off this episode as everyone is suddenly happy again.

The nasty bickering wasn't fun, nor was the stupid destruction of the trees and ornaments. It started when Viv stupidly put a cherished ornament on the couch and Lucy stupidly sat on the couch without looking. Then Viv accidentally stepped on Lucy's favorite old childhood ornament that she had idiotically left on the floor rather close to Viv's tree. Nobody but Lucy has a cherished old ornament in hand while decorating a tree and decides to just place it on the floor near the area where someone else is also decorating a tree.

Just a rather dumb show that lacked laughs. I have been going through my season 1 DVD set and so far this is the dumbest, least funny episode.