Saturday Night Live Christmas Skits

Saturday Night Live is a sketch-based comedy and music show running on NBC since 1975, running, as its name suggests, on Saturday night from 11:30 PM EST to 1AM Sunday morning. Since its inception, it has turned its often irreverent wit on the holiday season.

December 23rd, 1978

John Belushi plays the husband of a hospital-bed-ridden Laraine Newman, each fretting, ala Gift Of The Magi, that they do not have the money to buy the other the gift they really want. Like the husband in 'GOTM', Belushi sells his valued watch to get Newman what she wanted; Newman, however, instead of cutting off and selling her long luxuriant hair, merely sells her brush to get him a much cheaper gift. Belushi breaks down and then begins to strangle her (in a cartoony, sitcomic way).

December 22nd, 1979

Comedy veteran Ted Knight hosts and plays a father/in-law who visits and takes his love of housefront decorations to nightmarish levels, including live actors re-enacting the Nativity and Adoration - it is implied, to sometimes uncomfortable results. His family cannot bear to tell him that he is simply going too far, so he continues to escalate.

Recurring characters The Nerds (Bill Murray as Todd and Gilda Radner as Lisa Loopner) make a general ruin of their school's Nativity play rehearsal. This sketch unusually has the Little Drummer Boy as part of the scene and ran afoul of NBC's Standards and Practices department, which cut some dialogue out of the broadcast. The staff defended it, saying it was the plays, and not the Nativity itself, that were being lampooned.

December 20th, 1986

Guest host William Shatner is remembered for doing two classic Star Trek parodies in this episode, including the infamous 'Get A Life' skit. But in the Christmas spirit, he introduces 'The Lost Ending To It's A Wonderful Life'. Doing his broad imitation of Jimmy Stewart, Dana Carvey plays George Bailey, singing and celebrating with his friend as the film ends. Suddenly, Uncle Billy recalls what he did with the money, and recalls evidence that Potter probably has it. Enraged, George leads his friends and family as a mob to go and let Potter have it. With them breaking into his home, Potter tries to warn George off, but now Carvey switches his Jimmy Stewart to the more frantic ones seen in various Hitchcock films, and reveals to all that Potter doesn't even need his wheelchair. As they begin to pound Potter relentlessly on the ground, the crowd again begins to sing Auld Lang Syne and George again amazes at how many friends they have, just before the Republic Pictures Eagle logo comes up.