I Love Lucy Christmas Special

Directed by:	James V. Kern
Written by:	Bob Carroll Jr. Madelyn Pugh Bob Schiller Bob Weiskopf
Release date:	December 24, 1956
Running time:	26 minutes
Rating:	TV-G
Available on:	Laserdisc DVD

The I Love Lucy Christmas Special is a Christmas special spun off from the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.

Synopsis

It's Christmas Eve and Ricky warns Little Ricky: "Santa won't bring the tree and the presents until you go to sleep." It takes some effort to cajole him, but after Lucy convinces him that Santa will have no trouble coming down the chimney ("He brings the North Pole with him and slides down it like a fireman."), he's off to bed. With the coast clear, Fred and Ethel arrive with a Christmas tree. "It's a gift from me and Ebenezer," Ethel reveals about the five dollar fir. They began to trim it until Lucy discovers "a branch on the right side that spoils the shape." Fred solves the symmetry problem with a pocket saw as Ricky says to Lucy, "Our lives have sure been different ever since you told me you were going to have a baby." We flashback to the sentimental moment at the Tropicana in 1952 when Lucy breaks the baby news to Ricky (from "Lucy is Enceinte"). This reminiscence over, we discover Fred got carried away with his saw while listening to the baby tale--the tree is now a spindly stripling. While Fred goes off in search of a replacement, Ethel and Ricky start singing "Jingle Bells", but when Lucy joins in with her off-key rendition, they recall, once again in a flashback sequence, the barbershop quartet harmonizing of "Sweet Adeline" (from "Lucy's Show Biz Swan Song"). With the last note sung, we return to the Ricardo apartment just as Fred enters with a new tree--he got this "last minute" one for only fifty cents. They start decorating it and discussing Little Ricky's Christmas gifts as Ethel realizes: "It seems like only yesterday he was born." This is the perfect lead-in to a flashback of Ricky, Fred, and Ethel rehearsing Lucy's trip to the hospital (from "Lucy Goes to the Hospital"). Finally, it's Christmas morning. Everyone is up early and wearing Santa suits. When they hear Little Ricky approaching the living room, they hasten to the kitchen so he won't be disillusioned by seeing four Santas. Suddenly, however, there are five crowding the kitchen--who's the real one? The "real" one disappears optically as the Ricardos and Mertzes stare into the camera and say, hesitantly, "Merry Christmas, everybody."