White Christmas Blues

Directed by:	Mike B. Anderson (supervising) Steven Dean Moore
Written by:	Don Payne
Release date:	December 15, 2013
Running time:	22 minutes
Rating:	TV-PG
Available on:	Apple TV Google/YouTube Amazon Video Disney+

“	My uncle died in your bed! Merry Christmas!	”
— Marge Simpson

"White Christmas Blues" is the twelfth Christmas episode of the animated series The Simpsons, aired as the eighth episode of the show's twenty-fifth season.

Synopsis

Homer places the Christmas decorations up before he takes down the Halloween decorations. Marge scolds Homer as he hangs a skeleton with a Santa Claus beard. Meanwhile, Lisa and Bart lounge on the couch. Obviously bored, the Simpson kids are glued to the television set as Kent Brockman announces the plague of global warming in front of a "Sleetless in Seattle" headline. Two weeks before Christmas, a heatwave strikes Springfield as Marge places away the hats and mittens because of the warmth. When Homer goes to the backyard, he discovers that his hammock is filled with snow. Soon the kids find out that snow has fallen upon them finally. In the town center, Professor Frink tries to explain the origin of the snow, while Mayor Quimby calls the town a tourist attraction for its snow. The town denizens are in the Christmas spirit with Nelson Muntz's mother on the stripper pole, Moe's Tavern turning into Santa's workshop, kids making snow angels. When Marge goes to the Kwik-E-Mart, she's overwhelmed with the parking and the shopping. Everywhere she goes, Marge is reminded of how she can't afford Christmas. She feels like a failure.

Then, a family drives by Marge as she's about to enter her home. The patriarch of the family offers Marge $300 to spend the night at the Simpson household because there's no place else to go. Marge seems hesitant. Nevertheless, Homer discovers a family in his living room. At first, Homer thinks Marge has remarried after his passing, but then he realizes he's not dead. Marge tells Homer that these are their new boarders. Homer doesn't like the idea of sharing the room other than with Marge. She hands him a pamphlet of the Simpsons' Bed and Breakfast and asks Homer, "What would baby Jesus do?" in this situation. Homer automatically thinks of baby Jesus in various business management scenarios before supporting Marge's impulsive scheme.

While Bart and Homer take to their impromptu hotel management roles, Marge gets increasingly annoyed by the tourist requests and becomes short-tempered towards them. Her Christmas issues find a parallel in Lisa's plan to buy her family gifts that have more to do with feeling good about herself than buying things they will actually like; her choice of a present for Bart, a book, leads him to confront her with this and she admits it is true. She later trades in another gift and gets Bart an e-Reader. Marge is surprised when the tourists seem to be confronting her but sing a song of Christmas spirit and thanks. While she is touched by the gesture and wishes them safe travels, she remains ill at ease to the end with Christmas music.

Songs

Uncredited.

• "Jingle Bells"
• "Happy Hunting" - Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille
• "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - Azaria, Shearer, Tress MacNeille, Hayden and Maggie Roswell
• Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker - "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"
• "Merry Christmas, Baby" - The Beach Boys
• "The First Noel"
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Azaria, Shearer, MacNeille, Hayden and Roswell
• "Good King Wenceslas" - Castellaneta, Cartwright, Smith, Azaria, Shearer, MacNeille, Hayden and Roswell
• "Carol of the Bells"
• "Deck the Halls"
• "O Tannenbaum"

Notes

• The two angels seen in the opening sequence are Edna Krabappel, whose voice actor, Marcia Wallace, had passed away approximately two months before the episode aired, and writer/producer Don Payne, who had passed away on March 26, 2013. This was notably the last Simpsons episode written by him.
• The number plate on the orange station eagon is SABF01, which is the episode's production code.

Cast

Voice actor/actress	Character(s)
Dan Castellaneta	Homer Simpson Krusty the Clown Joe Quimby Richard Texan
Julie Kavner	Marge Simpson
Nancy Cartwright	Bart Simpson Todd Flanders
Yeardley Smith	Lisa Simpson
Hank Azaria	Jonathan Frink, Jr. Carl Carlson Luigi Risotto Moe Szyslak Comic Book Guy Duffman Sea Captain Clancy Wiggum Lou Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
Harry Shearer	Scratchy Kent Brockman Lenny Leonard Julius Hibbert Timothy Lovejoy Jr.
Pamela Hayden	Milhouse Van Houten
Tress MacNeille	Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon
Russi Taylor	Martin Prince
Chris Edgerly
Maggie Roswell	Helen Lovejoy

External links

• The Simpsons Wiki: White Christmas Blues
• "White Christmas Blues" at the Internet Movie Database
• "White Christmas Blues" recap at TV Tropes