Frasier: Every Holiday Episode, Ranked By IMDb

Sitcoms often provide viewers with plenty of seasonal comfort, especially in the form of holiday episodes. As one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, Frasier more than excels in this regard, with many memorable Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes across the series’ 11 seasons.

While some of the series’ holiday episodes even rank among Frasier‘s best epsiodes ever, other episodes are not so successful and definitely reside toward the bottom of the list of the series’ impressive 265-episode run.

“Mary Christmas” – 7.1

Frasier has long been considered one of the best sitcoms in television history, but even one of the greats isn’t exempt from producing truly bad episodes. The season 8 Christmas episode “Mary Christmas” is not just the series’ worst-rated holiday episode, but also one of the worst-rated episodes of the entire series.

Frasier is often at odds with people over the course of the series’ 11-season run, but it’s rare that his opposition is as completely obnoxious as Dr. Mary, the radio host with whom he is stuck hosting a beloved Christmas pageant. But no matter how obnoxious Dr. Mary might be, Frasier still comes out of the episode looking like a total jerk, even making an ass out of himself in front of Santa.

“We Two Kings” – 7.5

Frasier‘s season 10 Christmas episode is one that features two of the series’ strongest elements: the three Crane men at war with one another over a ridiculous matter, and the ever hilarious Roz Doyle given a substantial storyline.

Niles and Frasier find themselves at odds over who will be able to host Christmas, which leads Martin to make the rash decision to work on Christmas instead of dealing with them. A sweet gesture of reconciliation by the Crane boys is ultimately thwarted when Martin is given the day off in the end. As far as Roz is concerned, during her time working as an elf in the mall, she finds herself catching feelings for the mall Santa (and maybe the “real” Santa too).

“The Apparent Trap” – 7.9

Frasier Crane may be a gifted psychotherapist, but some of the best episodes of Frasier are ones where even the doctor himself shows he isn’t always completely perceptive of human behavior. Season 7’s Thanksgiving episode finds Frasier’s ex-wife Lilith and son Frederick spending the holiday with the Cranes in Seattle.

At first, as the title “The Apparent Trap” suggests, it seems like Frederick is doing his best to reunite his estranged parents. But in the end, it turns out that Frederick has learned a little bit too much about human behavior from his parents, as he has been pretending to reunite them with the ultimate goal of pitting them against each other in the hopes of getting a new bicycle.

“Frasier Grinch” – 8.1

Season 3’s “Frasier Grinch” is another entry in Frasier‘s Christmas canon that finds Frasier trying to get the perfect gifts for his son, Frederick. But of course, Frasier’s idea of what Frederick wants is not at all what his son actually wants in the end, because Frasier may understand human behavior, but he doesn’t know very much about child psychology.

The highlight of the episode is, undoubtedly, the sequence that finds Frasier, Niles, and Martin frantically trying to find replacement presents after Frasier receives the wrong ones. Adventures among the three adult Cranes elevate any episode, and that’s even truer among holiday high jinks.

“A Lilith Thanksgiving” – 8.3

As should be clear by now, many holiday-set episodes find Frederick visiting his father, where few things ever go as planned. In the season 4 Thanksgiving episode “A Lilith Thanksgiving,” the holiday goes completely off track when the chance to get Frederick into a prestigious school arises, leading Frasier and Lilith to visit with the school’s esteemed headmaster.

In the meantime, the episode features the unlikely trio of Frederick, uncle Niles, and grandfather Martin spending the Thanksgiving holiday together, with Niles doing his best to prepare a feast. It almost goes without saying that this is a terrible idea.

“The Fight Before Christmas” – 8.4

Season 7 is one of the most dramatic seasons in Frasier‘s comedic run, as the Niles and Daphne relationship begins to come to a head in a very surprising fashion. This rising tension leads to a memorable episode in “The Fight Before Christmas,” when Daphne is forced to reconcile with having just learned about Niles’s feelings for her as the holidays arrive.

Complicating Daphne’s holiday season even more is Frasier’s Christmas party, which goes from a letdown to a full-blown affair very quickly; her own engagement to Donny; Niles’s relationship with Mel; Niles’s reconciliation with his ex-wife Maris; and some swapped presents.

“RDWRER” – 8.4

Frasier‘s seventh season features yet another holiday entry in the form of the rare New Year’s Eve episode, “RDWRER.” Arguably one of the series’ most memorable episodes, “RDWRER” finds Frasier, Niles, and Martin piling into Martin’s new Winnebago — the episode’s titled comes from the license plate reading RDWRER, for road warrior — to travel to where they plan to celebrate the New Year.

Of course, things don’t go as planned for the three Crane men. Along the way, Martin drives his sons crazy with Austin Powers impressions, Niles steals another Winnebago, and the trio almost misses the dawn of the year 2000 entirely due to changing time zones.

“Miracle On Third Or Fourth Street” – 8.5

“Miracle on Third or Fourth Street” is the first Christmas episode in Frasier‘s 11-season run, and it is perhaps the series’ most moving one at that. When Frasier learns that he is not going to see his son for the holiday after all, he takes an unenviable Christmas shift at the radio station and fields calls from other individuals who are feeling despondent and listless on the holiday.

But the episode truly finds its holiday spirit and meaning in its final act, when an embittered Frasier frequents a diner that serves holiday meals for the homeless. When Frasier realizes too late that he has forgotten his wallet, his fellow diners all pitch in to cover his tab, something that visibly shakes Frasier out of his self-pitying phase and reminds him what the holiday is truly about.

“Perspectives On Christmas” – 8.7

One of Frasier‘s best-rated holiday episodes is, in fact, an episode that finds none of the characters in the holiday spirit by the time it ends. “Perspectives on Christmas,” season 5’s Christmas episode, tells four vignettes about the experiences of Martin, Daphne, Niles, and Roz as Christmas approaches.

Martin and Daphne share an intertwined story, as Martin endeavors to hide his participation in a Christmas pageant from Daphne, while Daphne fears Martin is hiding something much more serious. Meanwhile, Niles gets stuck in an elevator, and Roz feuds with Frasier while working as Santa and Mrs. Claus after he reveals her pregnancy to her mother.

“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz” – 8.7

One of the highest-rated Christmas episodes of Frasier is one that, in retrospect, is not at all culturally sensitive. “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz” is a season 6 episode that finds Frasier pretending to be Jewish in order to appease the mother of the woman he is currently dating.

The case of mistaken identity would have gone much more smoothly if it weren’t for the fact that Niles has been tasked with portraying Jesus in a Christmas pageant. His arrival, in full Jesus costume, turns the otherwise comedic episode into a comedy of errors.

“High Holidays” – 8.7

Frasier‘s best holiday episode is the Christmas episode from its 11th and final season, showing that the show never truly lost its fastball as it produces one of the series’ best episodes as one of its last. The episode, “High Holidays,” is a hysterical affair from start to finish. Feeling as though he has wasted his life by being a goody-two-shoes, Niles resolves to get high on marijuana right in time for the holidays.

Instead, Martin winds up eating the pot brownie Niles had planned to consume, causing him to become completely high and act in an incredibly out-of-character way. Other highlights include a visual gag of Eddie the dog being given Frasier’s voice in a tourism commercial, which only further confuses an already addled Martin.

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