Cinematic Advent Calendar - Day 21

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas (2009) - Dir. Fred Savage

If there's one title on this entire list that will help you get out of that rut you're in and bring it back to basics it's most certainly A Very Sunny Christmas (2009). The gang serves up some much needed holiday cheer in their quest to embrace the Christmas spirit. The show combines many familiar themes from pop-culture in its storyline while still remaining unique. From the beginning the show deals with Charlie and Mac (Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney) embracing the Christmas spirit by clinging to their holiday traditions. Conflict arrises when Mac finds out that his criminal father lied to him about how he got his presents Christmas morning and Charlie realizes that his mother was doing a little more than thanking Santa for brining him gifts on Christmas morning. Feeling that their Christmas spirit is being tested they rise to the challenge of defending it. 

Meanwhile Dennis and Dee (Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olsen) attempt to convince Frank (Danny DeVito) that he was a horrible father and that his Christmas "fake-outs" over the years has irreversibly ruined Christmas for them, short of receiving reparations. Together they take inspiration from A Christmas Carol and try to show Frank the error of his ways by displaying his past, present, and possible future. None of it has any effect on Frank, as he knows they are just doing it to receive gifts, thereby validating his efforts all along by trying to instill in them that they are selfish and have to earn what they get. The show also features a nostalgic stop-motion claymation musical sequence, ala Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), that acts as an epiphany for the gang. In the end they are ultimately brought together by the Christmas spirit and partake in the most sacred of Mac and Charlie's holiday traditions, guaranteed to make you feel better - throwing rocks at trains.

Get the Christmas Spirit!

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