Every Christmas Episode Of American Dad, Ranked

Since it first came out in 2005, “American Dad!” has steadily held it down as one of the most underrated animated sitcoms around. While comparisons to “Family Guy,” another show created by Seth MacFarlane, were inevitable, it’s gradually branched out in absurdity in the best way. It began as a commentary on George W. Bush-era politics, with Stan Smith being a prototypical 2000s Republican, but now, one’s more likely to find eldritch horrors in an “American Dad!” storyline than overt social satire. 

That extends to the show’s Christmas specials, which have some of the most unhinged plots in the entire series. It’s not like “Bob’s Burgers” Christmas episodes where you’ll definitely feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You may even have deep, unsettling questions about what you just watched, but these episodes aren’t entirely devoid of genuine heart. That’s the magic of “American Dad!” From a long-time fan, here are all of the “American Dad!” Christmas episodes ranked from worst to best, taking into account overall hilarity and how well it pulls off a uniquely “American Dad!” Christmas story. 

“American Dad!” turning Roger into a Grinch-like parody called the Grounch feels like a slam dunk of an idea. It’s odd it took so long for the show to do it, but the end results are less than stellar. 

Most of the episode centers on Roger dealing with the fact that Snot, Steve’s best friend, thinks he’s unattractive. Feeling dejected, he gives up sex and gets married, but when his new wife betrays him, he morphs into a furry, green creature he dubs the Grounch, who steals the sex toys at a big Christmas orgy. 

The Grinch elements, particularly Klaus singing a parody of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” work really real, but it takes until the very end to get there. The rest feels disjointed, with a side story of Stan running a men’s magazine, now that he feels overly confident about his looks (to juxtapose Roger feeling ugly). Nothing really comes together cohesively, and if anything, it’ll just make you want to find out where you can watch the surprisingly horny “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” this holiday season to get your fill of green monsters. 

“Gift Me Liberty” ranks so low because it barely even feels like a Christmas episode most of the time. To be fair, it begins at the CIA with Stan’s office playing Secret Santa, only for his boss, Bullock, to realize someone forgot a gift. He tasks Stan with finding the culprit, but Stan was the one who forgot. The episode mostly centers on Stan getting goaded by Roger to maintain the lie and pin the faux pas on someone else, only for him to realize that telling the truth is ultimately for the best. 

With a B-plot involving Steve posing as various girls’ safe boyfriend so that their parents don’t suspect they’re going out with bad boys, none of it feels particularly Christmasy outside of the inciting incident, which loops back around at the end. An episode about Stan learning about how bad lying is feels like it could’ve been done at any time. Utilizing a Christmas episode with something so lackluster, especially after Santa begins his vendetta against the Smiths, means it’s never on the top of the watchlist when the holiday season rolls around. 

Roger represents the unhinged id of “American Dad!” If he wants to convert to Judaism because no one in the Smith family is paying attention to him around Christmas, he’s going to do it. And then he’s going to put on Santa’s suit and become a Jewish Santa named Schmanta, because anything is possible in this chaotic world. 

The episode’s primarily an exercise in Jewish jokes, which are commonplace in any animated Seth MacFarlane show. Most of the time they feel inoffensive, but some jokes do come off as ignorant, like Francine asking if “Jewish” is a language. Judaism isn’t some off-the-beaten-path religion, but for some reason, everyone outside of Snot treats it as such.

But the real crime of “Santa, Schmanta” is that it’s a forgettable installment in the never-ending war between Santa and the Smiths. Santa, having died, gets resurrected so that he can defeat Roger and get his suit back, but the epic fight between them feels decidedly less epic from what we’ve seen before. Outside of Roger, the Smiths don’t even have that much of a role to play, making it feel even more inessential. 

From here on out, there are no inherently bad “American Dad!” Christmas episodes. They all have a modicum of charm and humor, with “Dreaming of a White Porsche Christmas” being saved by a humorous twist.

The set-up is fairly straightforward: Stan wishes he could be a bachelor again like Principal Lewis, and when that comes true, he realizes being single isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s the kind of revelation you know Stan’s going to have from the start, but just when you think you know how the story will round out, Stan winds up with a completely different family. A guardian angel (a la “It’s a Wonderful Life”) informs Stan that this new family is his “real” family, as he had previously been in a different “Wonderful Life” scenario stuck with an awful family consisting of Francine, Hayley, and Steve. 

It’s a great way of driving Stan’s revelation home even more. He doesn’t like being a bachelor because he misses his family, but he also doesn’t enjoy his “perfect” family because he’s come to love how imperfect everyone is. The finale is actually pretty in line with the ending of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” by coming to terms that life isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being with people who are perfect for you. 

“Ninety North, Zero West” is a fantastic culmination of all previous “American Dad!” Christmas episodes up until this point. The Smiths finally decide to go into cryostasis to avoid another battle with Santa Claus, much to the dismay of Steve. He still wants to have some kind of Christmas tradition and winds up kidnapped to the North Pole, where Santa plots to acquire Gilgamesh’s radiances (or auras) and become an all-powerful villain. To get there, they’ll need to team up with Stan’s father, Jack, who’s now Krampus (all of these returning plot threads will be explained later down the list). 

It’s a great showcase for a ton of supporting characters, including the abomination that is Puddin — an outcast, elongated elf with cut ears. Easily, the best recurring bit of the episode is how knowledgeable Francine is about the myth of Gilgamesh. Typically dumb characters suddenly acting smart will never get old. Amid all of the wackiness, there’s an emotional core of the Smiths realizing they don’t need to hide from Santa. Fighting him can become their Christmas tradition, which is a perverse lesson only “American Dad!” could pull off. 

The very first “American Dad!” Christmas special encapsulates everything the show was about in those early seasons. Stan’s upset that people have seemingly forgotten the reason for the season and gets irrationally angry when people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” When given the chance to go back in time from the Ghost of Christmas Past, voiced by “Friends” star Lisa Kudrow, he decides to kill Jane Fonda, whom he blames for modern liberalism. 

However, he inadvertently gets Martin Scorsese off drugs while in the past, meaning he never made “Taxi Driver,” which means John Hinckley Jr. never obsessed over Jodie Foster, which means he never tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan. That results in a new present timeline where the Soviet Union has overtaken the United States. As a movie buff, it’s a pretty humorous butterfly effect, and watching Stan go back again to make “Taxi Driver,” clearly lacking Martin Scorsese’s distinct visual style, with John Wayne as Travis Bickle instead of Robert de Niro, is hilarious. Long before the Smiths were waging war against Santa, this is a prime Christmas installment that forces Stan to reckon with his political ideology.

Nearly two decades into the show’s run, “American Dad!” continues finding ways to explore Stan’s insecurities around the holidays. In “Into the Jingleverse,” he’s scared that Steve will overtake him as the best present-giver, so he works alongside his enemy Santa to get some cool virtual reality goggles. This backfires, as Santa plans to keep the Smiths in this virtual world as his human beta-testers. 

It feels weird to call an episode with this premise grounded, but it’s almost nice to take a step back from a giant battle involving Santa. He’s still a villain, but he’s pursuing a far more nuanced plan to mess with the Smith family, taking advantage of Stan’s insecurities to trick him into thinking he’s willing to put the past behind him. The 3D-animated sequences are pretty neat and a good way to keep these holiday episodes feeling fresh. 

“Into the Jingleverse” also represents an evolution within Stan. Previous installments would find him ashamed of his family or wanting to get away from them. Here, his inner-turmoil comes from wanting to be too kind toward them. It’s a subtle but welcome character arc for a man who once actively wanted to be single just to get away from them for a little bit. 

This is the second “American Dad!” Christmas episode involving the Antichrist, and honestly, the repetition probably won’t cross your mind since it’s so good. Stan gets excommunicated from Christianity after beating up Roger dressed as Jesus Christ, but he can re-enter the church if he kills the Antichrist, who was just adopted by Hayley and Jeff. 

The sequences of the Antichrist, Nemo (Omen spelled backward), manipulating reality and possessing Steve to do his bidding are simultaneously funny and surprisingly chilling. This episode could work alongside any of the best Christmas horror movies out there with how scary it gets, with both Father Donovan and Jeff meeting their demises, although Jeff shows back up at the very end perfectly alive, which is great. 

It’s great that Hayley, frequently overlooked on Christmas specials, gets more time to shine here. We see a different side of her that’s actually maternal toward Nemo and saves him in the end. It’s a high-concept holiday episode merging elements of religion, horror, and jokes at the expense of Trader Joe’s, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Time loop movies like “Palm Springs” defined 2020, so it’s only appropriate that “Yule. Tide. Repeat.” came out on December 21 of that year. Stan gets stuck in a time loop after a Christmas tree display goes horribly wrong, killing a bunch of mall-goers, including his family. Stan keeps trying to figure out ways to stop the Christmas tree from getting lit to no avail, including one especially horrific sequence where the lights don’t illuminate, but a wire runs loose and slices everyone in the crowd in half. 

Stan’s arc is pretty typical. He wants a wholesome Normal Rockwell-esque Christmas, but no one else in the family is into that. The only way Stan manages to break the loop is by doing what his family wants to do, even if it’s not inherently Christmasy. Stan needs to learn to accept his family for who they are instead of who he wants them to be. Of course, it’s not all sentimentality, as Stan dies in increasingly bizarre ways trying to save everyone, which calls to mind “Edge of Tomorrow,” making this one particularly red Christmas outing. 

A common plot for “American Dad!” Christmas episodes is to get Stan super obsessed with the holiday to the point he neglects his family. For this outing, he dies and gets sent to limbo to determine whether he should go to Hell or heaven. As the evidence shows, Stan is too worked-up about always being right and doing things his way, but his case isn’t helped by his incompetent angel lawyer, Michelle, voiced by “Criminal Minds” staple and “Community” guest star Paget Brewster.

As the second ever “American Dad!” Christmas special, it borrows some beats from the first. Stan gets a female guardian angel of sorts, and he’s reluctant to accept other people’s views on the holiday. While the gags of how selfish Stan can be are really funny, this episode really soars by taking Stan to task with his obsessive nature, literally trying to force God to do his bidding. The best line of the episode comes from the Big Man himself: “Stan, you’re holding a gun to God’s head. I mean, I can’t even think of a metaphor that’s better than this.”

“The Best Christmas Story Never Told” gets a little wrapped up in its time travel plot to feel like a true Christmas extravaganza. Here, we see Stan really grapple with the fact that above anything else, he just wants to be with his family. It’s about exploring Stan’s moral compass over outside political commentary, making it a great early Christmas episode. 

Steve’s a bit out of character as a total brat in “Minstrel Krampus,” but it’s all in service of bringing another Christmas bad guy into the mix — Krampus, voiced by Danny Glover, with Charles Taylor providing the singing. Other “American Dad!” Christmas episodes have musical numbers, but none of them hold a candle to the ones featured here, including a stellar boy band-like number with Steve in the lead. For the musical numbers alone, this one deserves a spot in the top three. 

After Krampus kidnaps Steve, Stan teams up with his still-enemy Santa to save him. Stan’s father, Jack, who initially trapped Krampus before Stan released him, also gets some redemption in this episode. While Jack wants to run away at first, he eventually does the right thing by meeting up with Stan at Krampus’ castle (in a perverse take on “Beauty and the Beast,” complete with anthropomorphic furniture). Jack even sacrifices himself to protect Stan, giving him a surprisingly well-rounded character arc before he magically becomes the new Krampus. With equal parts heart and bloodshed, what more could an “American Dad!” fan want?

“Rapture’s Delight” is such an amazing episode of “American Dad!” It begins with an interesting interplay of how both Stan and Francine view Faith, with him ultimately blaming her for him not being raptured and ascending to heaven. Then halfway through the episode, we fast-forward to Jesus Christ recruiting Stan to help him rescue Francine, as they travel across an apocalyptic landscape, slaughtering demons like they’re in “DOOM.” 

Everything with the holy war between Jesus and the Antichrist is top-tier dark comedy, including the ultimate reveal of the Antichrist himself being the literal opposite of Jesus. It’s fantastic, and honestly, some really good creature designs are on display here. But the thing that really brings it all together is the relationship between Stan and Francine. Stan’s once again an arrogant jerk, and he has to go through literal Hell on Earth to let her know how important she always was to him. 

Plus, all of the weird action movie one-liners from Jesus and Stan are just great. Stan causing some wise men figures to fall from the ceiling to take out some demons and saying, “It’s raining wise men … Hallelujah,” is something that could only come from “American Dad!”

If you want to call “Rapture’s Delight” the best “American Dad!” Christmas episode, no one would blame you. But for me, the ultimate Christmas episode comes with “For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls.” Steve accidentally shoots the real Santa Claus, who goes to war with the entire Smith family after they try to bury him in the woods. The episode transitions seamlessly from funny romp to horror-tinged mystery in the vein of “I Know What You Did Last Summer” before becoming a full-on epic battle between the Smiths (and Bob Todd) against Santa’s army of elves and reindeer. 

There would be many battles against Santa in the years to follow, but nothing comes close to the sheer scale and emotional resonance as this one. Everything is tied together with Stan being reluctant to accept Hayley’s husband, Jeff Fischer, into the family’s holiday traditions. Stan hating Jeff is nothing new, but there’s extra weight to it now. Jeff’s ultimately decision and entry into the battle in the finale remains one of the most satisfying things the show has ever done, Christmas episode or not. 

“For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls” is everything a great “American Dad!” episode should be. There are a ton of great jokes, with Roger’s moonshining B-plot offering a lot of laughs. But there’s a darker sensibility to separate “American Dad!” from other cartoons as well as genuine heart. Stan may have continued getting annoyed at Jeff after this, but you really feel like a breakthrough has been made between them. It feels like everything Christmas episode to follow this has been chasing the same high, so it’s earned its spot at the top of the list.