It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Christmas

Maybe that last one doesn’t really apply as a holiday tradition but for the gang of the FX comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it’s a fitting way to launch their Christmas morning nonetheless. After all, the other 364 days of the year are filled with back-stabbing, mayhem and socially unacceptable mischief. It’s not a stretch to believe that the holiday season would be any different, and the direct-to-DVD “super-sized” episode A Very Sunny Christmas clearly demonstrates that is indeed the case.

While families across the country and around the world have formed their own Christmas traditions through the years, the same holds true for Dee Reynolds, her brother Dennis, Charlie Kelly, Mac and father figure Frank Reynolds. Mac in particular looks upon the holidays as a joyous occasion, filled with toys, family and happy memories. Watching a home video of one Christmas morning, however, raises questions in Charlie’s mind as to how Mac and his family truly celebrated the season.

“That was the Christmas tradition,” Mac explains. “Where you go from house-to-house collecting your presents and then when the next family comes, you would run.” To Charlie, the video looks more like a robbery. “I was taking their presents, but they were taking mine,” Mac counters. “That’s why there were never any presents at my house when I got back. The neighbors took them. It’s a South Philly tradition.”

With Mac’s holiday spirit now fading after the revelation of how his family truly celebrated Christmas morning, Charlie offers to take him to his mom’s house in order to get the feeling back. This doesn’t go quite as planned either when Charlie off-handedly mentions how the “Santas” (plural) used to come over on Christmas morning. “This was like the best tradition ever,” Charlie tells Mac. “Every Christmas morning I would run to the door and I’d open it and find the first Santa Claus. Now the Santa Claus would come in and he’d give me a present or something, then he’d go in the room with my mom and cheer her up for awhile. Then the door bell would ring and the next Santa Claus would come and he’d give me a present or something or other, then he’d go cheer my mom up for awhile.”

Mac has a different take on the Kelly Family tradition. “Charlie, I hate to break this to you,” he begins. “But based on the story that you just told me, I think your mother was a prostitute.”

Although Charlie and Mac had happy memories of Christmases past that were now subsequently ruined, Dee and Dennis looked upon the holiday season as a very unhappy time in their childhood. It turns out that Frank Reynolds was not the best of fathers, even during the most wonderful time of the year.

“Frank bought the most awesome presents in the entire world,” Dennis explains. “Matter of fact, he would find out what Christmas presents we wanted that year and he would buy them for himself instead of buying them for us.” To make matters worse, Frank would gift wrap empty boxes and make the two children open them while videotaping their disappointment.

With such childhood holiday traumas that any professional psychiatrist would no doubt suggest as the root cause of their adult behavior, the gang attempts to work through the issues in true Christmas fashion—Mac decides to buy a present for a former schoolmate he inadvertently stole from as a kid; Charlie seeks counsel from a Santa Claus at the local mall; and Dee and Dennis Reynolds reenact A Christmas Carol by showing Frank his past, present and future.

Of course, all of these plans go horribly wrong. First of all, the store that Mac goes to is sold out of the present he intended to purchase. Then Charlie snaps and beats the mall Santa Claus to a bloody pulp because he believes that it was one of the Santas that fornicated with his mom. As for Dee and Dennis, nothing they can do brings any sort of remorse to Frank Reynolds.

“Oh, this is bringing back such great memories,” Frank exclaims when watching a video tape of a long ago Christmas morning. Even seeing his future has no effect, as the elder Reynolds simply shrugs and says, “That is not my future. I’m not going to be buried in a grave. When I’m dead, just throw me in the trash.”

Where A Christmas Carol failed, however, Hermey the Elf from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer succeeds. Late on Christmas Eve, Frank is in a car accident that leaves him unconscious, and in those blacked-out moments he envisions a clay-animation version of himself in a magical land of Christmas joy. Only it’s not so joyous for Frank as he witnesses the other members of the gang chain-sawing off his body parts and hanging him from a tree by his spinal cord, along with other gruesome acts of violence. Ironically enough, the vision has an effect and changes Frank Reynolds into a better man. Unfortunately, events continue to spiral downward and the change is short-lived—leaving Charlie, Dee, Dennis, Mac and Frank with nothing but rocks to throw at passing trains come Christmas morning.

Through the years, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has taken on a number of social taboos and turned them into comic fodder. Why should Christmas be any different? By showcasing the absurd and politically-incorrect traditions of Dee Reynolds, her brother Dennis, Charlie Kelly, Mac and Frank Reynolds, however, A Very Sunny Christmas has transformed these antics into a new holiday viewing tradition to go along with the likes of Frosty the Snowman and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Just remember to go out and throw some rocks at passing trains after watching it.

Anthony Letizia (December 20, 2010)

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