Today, we share the master list of my picks for the all-time greatest Christmas TV episodes of the 1950s.
All through Christmas Eve, I counted down my 24 favorite episodes of 1950s TV shows. My criteria for the stories were A. No adaptations of Christmas films (there were SO many of those back in the day), B. only actual story episodes (so no Christmas specials, as they are way too hard to compare against each other), C. no TV movie anthology series, like The Alcoa Hour or Robert Montgomery Presents (not enough of them are available to watch today, so I want to be able to fairly compare them, and since I can’t, then I’ll just eliminate them all. Short anthology series like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Loretta Young Show that were syndicated and are still readily available still count) and D. Christmas spirit counts extra, so a great episode that is dark as heck will be ranked not as high as a less great episode that is festive (but, still, if an episode is great, I’ll still rank it as, well, come on, we’re still looking for quality TV here). The episodes all originally aired in the 1950s.
The awesome 1950s TV Christmas image was made by Nick Perks!
Click on any entry for my write-up on that episode.
24. Highway Patrol “Christmas Story”
23. Dennis the Menace “The Christmas Story”
22. The Bob Cummings Show “Grandpa’s Christmas Visit”
21. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis “Deck the Halls”
20. Alfred Hitchcock Presents “Santa Claus and the Tenth Avenue Kid”
19. Dragnet “The Big Little Jesus”
18. Wagon Train “The St. Nicholas Story”
17. Lassie “A Christmas Story”
16. Wagon Train “The Mary Ellen Thomas Story”
15. Alfred Hitchcock Presents “Back for Christmas”
14. Dragnet “The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas”
13. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet “The Lost Christmas Gift”
12. I Love Lucy “The I Love Lucy Christmas Show”
11. Wanted: Dead or Alive “Eight Cent Reward”
9. Naked City “And a Merry Christmas to the Force on Patrol”
8. The Donna Reed Show “A Very Merry Christmas”
7. The Danny Thomas Show/Make Room for Daddy “Christmas and Clowns”
6. Our Miss Brooks “The Christmas Show”
5. Father Knows Best “The Angel’s Sweater”
4. The Loretta Young Show “Christmas Stopover”
3. Have Gun – Will Travel “The Hanging Cross”
