Christmas specials are some of the best additions to a long-running series.Be it a genre showor your average drama or procedural, there’s a novelty to these episodes that keeps folks coming back to them every holiday season. With 327 episodes and 15 seasons under its belt, it’s no wonder thatSupernaturalhas at least one holiday episode, and it sure is a doozy! The eighth episode of Season 3, titled “A Very Supernatural Christmas” premiered just a few weeks before Christmas 2007 as “A Special Presentation” event, complete with an intro reminiscent of the ’80s specials that the Winchester brothers likely grew up watching via reruns.
StarringJared PadaleckiandJensen Acklesas Sam and Dean Winchester,Supernaturalusually follows these brothers as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters, and other creaturesacross the back roads of America. Only this time, the threat is Christmas itself — or, rather, some monsters who have purposed the holiday season for their carnivorous appetites. So light up the tree and salt the windows, because it’s time to revisit theSupernaturalholiday special that we can’t help but love.
‘Supernatural’s Christmas Special Makes Holiday Horror Exciting
The horror genre has a longstanding tradition of making holiday terrors. Movies likeBlack Christmas,Krampus, andViolent Nightare enough to hold fans of the genre over until the new year, andSupernaturalleans into that halfway through its third season. While not all attempts at holiday horror are particularly inspired, “A Very Supernatural Christmas” seamlessly blends the threat of “Anti-Claus” withthe Winchester’s own traumatic family history. Twice we see the “Anti-Claus” monster attack and kill adults right in front of little kids, and each time it’s tough to watch. Sadly, we never get a closer look at the monster in its complete attire, but, then again, maybe that’s for the best.
Written by future showrunnerJeremy Carver(who helmed the series during the Seasons 8-11 range), there’s so much to love about “A Very Supernatural Christmas.” Aside from the time we get to see Sam and Dean celebrate the holiday together (which is a particular highlight), we get to see theWinchesters turn tradition on its head and use the very things that make up the Hallmark holiday to kill the beasts attempting to thwart it.At one point, the boys even break into a fake Santa’s trailer hoping to take out the supposed “Anti-Claus,” only to realize that he’s not their guy. As they awkwardly exit, singing a subpar version of “Silent Night,” we can’t help but laugh and smile. But fake Santa aside, there’s still a real threat out there.
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According to series creatorEric Kripke, he loved Christmas specials so much growing up that he’d decided he wanted to make one of his own onSupernatural, complete with as much blood and guts as he could manage. “What I really rub my hands together in glee about is thatwe are far and away the most violent Christmas special in the history of television,” Kripke bragged toTV Guideback in ‘07. “As we researched legends for the show, we came across this worldwide one about an anti-Claus — if God has the Devil, then Santa Claus has this creature.” Of course, the Krampus legend is probably the one most familiar to audiences, but in this particular iteration, the monster is more than just a horned demon-looking creature who beats children with sticks. This creature goes after the parents, too.
The Monsters in “A Very Supernatural Christmas” Brutally Embody the Holiday
As it turns out, despite what the initial lore suggests,the monsters behind the “Anti-Claus” aren’t related to Saint Nick after all. Rather, they are pagan gods– or possibly, two halves of one whole pagan god named Hold Nickar, who, after the advent of Christ, was no longer worshiped. Instead of taking hundreds of human tributes annually, the Christian church ran them out of town so that they now barely take two people every year. Yeah, that’s a good thing, but these monsters have come back with a vengeance, consuming a few people a year (which is still very much a problem). Naturally, the whole thing brings Sam and Dean to a snow-less Ypsilanti,Michigan to hunt down the X-mas killers.
Hilariously, these pagan gods, for as much as they hate “that Jesus character,” absolutelylovethe pagan lore associated with the Christmas season. While it’s up for debate how much Christianity actually took from paganism when it comes to their most famous holiday, the Carrigans (played perfectly bySpencer GarrettandMerrilyn Gann) utilize just about every tradition they can think of in their rituals. To them, it’s just like the icing on a glazed cinnamon roll baking on Christmas morning, and, due to their love for tradition, they act as if they’ve stepped right out of a 1950s Christmas card. This fun blend of tradition with ritualand grisly horror could only work on a show likeSupernatural, and it does so masterfully, without missing a beat.
Though, just because the Carrigans look like something you’d see in a Christmas special (you know, the kind that isn’t aSupernaturalepisode) doesn’t mean they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Aside fromdressing up as a killer Santa Claus, they ritualistically prod and cut at Sam and Dean until an untimely (or, timely for the Winchesters) interruption keeps them from their goal. Since these things can only be killed by evergreen stakes,theSupernaturalChristmas special ends with the Winchesters stabbing the Carrigans with their own Christmas tree, which is probably one of the funniest (and certainly the most ironic) deaths on the show. It turns out, Christmas spirit is the only thing that can defeat the Anti-Claus, after all.
‘Supernatural’ Shows How the Holidays Are Hard, Especially for Hunters
The B-plot of this episode is a series of flashbacks (and, it’s hard to call it the B-plot given its importance to the rest of the story) set in 1991 Nebraska. Here, a young Sam (Colin Ford) and Dean (Ridge Canipe) celebrate Christmas on their own as their father, John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is out on a hunt. In these moments, we learn whythe holiday season is such a hard time for Sam, whose innocence is stripped away from him on Christmas morning when he forces Dean to tell him the truth about monsters and their family business. Regretfully, Dean does, and it changes Sam’s entire world. Any hopes and dreams he had of a normal life apart from motel rooms and secrets are instantly dashed, and the genie can’t be put back in the bottle.
But not everything in “A Very Supernatural Christmas” is doom and gloom. We also learn that the trademark amulet that Dean wearsthroughout the show’s early years(you know, the one nicknamed the “Samulet” by some fans) was first given to him by Sam that very Christmas. Even though his entire worldview was shattered, the younger Winchester was grateful that,unlike their father, his older brother didn’t lie to him. In many respects, this necklace symbolized the unbreakable bond between the brothers, and it ended up having a very important part to play later on. In writer Jeremy Carver’s final season as showrunner onSupernatural, the series used this amulet to reveal that the prophet Chuck (Rob Benedict) was actually God himself.
The Christmas-centric episode ends back in the present,with Sam and Dean celebrating their first Christmas together in years. With Dean’s trip to Hell underway (he sold his soul in the previous season’s two-part finale), the brothers don’t have much time left before he’s meant to die. But instead of ignoring the holiday as Sam had originally decided, he chose to honor it this year, making memories with his brother that he was no doubt grateful for during the time between Seasons 3 and 4. It’s a fun, and very sweet moment that feels like something out of a Christmas special, and that’s exactly why it works. Even though the Winchesters would go through countless trials and tribulations in the months (and years) ahead, they would always have this Christmas to look back on.
“A Very Supernatural Christmas” Wasn’t ‘Supernatural’s Only Holiday Episode
Believe it or not, “A Very Supernatural Christmas” isn’t the only holiday special in the series. In the show’s final season,Jeremy Adams(not to be confused with the aforementioned Jeremy Carver) pennedthe Season 15 episode, “Last Holiday.“In this holiday-themed hour, the Winchesters are introduced to a wood nymph in their secret bunker — one who feels a lot like Marge Carrigan, come to think of it. Except, this creature isn’t evil like the dueling Anti-Clauses. Instead,she helps the Winchesters find more meaning in life by forcing them to celebrate all the holidays they missed over the years. Yes,allof them.
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“Last Holiday” may not be as “Christmas special-y” as “A Very Supernatural Christmas,” but it’s a fun nod to the fact that,after this Season 3 episode, the boys never really celebrate the holiday again. Which, when you think about that fact for a few seconds, that’s profoundly sad. Despite the breakthrough they had together on Christmas 2007, the Winchesters decided that it was their swan song to the holiday. As such, Christmases came and went over the years, and (as far as we can tell) they didn’t bat an eye. So, as they make up for lost time, the Winchesters recognize the value of getting together with their loved ones and enjoying the years they have left. Ironically, they only begin to really understand this in the show’s fifteenth and final season.
Supernaturalisn’t a show exactly known for its commitment to annual Christmas episodes, which is a bit of a shame because that could’ve been so much fun. After all,The X-Fileswas always ableto makea few Christmas productions itself. But, if we were to settle on a single holiday to spend with the Winchesters, then we’re glad that it was “A Very Supernatural Christmas.” In many ways, the episode stands out among a sea of other specials as one of the most gruesome, and yet, one of most heartfelt too. If you love holiday horror, and you’re ready for your heartstrings to come undone,then this is theSupernaturalepisode you need to revisit this December. But be warned, it might give you more than a few nightmares of Anti-Santas who could come crawling down your tree…
Supernaturalis available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.
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Supernatural
Two brothers follow their father’s footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds, including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.
