Cyd travels back to Christmas the year before to try and figure out the perfect gift for Shelby. Meanwhile, Barry and Naldo’s Winter Wonderland experiment sparks an elf war, with Bret and Chet leading the charge. (Imdb.com)

Christmas episodes are usually a challenge since the story has to make sense for the characters and for the holidays.  Thankfully, BFW’s Christmas episode wasn’t a spoof on Its A Wonderful Life.  Instead we are treated to some backstory about how Shelby always manages to find the perfect Christmas gift for Cyd as well as the Bret/Chet elf war.

I liked this episode primarily because it didn’t seek to rewrite history but to understand history. Cyd has always felt somewhat inferior to Shelby and Shelby’s Christmas gifts are no different.  So Cyd keeps returning to the past to see “the wrongly delivered box” that inspired Shelby’s gift.  Oddly enough, we never see the gift, just Cyd finally opening a box with a glowing yellow light.  Each time Cyd jumps back, she gets closer and closer to finding out whats in the box.  Cyd actually jumps without Shelby knowing (this is called jacked jumping) and its played out against a “story” about Cyd’s parents leaving her behind in Portland as they travel to NYC.  Cyd gives Shelby a hand-crafted memory book of their times together.  Its such a Shelby type gift.  Shelby’s gift to Cyd – a big bathtub of chocolate!  Weird, I know.  But not out of character.

Our B story is a “social experiment to manipulate the innocent during Christmas time” by testing the limits of Christmas cheer.  Barry starts an elf war between Chet and Brett that is just downright freaky.  The end of battle scene is a hoot, though.  Elves lying everywhere; I especially like the one elf who is pulling Christmas tree garland out of him to represent flowing blood.  Barry realized, with Naldo’s help naturally, that you can socially experiment with Christmas.

Question: Why is Barry’s RV in Shelby’s backyard? If you look at the exterior Shelby house shot, there appears to be no other homes around.

Props for the Christmas dance!