Recap – “A Very Supernatural Christmas”
Now the double whammy. The scene shifts from young Sam to adult Sam, same pensive look, and Dean walks through the door, camera focused on said amulet. 
Rosemary Clooney’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” comes on, not doing much for my already emotional state. Dean is pleasantly surprised over Sam’s impromptu setup. There’s a “Merry Christmas” banner on the faux brick wall, a small Christmas tree in a tar bucket decorated with lights, fishing lures, and cheap pine tree air fresheners seen in cabs. Aww, how cute!
Sam looks really nervous and is wearing his favorite shirt and ours too, The Paisely Peril. “What made you change your mind?” Dean asks. Sam hands Dean a cup of egg nog instead. The egg nog is heavily spiked judging by Dean’s cringing as he drinks it. I read in an interview the eggnog actually had a crazy amount of rum in it, put there by Jared, so the choking reaction by Jensen was genuine. Then Sam offers more, but Dean waves him off. Those are the pure moments of gold. So is the upcoming Christmas gift exchange.
They both sit down in the living area and Dean hands Sam two presents in paper bags. Where did he get them? At the gas mart down the street. Sam smiles, claiming “great minds think alike.” He wrapped his presents with the comics section though, thus adding the nice tie in to the present in 1991. Both gaze at these items with smiles as if they’re the best gifts they’ve ever gotten. Sam opens his, skin mags and shaving cream. Dean opens his presents, motor oil and a candy bar. He’s thrilled. “Fuel for me and fuel for my baby.” That’s the traditional “it’s the thought that counts” message all holiday specials have but it really means something here. These guys have nothing but each other so to actually seem them smile by such things delivers the “Christmas spirit” message in the most perfect way. It’s not hokey, it’s humbling.
They toast with egg nog and Sam says “Hey Dean,” sighs, stops, then asks “Do you want to watch the game?” Dean loves that idea. Many have speculated why Sam stopped himself. It’s the same reason why he couldn’t answer why he changed his mind. He wanted to tell Dean thanks for all he had done, for looking out for him all these years, for being there when no one else was. In the end, he didn’t need to say it, for being together was all that mattered. Sam turns on the TV, they settle in, and both look very content on their supposed last Christmas together. What’s a closing to a Christmas special without the sentimental holiday portrait? This maybe the Anti-Christmas, but there are rules to follow. The camera pans to an outside window shot of Sam and Dean watching TV, the Thomas Kinkade mural in the background, and falling snow on the Impala, with colorful Christmas lights reflecting off its shiny body. Yep, the final emotional zinger that left us wrecked for the rest of the holiday and beyond.
Wow, I’m exhausted. What an impossible episode to recap, but a really great one to watch. My grade is an A+ easily. One of the best of the series. Merry Christmas everyone!
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Hi Alice
Loved the recap. Always enjoyable…Thank-you!
I have added this episode as part of my yearly Christmas shows that I have to watch at least once. I think it lines up well with Bill Murray’s Scrooged.
Of course can’t forget the classics! A Christmas Carol (Alastair Sims version), It’s a Wonderful Life, Holiday Inn, White Christmas, Going My Way, A Muppets Christmas Carol (no, not kidding):oops
Man! I’m a total Sap around this time of year!
Karen, I’m a total Sap at this time of year too. Alice, once again a recap masterpiece. So much in the episode, as you pointed out, and so much a tribute to the Christmas spirit. I guess Kripke’s friends would think he needs a psychoanalyzing because they really don’t get the message he was sending, in his own SPN way. Their loss; our gain!
What Bobby meant by the amulet as being special, is open to interpretation. From the series aspect, no one thought the show was going to be around in season 5, so the original idea behind the amulet being ‘special’ was just for Sam to think the gift he was giving would be exception to Dad, a way to once again try to reach his father. Something so special, his Dad would have to sit up and take notice of Sam. Something Dean did Sam’s entire life. At this point in the series, the amulet was not endowed with any magical abilities. That developed between season 4 and 5, and I hope when it’s returned to Dean, it’s ‘magic’ will give us all the same warm and tingly feelings the amulet did when it was first given to Dean. The final domino in cementing the boy’s relationship before facing Lucifer. That would be fabulous to see!
You are completely right with the concept that Sam gave his special gift to Dean because he finally realized Dean meant much more to him than Dad did. This wasn’t something he didn’t know for a while either, just something he now could accept. I guess I would say, Dad’s not showing up for Christmas was just the last straw for Sammy.
It’s funny to know Jared REALLY spiked Dean drink! I didn’t know that before. Those two seem to have so much fun together…and it really comes across in the show. Hummmmm…wonder if in another life, Jensen and Jared really WERE brothers. 😮
The intense silence between the boys after the toast did contain all the ideas you brought out, but I think it would have meant a LOT to Dean to hear it verbalized, and it would have been so good for Sam’s soul to speak it. Maybe the return of the amulet will remind the boys of that moment, and why, for their lives, all that matters is being together.
Only thing I missed was a screencap of the Merry Christmas on the wall. Like what you have on the count-down clock. Really would like to have it for wallpaper for the holidays. Can you post it please?
Just Pong? Didn’t the Odyssey have a couple of other games, too, like Son of Pong?
Not funny? Oh well. 😎
Anyone ever screw up a fingernail? It hurts like a MOFO and I cannot even fathom having one completely torn out. That’s right up there with the melonballer.
Totally awesome recap of a, like, gnarly episode. (is Valley Girl speech too new for the youth of us old people?) I know Xmas is over, but I think I’ll watch this again when I get out of work.
That was wonderful Alice! Got me all teary again.
That episode is an A+ for me too. An up and down roller coaster of hoots of laughter and sobbing tears, one after another. The final shot of them through the window with the lights reflected on baby and knowing that it is Dean’s last Christmas just gets my waterworks gushing. Those poor boys! I love them so.
This is my one and only traditional Christmas show. I guess I’m sorta a grinch as well as Sam.
Sweet Peter on a popsicle stick! Those gods were absolutely fabulous characters. So very funny and macabre and creepy altogether. The actors were just perfect in their parts.
And we need that amulet back. Come on Cas, get a move on with your quest. Dean wants it back. (By the way, where is his ring and bracelet? Did Cas steal them too? I miss them also.)
What a great recap. This is my very favorite episode. There is not a single wrong note and every time I watch I catch something new and wonderful. I “strongly encouraged” several friends to record this episode this year and think it is a wonderful introduction to our wonderful show.
I recently watched this wonderful episode again when it was on television on Christmas Eve, and like grayj1133, I also usually catch something new every time I watch it. Therefore, I will have to disagree with her statement that there is not a single wrong note since I caught one with the last viewing. As the screen shots show in this recap, Dean’s jacket collar was initially down when Sam handed him the eggnog, but then the jacket collar was up when he was drinking the eggnog. This inconsistency in collar positions happens another couple of times before Dean finally takes off the jacket. Within what is about a minute of screen time, Dean’s collar starts off down when entering the motel room; then it is up; then it is down again; then up again; then down again; and when he finally takes off the jacket, the collar is up again. Such an unimportant inconsistency will never prevent me from loving this episode; however, I know I will never be able to watch the final motel scene in this episode again without having a mental image of Dean flipping the collar of his leather jacket up and down – not a bad mental image at all actually – in fact, it might even add to my love of this episode.
Alice, thanks so much for this recap, another of my favourite episodes re-invented…. You’re a master! I adore how your account of this episode matches the dark humour of it. You can’t watch a tooth pulled out? Wuss… 😉
Well, here comes my wuss-moment: I have a problem with the fingernail – I had a small accident in a pool once, slipped and ripped one nail (on my foot) out, there’s a lot of blood, actually (come on, you can’t expect me to be gentle after such an episode). It grew back, of course, but I remember the pain as if it had been yesterday (I was about fifteen at the time)… So, every time I watch that scene, I’m tempted to scream along with Sam… (yep Randal, I’ve had it…)
And I think you’re right, the Easter Bunny tradition (I believe) is of German but also French (Alsace, if I’m not mistaken) origin, going back to a German fertility Goddess. I don’t really care for the bunnies, though, Christmas is hardly gone and you already find the chocolate bunnies in some shops… Come on, it’s still freezing out there!
Always great fun, Alice!! Love, Jas
You are right, Alice, AVSC is one of the best episodes of the series. My favorite little detail is at the very end of the episode, when the camera is pulling away from the hotel room where Sam and Dean are celebrating Christmas, and one of the lights decorating the hotel, which looked liked it had burned out, suddenly lights up.
I will have to watch next time for the change in Dean’s collar position in the final scenes, that one of the posters above mentioned, or the victimized wife’s black eye that you referred to, neither of which I have ever noticed.
One thing I have noticed, however, is how unsynchronized the editing of the opposite camera angles is when Sam and Dean are tied to the chairs in the pagans gods’ kitchen. Like when the camera is facing Sam after the fingernail is taken out he is slumped down, but the very next shot from behind him he is not slumping. Then he is slumping again when we see him from the front. Also Dean turning his head from our back view of him does not match the head turning in our front view of him. It’s like the scene is on two slightly different timelines, depending on which angle the camera is shooting from. In a way it kind of adds to the wackiness of the scene for me.
These pagan gods were among the best MOTW in the series, so much better than the pagan god in “Fallen Idols.” And the porn-loving Santa was also one of the most memorable secondary characters. Just a great episode.