page_title: A Very Glee Christmas
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: A Very Glee Christmas / Reception / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Heather Elizabeth Morris at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego
context_page_description: "A Very Glee Christmas" is the tenth episode of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the thirty-second episode overall. It was written by series co-creator Ian Brennan, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and premiered on Fox on December 7, 2010. It served as the mid-season finale of season two—nearly two months elapsed before the next episode was aired—and featured Artie trying to keep his girlfriend Brittany's belief in Santa Claus intact, and Sue rigging the faculty Secret Santa gift exchange so she gets all the gifts, though she later becomes a Grinch when the gifts are repossessed.
  The episode features seven songs, two of which come from the television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The creators of Glee received permission from the estate of Dr. Seuss for the use of characters from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, but were not allowed to use them in promotional photographs.
context_section_description: The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, most of whom seemed to have judged it on different criteria from their normal because it was a holiday episode. The Atlantic's Kevin Fallon may have called it "sickly oversweet", but maintained "that's exactly what you want at Christmas". His colleague Patrick Burns wrote, "Holiday episodes tread a dangerous line between sweet and saccharine, but this episode splits the difference perfectly." The title of the article they wrote with Meghan Brown, "Glee Does Christmas: Cheesy but Charming", found echoes in other reviews: both Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times and Anthony Benigno of the Daily News also thought the episode was quite cheesy, but Benigno characterized it as "the good kind of cheese; the kind you'll eat for antipasti before grandma and grandpa bring out the roast beef on Christmas dinner", and Reiter's bottom line was that it "may not have been the most wonderful episode of the year, but it did feature moments that twinkled and shined like the lovingly trimmed family tree." Time's James Poniewozik was less enthusiastic when he noted that Glee delivered an episode "that touched on all the requisite holiday bases but that felt perfunctory", and added that it was "generally ho-ho-hum". Robert Canning of IGN gave it a "great" 8 out of 10, but stated that "the episode as a whole was lacking just a bit to turn it into an absolute classic", and The A.V. Club's Emily VanDerWerff gave the episode a "B−" and wrote, "I guess I'd say that I thought the episode worked moment-to-moment, without working as an overall narrative", but also stated that it was "positively filled with stupid moments".
  Joel Keller of AOL TV wrote that "the linchpin of the hour was Brittany's belief in Santa Claus." The New York Post's Jarett Wieselman called it "adorably realized by actress Heather Morris", and Canning said she "perfectly played up Brittany's innocence and joy surrounding everything Santa". Brown was less enthusiastic, and wrote that she was tiring of the "look how dumb yet kind-hearted Brittany is" plots. Keller approved of the Artie and Brittany coupling, and said it was "way more fun to watch than Rachel and Finn and all their angst", and Canning felt that the episode's heart was Artie working to keep Brittany from becoming disillusioned about Santa. He also wrote, "shining in this storyline was Dot Jones as Coach Beiste. Her scene as Santa, and then her knowing expression as she watched Artie walk, were the best moments of the episode." Burns agreed: "Coach Beiste's performance as the Santa Claus bearer of harsh reality was quite moving. It's nice to see her get to show her acting chops and refreshing to see her character's vulnerability." Poniewozik also agreed, and said Jones "has been remarkable", "taking every ridiculous moment Glee has thrown at her and finding the true emotion at the core of the absurdity, which is what Glee at its best does." However, he was disappointed by how the storyline played out: "it didn't feel right that after the story the episode built around Brittany, it then felt that we needed to see Artie on his feet for it to be a truly happy ending."
  Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle was critical of the "really tedious Rachel/Finn back and forth", and Canning wrote that the "only thing that really dragged the episode down was Rachel trying to win Finn back". Keller asked rhetorically, "Do we still care about Rachel and Finn at this point?", and later stated, "nice as 'Last Christmas' was, I'm glad Finn didn't fall for it." Benigno noted that Finn's few lines in the episode really counted.
  Critics had widely divergent views of Sue's storyline. Keller wrote, "They made Sue Sylvester into a cartoon character." Though he called Sue's destruction of the choir room "a fun little parody to watch", he added, "in the grand scheme of what was a pretty damn good episode, it was too much of a distraction", and worried that the role of Sue was becoming "a big fat joke". While Canning also noted the shift in tone "from despicable Sue to cartoony e
caption: The belief of Brittany (Heather Morris, pictured) in Santa Claus was called "the linchpin of the hour" by Joel Keller.[18]
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