'Twas the Fight Before Christmas

"'Twas the Fight Before Christmas" is the 173rd episode of , produced as the seventeenth episode of its seventh season, and also the show's fourth Christmas episode. The episode is notable for officially introducing Lynn Sr.'s older brother Lance (who had previously only appeared as a silhouette in a flashback in "Home of the Fave" from the third season) and his branch of the Loud family.
==Synopsis==
A few days before Christmas, Lynn Sr. is acting as though he has a pain in his backside while his daughters are watching from the top of the stairway and playing a game of bingo based on his exclamations. Walking by, Lincoln explains to the viewers that his dad is actually fine and is faking his apparent back injury to get out of seeing his brother and the Loud kids' paternal uncle, Lance Loud, who lives in Petoskey Falls with his wife, Sharon, and their kids, Shane, Shelby, and Shiloh. Lincoln then reveals through a flashback (with rhyming narration) of why this is: Five years ago, Lance and his family came to visit on Christmas Eve. After the kids had all gone to bed, the parents were playing a game of White Elephant, and Lance mischievously grabbed the new spatula that Lynn Sr. had just opened. When Lynn Sr. angrily chased after Lance to get it back, he ended up popping Lance's Ab-Blaster 3000 exercise ball. The two brothers were so furious that they refused to ever speak to each other again, a declaration that Lincoln saw from the top of the stairs.
Back in the present, Lincoln declares that things are going to be different this Christmas now that Lynn Sr. and Lance's father, Leonard, is back. Lincoln tells his sisters that he has a plan for how they can get their dad and uncle to end their feud. The siblings call up their cousins to tell them about the plan, which Lincoln calls "Operation See You on the Brother Side". The next day, the postman brings the Louds a big fish, which Rita can immediately guess is from Leonard. The fish spits out a letter saying that Leonard wants them to join him for Christmas at Camp Mastodon. As Lynn Sr. is all too happy to accept, the Loud kids' cousins send them a text saying that Lance has received and accepted such an invitation too.
When the Loud family arrives at Camp Mastodon, Lynn Sr. is quite peeved when he sees Lance's truck pulling up. Lincoln explains to the two men that this meeting was his, his sisters', and their cousins' idea, and Leonard tells his sons that they really do need to "bury the spatula". Lynn Sr. and Lance don't want to spend the vacation together, but Lynn Sr.'s kids beg them to give them a chance, saying this vacation can be considered an early present for them (Lola says she's not considering it that). After Sharon reminds her husband that he needs to be strong in heart, Lance reluctantly agrees to it, but he and Lynn Sr. are still unhappy about it.
The kids move on to the next phase of the plan - family Christmas activities, in hopes that the brothers will get into the holiday spirit and forget about the fight. This of course proves to be a difficult task. When they go sledding downhill, Lance gives Lynn Sr. too big a push and he smacks into a tree. When they sing "Jingle Bells" during a campfire, Lynn Sr. criticizes Lance's pitch, and their attempts to match end up attracting a wolf (who apparently just wanted to join in the howling). And when they build snowmen, the brothers competitively try to build a bigger snowman than the other (and when the giant snowmen collapse, they both say their pile of snow is bigger). Visiting Leonard in his office cabin, the kids lament that the two dads hate each other even more now. Leonard says he's going to go cut down a tree for the mess hall, telling his grandkids that finding a tree was Lynn Sr. and Lance's favorite tradition when they were younger. Lincoln figures out that might just be what they need to do, so Leonard brings Lynn Sr. and Lance with him. As he starts cutting down a tree, his sons start reminiscing over some humorous incidents that happened when Leonard went cutting down Christmas trees in their youth (including the tree falling on Vanzilla, some squirrels attacking Leonard, and him mistakenly cutting down a telephone pole). They then have another good laugh when another such incident occurs in the form of a deer that was in the tree's path kicking it on (and crushing) Leonard's truck.
Later, in the Camp Mastodon mess hall, the Louds have decorated the tree, and even Lynn Sr. and Lance are enjoying each other's company now. The kids and Leonard are delighted that things seem to be fine between the two dads now. But then, while Lynn Sr. has gone into the kitchen to get out the gingerbread men he was baking, Lance sees a spider crawling around the decorations and, in a panic, grabs Lynn Sr.'s new spatula and tries to smack the spider, breaking the spatula in the process. When Lynn Sr. sees that his brother has broken the spatula, he is horrified and retaliates by popping Lance's Ab-Blaster 5000 exercise ball. Lance responds by biting the head off of Lynn Sr.'s gingerbread man, so Lynn Sr. breaks Lance's personal ornament, and Lance then kicks a present supposedly for his brother out the window (only for Lisa to clarify that it was actually for Lynn Jr.). Leonard then blows an airhorn and orders his sons to stop fighting so they can have a nice orderly Christmas, but Lynn Sr. and Lance refuse to spend Christmas with the other. When Rita asks how that's going to work when they're all spending the night here, they paint a dividing line in the middle of the room (and on Leonard himself) and move their dinner tables as far apart as they can.
The kids all retreat to one of the cabins, claiming to their parents that they have to use the restroom. As they discuss what they should do next, Shelby gets a "Category-1 Shelby brainstorm" (in which she spins around for a few seconds) and suggests to her siblings and cousins that they should buy a new spatula and exercise ball for their respective dads and label the gifts as being from the other brother. Lori, Lincoln and Shelby go out in Vanzilla to find the camp store, with Lincoln telling his other sisters and Shelby's brothers to keep the adults distracted until they get back, saying they can keep in contact with his David Steele walkie-talkies. However, as Lori and Lincoln are trying to find the store, it becomes evident that Shelby doesn't quite remember the directions to it, and in an attempt to turn Vanzilla around, they hit an icy patch and swerve off the road. Luckily, upon getting out of Vanzilla, Lincoln spots the store in the distance, and they start walking towards it. But as the trio gets closer to the store, they find that they're walking on a frozen lake... and the ice is starting to break.
Back at the mess hall, Lynn Sr. finds that Lincoln, Lori, and Shelby are missing when he finds Lily under the table and hears them crying for help over the walkie-talkie. Lynn Sr. and Lance prepare to go out to save their kids, but not before arguing over whose fault it is that this happened and then fighting over who's driving Lance's truck. When they find the lake and see their kids on a rapidly-cracking ice floe, the two brothers finally put their differences aside to think of a plan. Lance climbs up a nearby tree and, using a harpoon gun he'd gotten as a birthday present and a pair of barbells, creates a makeshift zipline across the lake. He then has Lynn Sr., who's much lighter for it to support, slide down the "zipline" to the kids, but it breaks midway through, causing Lynn Sr. to get stuck on the ice floe too. Fortunately, Lance then pulls his end of the rope, which Lynn Sr. still has a hold on, bringing his brother and their kids safely ashore.
After the five of them arrive back at the mess hall and reunite with their families, Lynn Sr. announces to everyone that, seeing two of his kids and his niece trapped on the ice floe made him remember that there was something more important than spatula and exercise balls, and that's family. Lance agrees with him, officially declaring that all their fighting is in the past and they've got each other's backs now. Shortly after, the families all have some hot cocoa as Luna and Shane sing "I Just Want My Family on Christmas Day".
==Songs==
* "O Christmas Tree"
* "Jingle Bells"
* "I Just Want My Family on Christmas Day"
==Voice cast==
Voice actor/actress 	Character(s)
Sawyer Cole 	Lincoln Loud
 	Lori Loud
Liliana Mumy 	Leni Loud
Nika Futterman 	Luna Loud
Cristina Pucelli 	Luan Loud
Jessica DiCicco 	Lynn Loud Jr.Lucy Loud
Grey Griffin 	Lana LoudLola LoudLily Loud
Lara Jill Miller 	Lisa Loud
Brian Stepanek 	Lynn Loud Sr.
Jill Talley 	Rita Loud
 	Lance Loud
 	Sharon Loud
Christopher Livingston	Shane Loud
Kyrie Mcalpin 	Shelby Loud
 	Shiloh Loud
 	Leonard LoudPostman
Note: Mr. Grouse has a cameo in the flashback at the beginning, but does not have a speaking part.
==External links==
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Category:Christmas productions