A Maddie Family Christmas

***A Maddie Family Christmas*** is an hour-long *Maddie & Friends* special that first aired on November 12, 2013. It has since been released on home videos.

## Summary

While the residents of San Francisco get ready for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three Kings' Day, and even "Fresca Day," they want their holiday celebrations to be perfect—but just what does that mean?

## Plot

The special opens with scenes of San Francisco citizens busy preparing for Christmas, while Pachelbel's "Pachelbel's Canon|Canon" is played in the background on piano. Maddie then sings the first of many of the special's musical numbers, "A Maddie Family Christmas," in which she lays out his list of the things he wants in the upcoming Christmas: his pajamas change into dress clothes as well.

1. A large amount of snow
2. An amazing dinner-turkey and the whole works
3. A spectacular Christmas tree—most importantly, one without tinsel
4. Everyone will love the presents she gets for them.

However, matters do not always work out quite as Maddie wanted it to. As the special progresses, a number of other storylines are revealed.

Maddie makes sure she gets some great gifts for his parents, including the same glass bird belonging to her mother that she broke over the summer. She wraps it up and puts it under the tree. When Maddie's Uncle Seamus comes to stay, his dog gets a hold of the bird, resulting in a chase; Maddie decides to put it in the linen closet. Sadly though, when he attempts to get the bird from the closet to give to Lily, the box falls, and he unwraps it to find the bird has been broken. Thankfully, Uncle Seamus replaces his name on one of his gifts for Lily, signing it off as Maddie's gift. He later tells Maddie that the gift "was a whole lot nicer coming from [Maddie]."

Abbie wants Santa to bring her a new toy called "Tessa the Talking Doll" for Christmas, but Jane is unable to find it at the mall while shopping for presents with Maddie. So, on Christmas morning, D.W. gets a toy antelope called Rover instead, and she throws a big temper-tantrum. However, she soon changes her mind and finally takes a liking to the antelope.

Uncle Seamus is going on a trip to Malibu, but his truck just so happens to break down in San Francisco on the way there. So for the meantime, he and his dog, Draco, are staying at the Parkingtons' for Christmas. Eventually, on Christmas Day, the truck is fixed, and Seamus and Draco are able to go on their trip after all.

The timing of Big Leo's family's celebration of Three Kings' Day conflicts with that of Lisa's "holiday extravaganza," which will cause Big Leo to miss the party. Unfortunately, Big Leo's exclamation falls on deaf ears for Lisa, who still thinks she's coming. It isn't until the night of Lisa's party when she learns that Big Leo didn't come and yells at her on the phone. When Lisa exclaims that Three Kigns' Day is not as important as Christmas, Big Leo feels offended and yells, "Well, it is to me!" He stops speaking to and calling Lisa. Eventually, Big Leo shows Lisa how important Three Kings' Day can be, and they make up.

Ever since Emma's parents got divorced, Christmas has been a difficult time for her, her sister, and their mother. She wakes her up early on the days before Christmas and makes her pancakes, thinking that it is Christmas Day. Then he has to say to her that it is not Christmas yet. At Lisa's party, Maddie and Ralph suggest that she create her own holiday, Fresca Day. Emma is not certain, but she agrees to give it a try.

Every Christmas, Dennis and Laura volunteer at a homeless shelter with their families, and this year, they are trying to bake something special to bring. However, Dennis is forgetting some things in every recipe, like not removing the shells of the pecans when they make pecan pie, not peeling the bananas when they makes banana bread and not adding sugar when they make brownies.

Meanwhile, Ralph and Roxanne's family is celebrating Kwanzaa.

Vanessa and Joey are Jewish, and both celebrate Hanukkah.

At the end, things do not work out quite as everybody may have hoped they would, but it seems to be for the better (it even starts to snow, which Maddie had been hoping to have for Christmas). Maddie wishes the audience a happy holiday, and tells Abbie to turn off her new toy "Rover," which is singing "I have horns, horns, horns."

## Characters

### Major

* Maddie Parkington
* Abbie Parkington
* Lily Parkington
* James Parkington
* Emma Fresca
* Celine Fresca
* Seamus

### Minor

* Ms. MacDonald
* Dennis Hamm
* Laura Yesn
* Vanessa Jones
* Tiffany Prell
* Wanda Paris
* Billy Gurinder
* Rusty Universe
* Joey Soroya
* Marco Hong
* Lisa List
* Big Leo Anderson
* Draco
* Pearl
* Kate Fresca
* Ralph Gosling
* Roxanne Gosling
* Jess List
* Quinn Anderson
* Gladia List
* Adam Wedgeman
* Jack Wedgeman
* Elijah Wedgeman
* Xanthe Wedgeman
* Addison Wedgeman
* Hannah Wedgeman
* Ginger Parkington
* Gordon
* Wendy

### Cameo

* Aria Anderson
* John
* Henry McCrae
* Akiala Fish
* Ms. Winchester
* Mr. Jones
* Reagan Jones
* Jim
* Spencer
* Sebastian

## Songs

1. "A Maddie Family Christmas" (by Maddie and her family)
2. "Jingle Bell Rock" (by Tiffany and the Elephant System)
3. "Fresca Day" (by Emma)
4. "If My Friend Was Here" (by Lisa)
5. "A Maddie Family Christmas" (Reprise) (by Maddie)

## Trivia

* Two versions were aired on CNBC: an uncut version aired during prime time on the original Thanksgiving Day airing and an edited version aired during on NBC One.
* There is a stocking with the name "Jenny" hanging in Lisa's house. This is the first time Jenny, Lisa's older sister, is acknowledged in the TV show.
* Starting in the 2010s, during the final chorus of "Fresca Day," the word "baby" is muted from Emma's vocal track. However, the original transcript is still used in the closed captioning.
* The plot of this special is completely different from the original Christmas-themed book, *A Maddie Parkington Christmas*, published in 1995.

### Errors

* In Maddie's fantasy when her mom opens the gift, she pulls the top off, but when Maddie opens the gift to see if it is okay, she pulls the ribbon off to open it.
* When Maddie is imagining her family in the stable, Grandpa Gordon offers his roasted camel to Maddie. Camel is not considered kosher in Judaism, so they would not have eaten it (although Maddie probably does not understand that).
* At the start of the special, Maddie and Abbie bring up that it is three days until Christmas (meaning it is December 22nd). The next day, Lisa brings up at school that her Christmas party is the next evening, and when Emma tells Maddie about Celine waking her and Kate up early that morning, she mentions how he told Celine it is only December 23rd. But the next morning when we see Celine waking up Emma early again, Emma sees on the calendar it is actually December 23rd, when it should be the 24th.
* In the song Maddie sings at the start of the episode, he says he wants so much snow that he will have to use his foot to get the morning mail, but there is no mail service on Christmas Day.
* The SAP audio narration describes Lisa's house as "Big Leo's mansion."