How the Griffin Stole Christmas

"How the Griffin Stole Christmas" is the ninth episode of the fifteenth season of the animated sitcom Family Guy, and the 278th episode overall. It aired on Fox in the United States on December 11, 2016, and is written by Aaron Lee and directed by Julius Wu. The plot follows Peter turning into a Mall Santa and realizing he can do whatever he pleases with this new persona. Meanwhile, Brain and Stewie start crashing office Christmas parties to live life to the fullest.

Its title is a play on the Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Unlike most episodes that are rated TV-14, this one is TV-PG.

Plot

When Christmas comes around Quahog, the Griffins decide to go sledding instead of attending church after watching How David Lynch Stole Christmas. Mayor Adam West at first bans sledding from Quahog. After an argument with Peter, he reverses the decision and severely injures himself. When sledding, the Griffins go sledding on the dining room table, except for Lois who protests that the table has been in her family for generations. The remaining members go sledding on it while wearing go-pro cameras, but they get injured when hitting the bottom and subsequently destroy the table. When going to the mall to replace the table, Chris wants to sit on Santa Claus' lap despite the fact that he is in high school. Upon seeing the long line, Peter complains to a mall patron who reveals that their current Mall Santa Claus is a drunk. Seeing how Peter looks, the patron decides to hire him as a substitute.

Meanwhile, Stewie discovers that Brian has been crashing office Christmas parties for free alcohol and is about to attend one. When attending a party, he tries to impress a girl with some lies but utterly fails. Stewie arrives to survey how Brian is failing at his malingering but decides to stay upon seeing the free food and prop pictures booth. During Christmas parties they attend at the printer company Printex, Stewie lies that the company is about to conduct major layoffs and gets the workers to have a drinking competition to "save" their positions. A manager comes over to Stewie and shocks him by praising him, as he'd been ordered to cut the staffing but was afraid to, and Stewie is offered a position at Printex which he happily accepts.

After one of his shifts ends, Peter goes to purchase a burrito, but the cashier won't charge "Santa Claus" for it and gives him free food, making Peter discover that he can have his way at the mall as Santa Claus. He decides to stay until Christmas, much to Lois's scepticism. Peter begins using his identity as Santa to avoid parking tickets, request that the local orchestra play the 1-877-Kars for Kids song, and pick up a ton of free spaghetti from the local strip club. When he passes out after exiting the Fuzzy Clam, he wakes up and meets the actual Santa Claus who is cross with him for abusing Santa's name and making him look like a jerk. Peter brushes him off and takes some of the spaghetti home for dinner, but Santa decides to put a strike on Peter as he quotes "You better watch out." One of Santa Claus' Christmas elves was seen exiting the Fuzzy Clam and goes the other way upon seeing Santa Claus. Santa starts by sending some forged texts to Joe Swanson by going with him to Build-a-Bear Workshop. Peter counteracts by replacing one of Santa Claus's reindeer with a real reindeer, but it backfires when the Christmas elf with Santa Claus cuts the real reindeer loose and it falls through the Griffin family's roof and onto their dinner table. The next day, Peter receives a box containing all of Meg's farts and calls Glenn Quagmire, Cleveland Brown, and Joe Swanson over to investigate. When Peter looks into it, the combined stench burns off 90% of his face.

At Printex, Stewie is sickened when he learns that his firing ruse has been implemented and a co-worker whose marriage has fallen apart is also getting fired. Stewie soon realizes that working in an office is not all great, so he decides to spread some holiday cheer by giving out some $11,000.00 checks to the other employees before resigning from the office.

Outside the Drunken Clam, Peter sees Santa's sleigh and decides to hijack it. As Peter writes "Wash Me" on the dirty part, he discovers too late that it was a trap as Santa strangles him with his belt. Santa Claus withdraws when Peter agrees to stop wearing the suit. After Peter apologizes to Santa, Santa gives him a Penthouse magazine he found in the woods when he was 12 years old. When Peter commented that he must've been a terrible Santa Claus portrayer, Santa Claus states that someone else was worse than him as he shows a magazine where its cover has Bill Cosby dressed as Santa Claus. Santa Claus then leaves and as Peter waves goodbye to him. Peter then narrates how he drank himself into a screaming fit of terror that his family had to witness, and that he won't remember any of the recent events, before wishing the audience a very Merry Christmas.

Reception

The episode receive an audience of 3.05 million viewers, a decrease from the previous episode,^[1] and making it the second most-watched show of the night, behind The Simpsons.^[2]

Jake Beamer of Bubbleblabber gave the episode an 8/10.^[3]

References

External links

• "How the Griffin Stole Christmas" on IMDb
• "How the Griffin Stole Christmas" at TV.com