In terms of TV Christmas specials, Community certainly aired the best of the best. Considering that the average episode of Community, especially in the later seasons, includes some manner of spoof or homage, the Christmas season is a goldmine for themed holiday episodes. While other shows focus in some manner on characters celebrating Christmas together, Community takes its Christmas episodes one step further, exploring different genres and Christmastime clichés. Listed from the worst to the best, here are Community's four Christmas episodes that range from hilariously inventive to your new favorite Christmas specials.

4 "Intro to Knots"

Season 4, Episode 10

"Intro to Knots" centers around Jeff's (Joel McHale) holiday party, an already strange occurrence that makes the rest of the study group suspicious. His motives for throwing a festive party become clear when their history teacher, Professor Cornwallis (Malcolm McDowell), shows up by invitation. The study group then commit to trying to convince Cornwalis to give them a better grade on their final, descending into more desperate tactics as the night wears on.

Though the holiday party becomes somewhat of a hostage situation, an outrageous but very Community-like occurrence, "Intro to Knots" tends to drag in terms of pacing. However, the colorful inclusion of wildcard Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) and Cornwallis's mind games make this episode a fun addition to your yearly Christmas special watchlist.

3 "Comparative Religion"

Season 1, Episode 12

"Comparative Religion" is the first episode to explore the diverse religious beliefs of the study group. When Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) tries to force a happy traditional Christian Christmas party on her friends, it creates an awkward space where the rest of the group reveals their religions: Jeff is agnostic, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) is atheist, Annie (Alison Brie) is Jewish, Abed (Danny Pudi) is Muslim, Troy (Donald Glover) is a Jehovah's Witness, and Pierce (Chevy Chase) is part of a thinly-veiled cult called Reformed Neo Buddhism. When the school bully (surprisingly not hard to find, even considering these are adults attending community college) picks a fight with Jeff, Shirley forbids him to fight, while the rest of the group teaches Jeff how to throw his first punch.

As the most realistic and grounded Christmas episode of Community, Season 1's Christmas special focuses on the relationship between Shirley and the rest of the group and highlights Jeff's desire to make her proud. While Jeff is mostly portrayed as a selfish jerk throughout Season 1, he has grown into someone who wants his friend's respect. Shirley also learns an important lesson, and it's one that isn't easily found in Christmas specials: If you respect the people in your life who are precious to you, then you will respect their beliefs as well, even if they're different from yours. Shirley displays this character growth by performing her own rendition of "Silent Night," retitled "Sensitive Night," rewriting the lyrics to be enjoyed by all members of her study group.

All in all, "Comparative Religion" is a heart-warming Christmas story filled with funny character moments, a plethora of religious beliefs, and a unique moral that adds its own Community twist.

2 "Regional Holiday Music"

Season 3, Episode 10

"Regional Holiday Music" takes a throwaway line from the previous season's clip show episode, "Paradigms of Human Memory," and runs with it. When Jeff shuts down the school glee club, the study group's satisfaction and relief are cut short when the dean and the glee club director, Mr. Rad (Taran Killam), ask them to stand in for the glee club in the Christmas Pageant. Because the study group filled in for the previous glee club (who all died tragically in a bus crash), they are technically able to help, but they refuse due to their extreme annoyance with glee clubs. What they don't account for is Abed's love for Christmas, and the glee bug spreads throughout the study group, brainwashing them one by one.

Community has never shied away from making fun of Glee, and this Christmas special is part-homage and part-spoof. As the passion for glee club spreads like a virus, the cast of Community has a blast performing original Christmas songs, from Troy and Abed's rap, "Christmas Infiltration," to Annie's song, "Teach Me How to Understand Christmas," which tries way too hard to be sexy. When Abed finally realizes that Mr. Rad plans to keep the study group as the glee club permanently, his solution is as heart-warming as it is funny. Even though the group's Christmas has been mostly spent performing glee music, their holiday is not ruined, as shown by their caroling as they stop by Abed's apartment to spend Christmas with him and cheer him up.

Though "Regional Holiday Music" doesn't focus as much on a character-driven plot, it is still a lot of fun to watch and sing along to, complete with a hilariously dark twist toward the end.

1 "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

Season 2, Episode 11

"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is Community's most ambitious Christmas special and one of the best Abed-focused episodes of Community. When Abed wakes up to find that the world around him is stop-motion animated, and he is the only one who can see it, he sets out to find the meaning of Christmas, because what else would you do if you find yourself stuck in a Christmas special? When the study group tricks Abed into therapy to try and find the source behind this psychological break, they get more than they bargained for, as Abed hijacks the therapy session to include them on his journey through a winter wonderland in his mind.

This episode benefits from Community's tendency to go all-in with their themed episodes. As the most traditional-looking (and non-realistic) of Community's Christmas episodes, this episode uses animation to completely immerse the viewer in Abed's mind, which gives the episode the freedom to get extremely creative. Each member of the study group becomes a Christmas version of themselves: Jeff-in-the-Box, Britta-Bot, Baller-Annie, Troy Soldier, Baby Shirley, and Teddy Pierce. But the real heart of the episode lies with the unraveling of Abed's emotional struggle. As the group ventures further into his winter wonderland, they begin to understand the sadness he feels this year as he spends Christmas alone, leading them to support him instead of opposing him.

"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" isn't just Community's best Christmas episode, it is one of the best Christmas specials on television. Abed's holiday story is heartfelt, fun, hilarious, and inventive, cementing it as one of Community's strongest episodes in a long list of stand-out stories.

Community is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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