How To Watch Every Modern Family Christmas Episode

Modern Family is a show that feels tailor-made for holiday episodes. Who doesn’t want to watch Jay, Gloria, Phil, Claire, Cam, and Mitch try to navigate the holidays with their quirky kids? It helps, of course, that they are all super funny and live in amazing houses and want to spend time with each other, even when they don’t really want to spend time with each other. Maybe that’s the key to these Modern Family Christmas episodes; they’re like outsized versions of what spending the holidays with our own families look like.

The real key to Modern Family’s consistent popularity throughout its 11 seasons is not just the amazing chemistry amongst the cast, although we certainly won’t be turning our noses up at their Emmy-winning performances. It’s the fact that the Dunphys and Pritchetts and that one Tucker (we see you Cam) their problems manage to feel familiar while also refusing to be stuck in traditional sitcom tropes. Never is this clearer than in their six amazing Christmas episodes. All of which you can stream on Hulu and Peacock while you’re wrapping or baking or just want something to get you in the mood for Christmas.

Season 1, Episode 10: “Undeck The Halls”

The very first Modern Family Christmas episode centered around Phil (Ty Burrell) trying to cancel Christmas after finding a cigarette burn in the family sofa that no one would claim having done. Meanwhile Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) accidentally get a mall Santa fired and Jay (Ed O'Neill) struggles to incorporate Gloria’s (Sofía Vergara) Colombian holiday traditions.

Season 3, Episode 10: “Express Christmas”

This holiday episode sees the family all coming together for “express Christmas” once they realize that they won’t be together for the holidays with their current plans. There is also a very funny storyline where both Cam and Phil try desperately to impress their father-in-law, and anyone who has watched the show knows how that would go over with Jay.

Season 5, Episode 10: “The Old Man and the Tree”

Jay tries to get in some bonding time with Manny (Rico Rodriguez) by taking him out to cut down a Christmas tree, and Gloria is struggling when her mother (Elizabeth Peña) comes to town and starts driving her up the wall. Until she notices Claire (Julie Bowen) bonding with her, and then things change. Haley (Sara Hyland) and Alex (Ariel Winter) get jobs as an elf and Mrs. Claus at the mall, where Alex and the mall Santa start to act like an old married couple.

Season 7, Episode 9: “White Christmas”

Gloria gets the entire family to head to a log cabin for the holidays to celebrate her first Christmas as an American citizen. Unfortunately, it’s too hot for an actual white Christmas and a bizarre woman named Fig (Andrea Martin) is already living in the cabin. Cam and Mitch’s planned performance of “Silent Night” is upstaged by Fig and Alex, and Haley tries to hide a new relationship.

Season 10, Episode 10: “Stuck In A Moment”

Cam and Mitch find themselves getting into yet another sticky situation with a mall Santa, which seems to be a recurring theme for them, while Haley tries to find a way to tell the family she’s pregnant. Jay and Gloria are forced to leave their house after a package from Colombia carrying a venomous spider is delivered, and poor Alex goes gray from trying to keep the secret of Haley’s pregnancy to herself.

Season 11, Episode 9: “The Last Christmas”

The very last Christmas episode of Modern Family is actually full of awkward interactions. Luke (Nolan Gould) is dating Manny’s ex-girlfriend, Gloria is interviewing for a rival real estate business behind Phil’s back, and Jay is putting pressure on Claire to join his new business venture. This is an oddly poignant holiday episode, simply because it’s the last.

Fortunately these episodes live on in streaming forever, otherwise what would we do?