On December 18, 1982, Diff’rent Strokes aired “Santa’s Helper,” its only true Christmas episode, aside from a first-season attempt that aired a few days after Christmas in 1978 and consisted mostly of clips from the show’s first seven episodes.
When “Santa’s Helper” begins, the family is decorating the tree, and we quickly learn that the star is an antique that has been in the family for years. Of course there are many other valuables in the Drummond household, including the video camera and all of the family’s gifts.
When Arnold finds out he isn’t getting a Christmas bonus from working for his dad’s company, he needs to find a way to earn money and buy presents. (‘Tis the season!) Unfortunately, he’s recently blown all of his cash on a statue of E.T with a clock in his stomach! (‘Tis 1982!) He soon meets Mr. Jones, who is dressed as Santa and collecting money for charity, and Arnold joins him in his efforts.
While it isn’t quite clear at first if Mr. Jones is definitely a scam artist, after becoming friends with Arnold’s family, his true colors come out, and he Grinches the Drummonds while they sleep on Christmas Eve.
Of course, Arnold (accidentally) helps Mr. Jones see he’s done something wrong, and Christmas comes after all when the gifts are returned to the family’s door as they are eating dinner.
This episode is full of Christmas tropes and fun, from the decorations and the carols to Arnold’s E.T. alarm clock being set for 6 a.m. on Christmas morning. However, it also represents the overall series very well. Even as a fifth-season episode, you easily learn everything you need to know about the series to enjoy this special. And you even get a “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Santa?!” for fun. You could show this episode to your kids or any friends who have never seen Diff’rent Strokes, and you really wouldn’t have to explain much about the family’s background.
With a quick 25-minute runtime, “Santa’s Helper” should easily slide into your family’s annual watch list.
9/10
The fourth episode of the series, this takes place in December, yet it aired in October 1957. In the show, Beaver has developed a habit of losing his lunch money. When he is chosen to be an angel in the school holiday musical, his dad sends him to the barbershop for a haircut; however, Beaver loses this money as well, so he decides to give himself a haircut. When that doesn’t go well, Wally tries to help. Eventually their parents find out, forgive them, and take them out for breakfast and a movie. And the Christmas play comes after all.
Honestly, it’s really not much of a Christmas episode, although it’s as close to one as the original series ever got. (We’ll have to visit The New Leave It to Beaver later!) Still, we do see June making the angel costume throughout the show, and Wally even tries it on (even if it makes him “look like a sissy”). Eventually, we do get to see the angel choir belt out “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and I have to believe that eight years later, someone involved with A Charlie Brown Christmas played this version for producers, begging “please make sure our kids sing better than this!”
Overall, the episode is a fine early example of the show’s strong points. The haircut itself is pretty funny, although Beaver spends most of his time in his stocking cap to hide it. But more importantly, I was surprised to see Ward and June handle the situation so well, especially since we’re often led to believe that parents didn’t accept these types of shenanigans back then.
This is the first of three Christmas episodes from the eight-season run of Full House. If you’re looking for general info about the episode, you can find 
If you listened to 
Milton: I kept my ice cream there for a few years, but as Chilly and Milly — Frosty and Crystal’s children — grew up and learned the story of that summer, they approached me and said perhaps I should just pay for my own freezer instead. I think they considered me something of a troublemaker, even though I’m just a guy trying to keep his ice cream cold. At one point, Milly even says to me, “Look, just stay away from my dad.”
Milton: It’s funny. The circus did become a big success, after all that trouble we went through, but then Laine’s mom, Ms. Loraine, decided she would be happier doing a rodeo instead. Go figure. We even roped Rudolph into it for a year or two, cowboys riding on his back while he did his jumps and all that. There wasn’t really a place in the rodeo for Laine though, so she helps me with the ice cream business now. I think she’s happy in our marriage. She talks a lot about the old days.
Milton: Like I said, I was in love! You saw how cute Laine used to be. Would you be thinking about anything else? Besides, whatever trouble these weirdos got up to once I got them there had nothing to do with me. Could I have been a better friend? Sure. Between you and me, I was one of the people booing Rudolph when his nose didn’t light up anymore. And it wasn’t even because I thought he stole from the circus. You just get swept up by the crowd, you know? As for the fireworks, they were boring. Very generic.
Milton: Rudolph is not a funny person. No offense to him or anything, but have you ever heard him tell a joke? No. I’m not the most hilarious guy in the universe, but I know how to have a good time. You don’t get to a place in life where you fly a hot air balloon from Florida to the North Pole for an ice cream pick-up while dating a tight-rope walker without learning a joke or two. So to this un-funny reindeer, I’m sure I was a regular Shecky Greene. Personally, I thought Frosty was funny, always making dark jokes about he and his family melting, but I don’t think Rudolph got half of those.
Milton: Frosty not so much. His kids see to that, not that I was going to go out of my way to visit him or anything. I barely knew him beyond that summer. Rudolph and I have kept in touch. Laine likes him or whatever, and the Center for Disease Control says that animals do not play a significant role in the spread of the coronavirus, so we hang out a lot now. We play a lot of Scrabble.
We know Robert Wells and Mel Torme wrote “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” in the summer, attempting to stay cool on a hot day, which we discussed on 
Snow in Southtown Christmas Podcast 