Over the course of this year's Advent, I've been going in relative order from the early days of television through the 60s and now the 70s. But I have to jump ahead to the early 2000s. But there's a very good reason why.
Tonight marks the first day of the festival of lights. Hanukkah, 2017 and you know what that means...that's right it's time for the Holiday Armadillo!
For tonight only, we jump ahead to December 14, 2000 and our show is Friends. In The One With the Holiday Armadillo, Jewish Ross is getting his son Ben for the holidays and wants to introduce him to Hanukkah. But Ben is so set on Santa coming. Desperate to make his son happy, Ross scrambles to find a Santa suit. Unfortunately, it's the day before Christmas Eve and all of the costume shops are out of red suits. So, Ross rents the next best thing- a giant armadillo costume!
Bearing gifts, Ross announces himself as the Holiday Armadillo; Santa's Jewish representative to all of the mid-western states... AND Mexico!!! The Holiday Armadillo is about to tell Ben the story of the first Hanukkah when his brother-in-law Chandler comes bursting in as Santa.
After convincing Chandler, that he needs to leave, Ben gets upset and demands that Santa stay and the Armadillo leave. Defeated, Ross starts to go when next door neighbor Joey bursts in dressed as Superman! Thankfully after the initial chaos, things calm down and Ross is able to finally tell the story of the Maccabees and light the Hanukkah menorah with his son.
This episode is a favorite in my mixed Jewish-Christian home. There's been several times I've quoted Ross' speech about the first Hanukkah, even going so far as to use the Holiday Armadillo's voice. Since it's the best part of the episode, and because I'm only allowed to provide a clip of this highly copyrighted show, my Advent present for today is the complete sequence with the Armadillo, Santa, and the Man of Steel.
Enjoy- and until tomorrow, Mer--- uh, Happy Hanukkah!
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