I Won't Be Home for Christmas

"I Won't Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas-themed episode of season 26 that aired on December 7, 2014. It is the seventeenth Christmas episode of the show.

Production
It was revealed to be about the sad side of Christmas in July 2014 by Al Jean.

Reception
The episode gathered 6.52 million, and with 18-49s gathered 2.9 million and an 8% share, was Fox's best-rated animation show of the night, but failed to win its timeslot, up against football. Its 6.52 million figure was up 3.07 million from the previous episode.

Critical response was mixed to positive. The A.V. Club awarded the episode a B- stating, "while pretty standard as far as such things go, [it] gets points for applying the formula so assiduously (and throwing out a handful of funny touches along the way)." Den of Geek rated the episode a 3/5, stating "“I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” isn’t quite the magical Christmas episode that we’ve seen in the past, but there are great random giggles and we learn something," and praised how "This is the first time they’ve addressed her [Edna Krabappel] as a gone character." BubbleBlabber said the episode "gets a checkmark in every box" and that "It was supposed to be meaningful and all that, but it never got too heavy or boring," finally saying "compared to a lot of the others [Christmas specials], it was much better." The reviewer awarded it an 8.5 rating.

Fan response was mixed. NoHomers' forum users voted in a communal poll on the episode, which as of late, holds a 4/5 rating. One user praised the episode for "for actually having a plot and for actually having humor", referencing the putative decline in quality; another was less sympathetic, stating "not awful even if it wasn't a laugh riot. it gets some points for not being a tepid mess"; and a third saying "Tonight's episode kind of ran out of steam in the 3rd act after a really nice setup. But I still appreciate its ambition and it was delightfully understated throughout."