The episode starts with the whole family lounging around Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Gloria's (Sofía Vergara) pool.

Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) announces that their mother canceled for Christmas because she will go for a cruise with her new boyfriend.

Mitchell points out that their mother had previously mentioned him in a Christmas Family Newsletter, which Claire finds impossible to read.

Discussion continues between family members regarding everyone's plans: Jay notes that on the day of Christmas he, Gloria and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) will be traveling to Mexico.

Everyone gathers indoors as Phil, who is excitedly looking forward to this challenge, gets all the family members into groups so that everyone has something to do and get everything ready for their Christmas Day.

Mitchell and Alex (Ariel Winter) go for a tree along with Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons); Phil and Manny go to the grocery store; Jay and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) are responsible for wrapping the gifts; Claire and Haley (Sarah Hyland) go to the store to buy the last minute gifts and Gloria with Luke (Nolan Gould) need to find the Christmas angel for the tree and the ornaments that are packed in the house's attic.

After some hopeful quips between Mitchell and Alex of salvaging the tree, a truck following Gloria's car destroys what was left of it.

Phil and Manny finish with the groceries and they now wait to meet with a guy at the parking lot, having arranged to buy a rare baseball card (a gift for Jay) on Craigslist.

Everyone agrees, desperate to put the disaster behind them, however when they get outside they find that Jay has covered the whole front of the house with fake snow.

"My two favorite parts of the episode, not counting the tear-inducing snow scene, were Phil's explanation of Craigslist's shadiness before Manny tasered him and Haley working her magic at Target.

"[2] Christine N. Ziemba from Paste Magazine gave the episode 7/10 saying that "The new dynamics between characters were refreshing, even if some of the storylines fell flat.

""Express Christmas," had everything with love about Modern Family: plenty of jokes, mishaps, Phil-isms, Gloria mispronounciations, bickering, and heartwarming good cheer.