Extraordinary Merry Christmas
"Extraordinary Merry Christmas" is the ninth episode and mid-season finale of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the fifty-third overall.
Sue (Jane Lynch) recruits the glee club to sing at a homeless shelter where she will be volunteering to distract her from the first Christmas without her sister Jean, who died earlier in the year.
Rachel (Lea Michele) replies that he is also all she wants, but gives Finn (Cory Monteith) a long list of Christmas present suggestions.
Kurt and Blaine lead off the Glee Holiday Spectacular by performing "Let It Snow", Rachel and Mercedes arrive and sing "My Favorite Things" with their hosts, Finn and Puck (Mark Salling) show up as not-quite-real Star Wars characters and perform "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", and "Christmas Wrapping" is sung by Brittany (Heather Morris), with backup by Santana (Naya Rivera), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Mike (Harry Shum, Jr.) and several Cheerios.
Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Sam are at the homeless shelter with Sue, helping to serve the rapidly disappearing meal, when New Directions arrives, late, with more food and some presents.
[21] Critics were polarized in their reactions to the episode, though most seemed to agree that it was, as The Washington Post's Jen Chaney put it, "heavy on holiday music and exceedingly light on plot".
[26] TV Guide's reviewing team of Denise Martin and Kate Stanhope described it as "oddly mesmerizing, hilarious and kinda weird, even for Glee", and Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "chipper and the sad were in perfect balance and the kitsch factor was high".
[29][30] The Atlantic's Kevin Fallon called the middle segments "a love letter to the Judy Garland specials it honored" and said it was a "bold move" for a series with mainstream youth appeal, and Rae Votta of Billboard thought the "homage was a shining example of what Glee can do when given the leeway to be strange and different", and was another who wished it could have run the entire episode.
[31][32] Kubicek, on the other hand, was left cold by the "utterly pointless and plotless Christmas special", and Flandez called the acting during it "haphazard".
"[26] Bell criticized Rachel's list of gifts, such as "spray tan and teeth whitening", as "back to square one" after her nose-job storyline in the second season.
Kubicek said it was "officially my favorite thing from the entire third season of Glee", and Bell approved, though she said "the writers don't know how to use" Rory, and was disappointed that his brotherly relationship with Finn had "fizzled".
[24][33] Kubicek also made that point that while "Sam and Quinn seemingly did the right thing by choosing the shelter over the special", the others did eventually show up, which "muddled" the message.
[25][26] Chaney noted that the opening number, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", "sounded much more vibrant and fresh with Mercedes" on lead, Futterman called it "utterly joyful", and it was the favorite song of the episode for Martin and Stanhope.
[22][27][30] Votta declared that "Amber Riley shines throughout the episode, but none more than here where she commands attention", and Sullivan called it a "nice rendition" that was nevertheless presented with "some incredibly awkward cuts from the original song".
[26][32] Entertainment Weekly's Abby West wrote that "Rory's crooning take" of "Blue Christmas" was "smooth and lovely", and gave it a "B+", and Flandez agreed with the in-show assessment that it was "mournfully beautiful".
[27][33] Kubicek was harsher, and wrote that it was an "embarrassingly awful original song", but while Votta characterized it as "a weird techno jumble", she also called it "undeniably catchy".
Slezak gave it an "A" and described it as a "jazzy, uptempo take on the seasonal classic with gorgeous harmonies and retro dancing", and said it rivaled their Christmas duet from 2010, "Baby, It's Cold Outside".
[36] While Vicki Hyman of The Star-Ledger enjoyed the number, she preferred the previous year's offering; Flandez called "Let It Snow" an "admirable job".
[23][37] Futterman characterized it as "both effortless and full of seasonal spirit", and Votta said it was "a spot-on tribute to male duets of yesteryear with that knowing undercurrent of romance even when it's not explicit".
[22] The number was also not as well received as many of the others: Bell described it as taking "a turn for the worse", Hyman noted that it "didn't do too much for me", and Kubicek said it "seemed to drag on and on and on with no real purpose".
[24][33][37] However, West called it a "wonderful effort" and Slezak wrote that "a little Rodgers and Hammerstein is always welcome at any party"; both reviewers gave the performance a "B+".
[27] Their second favorite was the next number, "Christmas Wrapping", sung by Brittany, which Flandez described as "quite good" and Hyman said "could only have been improved by a little more Mike Chang dancing".
[35][36][37] Chaney called the lyrics "condescending", and found the juxtaposition of the singers' smiling faces and the phrase "clanging chimes of doom" to be "weird".
[22] The song itself was given good marks: Hyman called it the episode's "best performance" because "they each brought something special to it", and Futterman said that New Directions "channels the emotion of the original for a fitting vocal cap to the night".
