3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas

Title	A Very Supernatural Christmas
Episode #	Season 3, Episode 8
First aired	December 13, 2007
Directed by	J. Miller Tobin
Written by	Jeremy Carver
On IMDB	A Very Supernatural Christmas
Outline	As Christmas approaches, people are disappearing up their chimneys.
Monster	Pagan gods
Timeline	December 22-25th, 2007
Location(s)	Seattle, Washington (teaser) Broken Bow, Nebraska (flashback) Ypsilanti, Michigan
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Synopsis

One Year Ago, Seattle, Washington
A man visits his grandson at Christmas. As he dresses as Santa, he hears a noise on the roof. As his grandson watches on in horror, he is yanked up the chimney and his bloody boot falls into the fireplace.

Present Day, Ypsilanti, Michigan
In the guise of FBI agents, Sam and Dean are in Ypsilanti, Michigan visiting Mrs. Walsh whose husband has disappeared. The only clue they find is a bloody tooth in the fireplace. Sam finds out he is the second man in the town to disappear, and speculates that they may be dealing with an evil Santa, as there are many legends, such as that of Krampus, about a being who punishes the wicked at Christmas.

The boys check out "Santa's Village" which both men visited before they disappeared. Dean says that he’d like to celebrate Christmas but Sam refuses.

Flashback to Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1991
Young Sam and Dean are in a motel room, waiting for their father to return. Sam is wrapping a present for his Dad, which he got from Uncle Bobby and is asking questions about John – what he does, where he goes. Dean brushes off the questions, but gets angry when Sam asks about their mother.

Ypsilanti, Michigan
At Santa's Village, Sam and Dean observe the man who is playing Father Christmas, who walks with a limp and smells of candy just like legend says the evil Santa does. That night the boys stake out the man’s trailer. Dean pushes Sam again, about why he doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas. When they hear a scream from inside the trailer they enter, armed, but find a disheveled 'Santa' watching porn, with a large bong and a bottle of liquor on hand. To cover their mistake, they pretend to be carolers, and sing an out-of-tune, and poorly remembered, version of "Silent Night".

Elsewhere the same night, another man is taken, up the chimney, in a sack. When Sam and Dean investigate the next day, Sam notices the family has the same unusual wreath over the fireplace that he saw in the Walsh house.

Sam identifies the plant in the wreath as meadowsweet – an herb used in pagan rites to summon gods to a human sacrifice. Sam concludes they’re looking for the pagan God of the Winter Solstice, who grants clement weather.

Back at the motel, Dean again suggests that they celebrate Christmas. When Sam asks why, given that he hasn't mentioned it for years, Dean admits that he wants to celebrate this year as it his last year. Sam responds that he can't celebrate for that very reason.

Flashback to 1991
Young Sam reveals to Dean that he has read John's Journal, and asks whether monsters are real. Dean reluctantly confirms that they are, but that their father is a hunter who kills them. Sam is upset and afraid that the monsters will come after them.

The Present
The next day Sam and Dean visit Madge and Edward Carrigan, who appear to be the perfect suburban couple. Further research reveals that they were in Seattle the previous year when three men disappeared. Bobby advises them that spears made of evergreen wood will kill them.

The boys return to the Carrigan house and in the basement find human remains, and the latest victim, still in a sack. Madge and Edward attack them, knock them out and take them captive.

The boys wake up bound to chairs in the kitchen. The Carrigans confirm that they are pagan gods who, since the rise of Christianity, have been trying to blend into human society, taking only a few human victims each year. They start the ritual sacrifice, taking blood from Sam and Dean and pulling out one of Sam's fingernails. They are interrupted by a neighbor at the front door, just as they are about to extract one of Dean's teeth, and when they return, Sam and Dean have escaped. A fight ensues and the boys kill the Carrigans with stakes made from branches of a Christmas tree.

Flashback to 1991
Dean wakes Sam and explains that while he was sleeping, John returned and left a tree and presents. When Sam opens his presents – a Barbie and a sparkly baton – he challenges Dean, who admits he stole them from a house down the street. Sam wants to give Dean the present meant for his father. Dean at first refuses, but then accepts. It is the amulet that he wears until this day.

The Present
Dean returns from buying beer to find that Sam has decorated the motel room with a tree hung with air fresheners, and made eggnog. The boys exchange presents, all bought from the local gas station – Dean gives Sam porn magazines and shaving cream, and Sam gives Dean oil for the car and a candy bar. Sam starts to say something, but is overcome with the emotion of the moment, and instead suggests they watch a football game on TV.

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Bobby Singer
• John Winchester
• Madge and Edward Carrigan

Definitions

• Dean's Amulet
• Pagan ^PoD
• Deities
• Jesus
• Meadowsweet
• Krampus
• Alcohol

Music

• "The Twelve Days of Christmas (Instrumental)"

plays at the beginning in the 'Seattle, Washington, one year ago' teaser

• "All Because of Mr. Santa Claus" by Hal David & John Cacavas (Bruton Music / APM Music)

plays when Sam and Dean first enter Santa's Village

• "Jingle Bells"

plays during the first flashback scene

• "Silent Night"

the...interpretive...version Sam and Dean sing when they pretend to be carolers

• "Silent Night"

plays during the second attack, when the child witnesses his father being taken up the chimney

• "Joy to the World (Instrumental)"

Dean and Sam question Mrs. Caldwell about her husband's disappearance

• "Deck the Halls"

Dean and Sam question the shopkeeper about the wreaths

• "Sleigh Ride (Instrumental)"

Dean and Sam ask Madge Carrigan about her wreaths

• "O, Come, All Ye Faithful (Choral)"

Sam and Dean break into the Carrigan house

• "O, Come, All Ye Faithful (Instrumental)"

plays when Dean and Sam are snooping around the Carrigan house

• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

plays before the Pagan Gods torture Sam and Dean

• "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Rosemary Clooney

plays at the end, when Sam gives Dean his Christmas

Quotes

Sam: Well, we're not dealing with the anti-Claus.

Dean: What'd Bobby say?

Sam: Uh, that we're morons.

Young Dean: Well, the first thing you have to know is we have the coolest dad in the world. He's a superhero.

Young Sam: He is?
Young Dean: Yeah. Monsters are real. Dad fights them. He's fighting them right now.
Young Sam: But Dad said that the monsters under my bed weren't real.
Young Dean: Yeah, that's 'cause he had already checked under there. Buy, yeah, they're real. Almost everything's real.
Young Sam: Is Santa real?

Young Dean: [scoffs] No.

Clerk: I sell a lot of wreaths, guys.

Sam: Right, right. But, but you see, this one would have been uh.. really special. It had uh.. It had uh… green leaves, um… white buds on it. Might have been made of… meadowsweet?
Clerk: Well, aren’t you a fussy one?

Dean: He is.

Sam: I don't get it. You haven't talked about Christmas for years.

Dean: Well, yeah. But this is my last year.
Sam: I know. That's why I can't.
Dean: What do you mean?

Sam: I mean, I can't sit around drinking eggnog, celebrating Christmas, when I know next year, you'll be dead. I just can't.

Madge: You know what I say when I feel like swearing? Fudge!

Dean: I'll try and remember that!
[a few seconds later, when Madge is positioning a knife to slice Dean's arm]
Dean: You fudgin' touch me again, I'll fudgin' kill ya!

Madge: Very good!

Trivia & References

There was a special Christmas Themed title card for this episode.

Ridge Canipe, who plays young Dean in the flashbacks, also played young Dean in 1.18 Something Wicked.

Dean calls Sam a Grinch for not wanting to celebrate Christmas. The Grinch was a Dr. Seuss character made famous in the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which was later adapted as an animated television special narrated by Boris Karloff (an actor known for his horror roles) and a film called The Grinch starring Jim Carrey.

Dean refers to the Carrigans as "Ozzie and Harriet" in a reference to the perfect 1950s couple Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the long-running TV series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

When Sam talks about chimney sweepers, he mentions Dick Van Dyke, an actor who played a singing and dancing chimney sweeper in the Disney film Mary Poppins. Dean has no idea what Sam is talking about.

Sam says he believes they are looking for Hold Nickar, god of the winter solstice. Hold Nickar in Lore.

Sam: I mean, since when are you Bing Crosby all of a sudden?

Bing Crosby was an American singer and actor, and one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century. The biggest hit song of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas".

Sam gives Dean his amulet, originally intended for his dad. Sam obtained the amulet from Uncle Bobby, who told him it was "real special."

In the present day, Sam gives Dean motor oil and a candy bar, and Dean gives Sam skin mags (one is called Frolics) and shaving cream. Both boys have purchased their presents at "the gas mart down the road."

On the back of the motel door it says The Thomas Kinkade Suite, and the painting is reminiscent of a Thomas Kinkade painting. This is a shout-out to Jared's role as Kinkade in The Christmas Cottage.

In the final scene of the episode, Sam and Dean exchange presents, drink eggnog and put on a football game in an attempt to have a "normal" last Christmas together, and the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" plays. As Sam turns on the TV and the camera begins to pan out of the room, the lyric "Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow" is very prominent. This is possibly in reference to the plot, because Sam and Dean are just "muddling through" their final months together (at this point, they only have about 5 months left) until Dean is sent to Hell.

This scene also closely resembles the ending scene of the X-Files episode "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" (6.08).

Dean: Well, you say it like that – I guess you guys are the Cunninghams.

The Cunninghams were major characters in the TV series Happy Days, which presented an idealized vision of life in the United States in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s.

Edward Carrigan: Hardy Boys here make five.

The Hardy Boys is a series of juvenile criminal detection books, chronicling the fictional adventures of teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy.

Nearly all of the titles of the Supernatural recaps on TWOP jokingly refer to the Winchester brothers as the Hardy Boys. It is a running gag on the site for the same reasons it is used as a joke in this episode.

Minutiae

The flashbacks take place in 1991. Sam is eight and Dean is twelve, and they are staying at a motel in Broken Bow, Nebraska.

The presents young Dean steals for Sam are a Sapphire Barbie and a sparkly, twirling baton with tassels.

Young Dean reads a 2007 edition of Hot Rod magazine.

Sam uses pine tree air fresheners and fishing floats as Christmas decorations in the present.

The candy bar that Sam gives Dean is a Zagnut, made by Hershey's.

In both the past and present, Sam wraps his gifts for Dean in the comics pages from a newspaper. The comic strip Dilbert is visible on the motor oil wrapping. Dean gives Sam his gifts in brown paper bags.

In a con panel discussion found here [1], Jared and Jensen talked about the fact that as a prank, Jared had heavily spiked the eggnog (with rum) that Sam gives Dean, and that the face that Dean makes after his first sip is really Jensen's first reaction to the spiked holiday drink. His facial expression worked so well that they decided to keep it in the episode.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas (transcript)

Promotion

• Promo Images for 3.08
• Episode Promo: 3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas
• Episode Review at Futon Critic