"Undeck the Halls" is the tenth episode of the first season of the American

family sitcom A family-friendly product or service is one that is considered to be suitable for all members of an average family. Family-friendly restaurants are ones that provide service to families that have young children. Frequently, family-friendly produc ...

television series ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of thr ...

'' and the tenth episode of the series overall. It premiered on

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in the

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on December 9, 2009. The episode was written by

Dan O'Shannon Dan O'Shannon (born March 10, 1962) is an American television writer and producer who has worked on shows such as ''Newhart'', ''Cheers'', and ''Frasier''. He was an executive producer of the ABC show ''Modern Family'', but left the show at the ...

and directed by

Randall Einhorn Randall Einhorn (born December 7, 1963) is an American television cinematographer, director, and producer, best known for his work on ''The Office'', '' Wilfred'', ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', and '' Survivor''. Early life and career Bo ...

Fred Willard Frederic Charles Willard (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984); the Christopher Guest mockumentaries ''Wai ...

guest stars as Phil's dad, Frank Dunphy. In the episode, Claire and Phil threaten to take away Christmas when they discover that one of the kids tried a cigarette but none wants to admit it. Alex takes the blame to save Christmas but it is revealed that they were all saying the truth from the start. Cameron and Mitchell take Lily to get her first picture with Santa at the Mall, but they complain to the management that Santa is not jolly enough for the kids, leads to Santa losing his job. Jay wants to introduce Manny and Gloria to some Christmas traditions while they want to do the same to Jay with Colombian Christmas traditions. The episode received positive reviews from critics and had a 3.8. in the 18–49 demographic.

Plot

While Claire (

Julie Bowen Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer (born March 3, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which she received critical acclaim and six nominations for the Primetim ...

), Phil (

Ty Burrell Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. Burrell is best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

) and the kids talk to Phil's dad, Frank (

) via

video chat Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...

to wish him Merry Christmas, Claire discovers a burn mark on the arm of the couch. Seeing that, they get to the conclusion that one of the kids was smoking a cigarette and they ask them to say who did it. When none of the kids admit the truth, Phil reacts in an extreme manner and threatens to cancel Christmas, taking the tree away until someone confesses. Despite the dismay of Claire and the kids, Phil stands his ground. Alex (

Ariel Winter Ariel Winter Workman (born January 28, 1998) is an American actress. She starred as Alex Dunphy in the ABC comedy series ''Modern Family'', for which she and her co-stars won four consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble ...

), seeing that Phil is serious about taking away the Christmas tree, admits that she was the one who tried to smoke. Phil brings back the Christmas tree and Claire says that Alex is grounded for a whole week, starting December 26 so she will not miss the Christmas day but will miss New Years. While they are celebrating, they discover that the burn mark on the couch was caused by the

refracting In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomeno ...

sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...

through a

Christmas ornament Christmas ornaments, baubles, "Christmas bulbs" or "Christmas bubbles" are decoration items, usually to decorate Christmas trees. These decorations may be woven, blown (glass or plastic), molded (ceramic or metal), carved from wood or expande ...

that Frank sent them. When they ask Alex why she lied, she says that she did not want Phil to take away the Christmas so she chose to take the blame. Christmas is back on, although when the kids reminds Phil he blamed them and threatened to cancel Christmas for something they didn't do, he impulsively promises to take the family to Italy. Jay (

Ed O'Neill Edward Leonard O'Neill (born April 12, 1946) is an American actor and comedian. His roles include Al Bundy on the Fox Network sitcom '' Married... with Children'', for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes, and Jay Pritchett on the awar ...

) tries to introduce Manny ( Rico Rodriguez) and Gloria (

Sofía Vergara Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020.

) to some Pritchett Christmas traditions such as watching ''

Miracle on 34th Street ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (initially released as ''The Big Heart'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1947 American List of Christmas films, Christmas comedy-drama film released by 20th Century Fox, written and directed by George Seaton and based on ...

''. Gloria and Manny though want to incorporate some of their country's traditions that includes jokes and fireworks. Jay initially does not react well but at the end he realizes that they can have both American and Colombian traditions together. Meanwhile, Cameron (

Eric Stonestreet Eric Allen Stonestreet (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for portraying Cameron Tucker in the ABC mockumentary sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting ...

) and Mitchell (

Jesse Tyler Ferguson Jesse Tyler Ferguson (born October 22, 1975) is an American actor. From 2009 to 2020, he portrayed Mitchell Pritchett on the sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he earned five consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding ...

) take Lily (Ella Hiller) to the mall to take her first picture with

Santa Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

(Brian T. Finney). When their turn for the photo comes, they do not find the Santa

big Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...

enough. They complain to management about it and the guy who portrays the Santa gets fired. Feeling guilty about what they have done, they take Santa home to share a dinner with him. Although uneasy at first, especially since they got him fired, things work out and it is revealed that he knew about their getting him fired. Leaving Cam and Mitchell's house, Santa punches a carol singer who usurped Cameron from his

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

group that showed up to their house to spite Cameron.

Reception

Ratings

In its original American broadcast, "Undeck the Halls" was viewed by an estimated 9.666 million households and received a 3.8 rating/10% share in the 18-49 demographic with a 5.6 rating/6% share

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

in the

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

. "Undeck the Halls" finished 23rd place in the weekly ratings with. The episode was the 6th highest rated show on

in overall viewership for the week, and was second in the 18-49 ratings for the week (following the Disney special ''

Prep and Landing ''Prep & Landing'' is a computer animated television special, based on an idea by Chris Williams at Walt Disney Animation Studios and developed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton into a half-hour Christmas special. It first aired Decembe ...

'').

Reviews

"Undeck the Halls" received positive reviews. Robert Canning gave it an 8.6/10 saying it "set the bar for hopefully many more Christmas episodes to come" saying the most fun came from Cameron and Mitchell's subplot and says he looks forward to more Christmas episodes. Jason Hughes of

TV Squad Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...

stated in his review "This holiday episode was lighter on the funny moments than most episodes of Modern Family, which isn't to say that it wasn't plenty funny. It substituted those with more heartfelt moments.". He also stated the best moment of the episode was when Jay surprised Gloria and Manny with fireworks. TV Fanatic gave the episode a positive review saying "The episode might not have been as funny as previous installments, but it certainly had some very sweet heart, especially when it came to Jay's storyline." But the episode was criticised for not featuring

saying "Fred Willard is comedic genius and could have added a lot to the already amazing Modern Family cast, but was for some odd reason underused."

References

External links

"Undeck the Halls"
at ABC.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Undeck The Halls 2009 American television episodes American Christmas television episodes Modern Family (season 1) episodes