Happy Holidays from The Twilight Zone!

Rod Serling was born on Christmas Day, 1924, in Syracuse, New York. “I was a Christmas present that was delivered unwrapped,” Serling once stated. It is around the holidays that The Twilight Zone, Serling’s peculiar and beloved television show that ran for five seasons from 1959 to 1964, comes back into our lives like an apparition in search of closure. The haunting show marathons on New Year’s Eve at the dawn of a new year, a new era, as many become weary yet hopeful for what the next year will have in store.

Holiday episodes of The Twilight Zone showcase the anxiety we feel when change is imminent. Serling offers us a choice: watch and confront your fears, or flee. As is indicative of the popularity of The Twilight Zone marathon for the past several New Year’s Eves, we willingly enter the dimension of sight, sound, and mind willingly, where nothing is as it seems.

All of the following episodes (except the honorable mention) stress the importance of children’s sensibilities – to dream, to be hopeful, and to wonder. The children in these episodes hold the key to how to survive as an adult. They remind us never to lose the senses that kept us on the edge of our seats, easily delighted, eager to love, and be inspired.

Let us ring in the holiday season with the fruits of Serling’s expansive imagination with some of the best episodes of the iconic television show SPOILER FREE, all themed around the holidays!

“The Night of the Meek”

Premiered December 23, 1960
Season Two, Episode 11
Directed by Jack Smight
Written by Rod Serling

Introductory Narration: This is Mr. Henry Corwin, normally unemployed, who once a year takes the lead role in the uniquely American institution, that of department-store Santa Claus in a road-company version of ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ But in just a moment, Mr. Henry Corwin, ersatz Santa Claus, will enter a strange kind of North Pole which is one part the wondrous spirit of Christmas and one part the magic that can only be found in … the Twilight Zone.”

This is the quintessential Twilight Zone Christmas episode. Now adored by audiences, this series entry was once the cause of a barrage of angry letters from a concerned viewer accusing the show of blasphemy for depicting a drunk Santa on television. Despite this claim, “The Night of the Meek” is as pure as The Twilight Zone can be. According to Mark Scott Zicree in his book The Twilight Zone Companion (1982), the kids hired as extras had a blast shooting this episode and were full of excitement and joy. It will not disappoint.

“The Changing of the Guard”

Premiered June 1, 1962
Season Three, Episode 37
Directed by Robert Ellis Miller
Written by Rod Serling

Introductory Narration: “Professor Ellis Fowler, a gentle, bookish guide to the young, who is about to discover that life still has certain surprises and that the campus of the Rock Springs School for Boys lies on a direct path to another institution, commonly referred to as the Twilight Zone.”

If you have ever felt like you haven’t made a difference in someone’s life, especially in a profession involving working with children and adolescents, this episode is for you. Prof. Ellis Fowler is forced to retire from teaching before the holiday break. Distraught, he intends to end it all when the unlikely occurs, as it does in the Twilight Zone.

“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”

Premiered December 22, 1961
Season Three, Episode 14
Directed by Lamont Jackson
Written by Rod Serling

Introductory Narration: “Clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and an army major— a collection of question marks. Five improbable entities stuck together in a pit of darkness. No logic, no reason, no explanation; just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows. In a moment we’ll start collecting clues as to the ways, the whats, and the wheres. We will not end the nightmare, we’ll only explain it — because this is the Twilight Zone.”

The opening narration for this episode appears to reveal nothing but indeed says it all. You will figure out why these eclectic characters are in this bleak cylindrical precipice by the end of the episode. Prepare for a Descartes-inspired existential crisis.

Honorable Mention:

“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”

Premiered May 26, 1961
Season Two, Episode 28
Directed by Montgomery Pittman
Written by Rod Serling

Introductory Narration: “Wintry February night, the present. Order of events: a phone call from a frightened woman notating the arrival of an unidentified flying object, then the checkout you’ve just witnessed, with two state troopers verifying the event – but with nothing more enlightening to add beyond evidence of some tracks leading across the highway to a diner. You’ve heard of trying to find a needle in a haystack? Well, stay with us now, and you’ll be part of an investigating team whose mission is not to find that proverbial needle, no, their task is even harder. They’ve got to find a Martian in a diner, and in just a moment you’ll search with them because you’ve just landed – in The Twilight Zone.”

This is one of my favorite episodes of the series. Passengers from a bus forced to stop due to a snowstorm find themselves in a local diner. Police officers enter in search of a person/alien alleged to have exited a crashed flying saucer nearby. This is a classic “Who Done It?” situation, as all the diner patrons begin suspecting one another of being an alien from the planet Mars. The alien is revealed near the end of the episode, but they are not who you would suspect. A classic Serling twist!

You can stream all Twilight Zone episodes on Paramount+.