Summary

Grey's Anatomy might not always be the most cheery of television, but it still has its fair share of holiday episodes. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has overcome a lot of adversity and loss during her time at the hospital and did not have the happiest childhood either. For this reason, it's often difficult to get her in the holiday spirit. Additionally, the doctors in the hospital don't get a break for the holidays, they have to keep working and saving lives.

The holiday episodes of Grey's Anatomy evolved with the show, and reflect the important plots and themes of a given season. On the air for 19 seasons, and renewed for the 20th, Grey's Anatomy has never been afraid to put its characters through the wringer, and confront the hard truths they have been avoiding. There are few better times to heal and start fresh than during the holidays. Even when times are tough, the doctors are always there for each other.

Since season 1 of Grey's Anatomy was a mid-season replacement that only aired nine episodes, the first Grey's Anatomy Christmas didn't occur until season 2. In the episode, unsurprisingly, few of the doctors are excited at the prospect of celebrating Christmas. Izzie (Katherine Heigl) attempts to decorate the house she shares with Meredith and George (T. R. Knight), but Meredith is especially against all things festive.

What brings all the interns together is helping Alex (Justin Chambers) study to retake his medical board exams after he failed the first time. All around them, the hospital keeps moving, people keep getting sick, and the doctors are the ones who have to put their lives and needs on hold to help others. Izzie might be the only doctor who loves Christmas, but everyone around her understands the spirit of giving.

"Holidaze" focuses on more than just Christmas. The episode sees the passing of both Thanksgiving and New Year's as well, combining the holidays into the big blur they can become at that time of year. Family is also a significant factor during the holidays, and no one in the hospital feels this more so than Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), whose father comes to visit, and he is not as supportive as she hoped. Miranda is going through a divorce and her father doesn't understand why.

Throughout the episode, Meredith and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) grow closer as he teaches her new surgical skills, and explains his relationship with her mother. Additionally, Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) finds out he has an eighteen-year-old daughter and must come to grips with being a father, and what this means for his relationship with Lexie (Chyler Leigh). Each doctor is faced with a new challenge, or opportunity, in their personal life and discovers what they want their family to look like.

Much of season 7 revolves around the recovery of the doctors after the fateful shooting at the hospital in the finale of season 6. After experiencing significant trauma, Cristina (Sandra Oh) has not gone back to work and is struggling to connect with her life. Derek (Patrick Dempsey), takes her on a fishing trip in the hopes that they will talk and that nature will do her some good. Back at the hospital, Mark does his daily tasks but wants to get back together with Lexie.

"Adrift and at Peace" uses Christmas as a backdrop for the latest hospital drama, but still incorporates themes of togetherness and heading into the new year reborn. Mark and Lexie do reunite by the end of the episode, and it seems that Cristina has made her first step toward healing. As the mid-season finale, the episode still leaves a lot of questions in the air and leaves the fate of the doctors open heading into the second half of season 7.

Miranda has a Christmas-themed wedding in "Run, Baby, Run", but that isn't the only source of drama throughout the episode. Cristina and Owen's (Kevin McKidd) relationship has deteriorated, and they are filing for divorce. While Cristina is going through this, Meredith is also keeping her pregnancy a secret because it's so early on, and she's worried she will miscarry. Part of the tension of season 9 overall is the loss and damage caused by the plane crash in the finale of season 8. The plane crash is the most traumatic episode of Grey's Anatomy.

The crash changed many relationships and saw the passing of both Lexie and Mark. After so much upheaval, the characters on Grey's Anatomy have difficulty committing to their futures in season 9 and are afraid to hope for a better future. "Run, Baby, Run" allows them to move forward and have a chance to build new lives as the new year approaches.

"She's Leaving Home" is a two-part event that encapsulates the events following Derek's death. Series creator, Shonda Rhimes, explained that it was necessary to kill off Derek. However, his death was a controversial departure from the show, and the following two episodes span an entire year as Meredith and the other doctors grieve the loss. The episodes are holiday-themed in that the amount of time that passes includes Christmas, birthdays, and many more events that would usually be spent with loved ones.

Immediately following Derek's funeral, Meredith takes their children and disappears to handle her grief the only way she knows how. It is also revealed that she is pregnant, and she gives birth to her last child with Derek during this time. Derek's departure was such a shock to both the characters and the audience, that the only way to do his absence justice was to dedicate a year of the lives of the remaining doctors to mending.

A few years after Derek's death, Meredith has had time to heal and has started dating. In "Girlfriend in a Coma", she gets thrown right back into the drama of budding romance with the love triangle between her, Link (Chris Carmack), and DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti). Season 15 lets Christmas stay on the cheery side as Meredith balances having two dates for a Christmas party, and the doctors establish new traditions with their growing families.

"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" delivers equal amounts of life-threatening situations for the patients and the doctors. Meredith and Amelia are involved in an exciting breakthrough surgery they're going to perform at Grey Sloan Memorial, and Richard is embroiled in a new plan to improve the education of the residents. Outside the hospital, Teddy (Kim Raver) and Owen get into an accidental car crash on their way to deliver a heart to a transplant patient.

The stakes are high in this winter episode, and each of the doctors are trying to improve themselves as surgeons. Owen's fate is left on a cliffhanger, as he heroically tells the other people in the car to go on without him. The story works well as both a holiday episode and a mid-season finale. Questions are posed for the next half of the season, and it's certain that the relationships between the doctors on Grey's Anatomy will never be the same.

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Every Grey's Anatomy Christmas Episode - Screen Rant