Phoebe tries to confront her runaway father. Ross tries to get Rachel to forgive him for making a list comparing her to Julie.
Tropes:
- 24-Hour Party People: Gunther and Mr. Treeger are the only familiar faces at Monica's party.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Mr. Treeger hits on Rachel.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: When Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe return to the apartment, which is boiling due to the broken heater.Chandler: Ho, ho, ho, ho-ly crap, is it hot in here.
- Call-Back: This episode deals with the repercussions of Ross' pros and cons list from the previous episode.
- Christmas Episode: Monica throws a Christmas party at her apartment. Joey and Chandler plan to do their Christmas shopping at the last moment. In the Tag, the friends exchange gifts with focus on lame gifts from Joey and Chandler.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: Chandler and Joey are reduced to getting the gang's Christmas gifts from a gas station. Rachel gets wiper blades and a "New Car Smell" air freshener, Phoebe gets toilet seat covers (which she actually seems pretty happy about), Ross gets some sodas and Monica gets condoms. Ross ends up trading Monica one of his drinks for the condoms.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Joey casually reveals at the end of the episode, the radiator could've been turned off from underneath.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Monica and Rachel decided to tip their building staff with cookies instead of money that year, reasoning it was "personal" and "showed they cared". However, it seemed like everyone hated their cookies- the mailman, for example, brought them their newspaper all destroyed and a package of ornaments crushed. When their radiator gets broken, they try and get the superintendent to fix it, but he refuses to do it for several days, implied to be because of the cookies...until Ross's attempt to bribe him fails, and they discover he actually did enjoy the cookies and is physically unable to fix the radiator until Tuesday.
- Every Man Has His Price: Defied: Mr. Treeger says he won't be able to repair the heater until Tuesday. Ross, thinking he was being standoffish, tries to give him $100 as a Christmas tip, only for Treeger to then say he literally can't do it until Tuesday because that's when the store's open.
- Jerkass: The mailman, he intentionally destroys Monica and Rachel's mail just because he didn't like their Christmas gift to him.
- Mundane Solution: After the knob on the heater is broken, leaving it on at full blast, Joey simply turns it off at its base.
- Noodle Incident: The front passenger seat of Phoebe's grandmother's taxi is missing its seatbelt because it was cut away by paramedics. Chandler immediately decides to move to the back seat and doesn't ask for more information.
- The Picture Came with the Frame: Phoebe discovers that her grandmother has been passing off pictures of a random male model as pictures of her father when she sees the guy's photo in the frame Ross just bought.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After all the anger over the pro/con list, Ross suggests that Rachel make a list of his pros and cons to make her feel better. And boy does Rachel let him have it.Rachel: Okay, you're whiny. You are... you're obsessive. You are insecure. You're gutless. You just don't seize the day. You liked me for, what, a year and you didn't do anything about it. And, uh... Oh, you wear way too much of that hair gel on your hair.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Mr. Treeger says he won't repair the radiator until Tuesday, he wasn't being a Jerkass to Monica and Rachel. The store that sells the parts he needed to repair it is closed until then. And even then, as Joey reveals, it turns out there was another knob on the bottom that could turn it off.
- Themed Party: Monica and Rachel throw a Christmas party, but their heating gets broken and the apartment is way too hot. They call it a Tropical Christmas party.Monica: Look, if worse comes to worse, it gets a little warm, we'll call it a theme party.
- Under the Mistletoe: Mr. Treeger (the superintendent of Monica's building) is at Monica and Rachel's Christmas party. He happens to bump into Rachel under the mistletoe and wants to kiss her. Rachel however insists that it's basil and they don't kiss.
- Wham Line: "Hey, Monica, the knob was broken, so I just turned it off from underneath, I hope that's all right."
