Written by: Bruce Lansbury
Directed by: Anthony Pullen Shaw
The future son-in-law of a prominent Cabot Cove family is suspected in a shooting.
Tropes:
- Always Murder: Surprisingly averted, as while there was an attempted murder, no one really died this episode.
- Bad Santa: Amy Wainwright dons a Santa Suit, complete with beard, as a disguise when she attempted to kill Wanda.
- Blackmail Backfire: Wanda tried to blackmail Floyd Bigelow, but she made a couple mistakes that derailed it and almost caused her death.
- Christmas Episode: As it should, given the title.
- Color Blind Confusion: Wanda Andrews is colorblind, that is, she can't distinguish between green and red. As such, the Blackmail tape she had meant to send to Floyd ends up in Charlie McCumber's red car instead.
- Clothes for Christmas Cringe: Dr. Hazlitt traces his dislike of Christmas back to when he was ten and got socks and underwear instead of a toy train.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: A subversion. While it is cold and generally windy in Cabot Cove, it doesn't snow. Dr. Hazlitt lampshades this early in the episode. At least the windows of certain houses and establishments are lined with fake snow frost.
- Easily Forgiven: Charlie was worried that Beth Forsythe and her family won't accept his daughter from a former love. At the episode's end, not only do they accept him and his daughter, but she officially becomes a part of the Forsythe family.
- Everybody Lives: A very rare Murder, She Wrote example.
- Friendship Moment: Seth explains to Jessica the reason he's grumpy during Christmas—he didn't get a toy train he had wanted so bad when he was a kid. Near the end of the episode, Jessica gives Seth a toy train as a gift, as Sheriff Metzger and his choir sing them Christmas carols from the outside.
- The Grinch: Seth spends most of the episode grouching about Christmas being "foolishness" when the world's such a miserable place otherwise.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Beth suspects her fiancé Charlie of cheating and catches him kissing an attractive woman in the Lighthouse motel. Turns out, it's his sister.
- One-Steve Limit: There was at least one other character in Cabot Cove also named Floyd, Deputy Floyd. But since he disappeared from the show with no explanation, Floyd Bigelow enjoys being the only known Floyd this episode.
- Out of Focus: Deputy Andy appears when they arrested Amy and Floyd but he has no spoken lines.
- Red Herring: Bert Lazarus's jealousy of his future brother-in-law Charlie and his delight in the prospect of Charlie being imprisoned for murder set him up as the possible (attempted) killer. He wasn't.
- Relative Error: Beth thinks Charlie is having an affair with Monica, who is actually his sister.
- Rewatch Bonus: After learning the relevant plot elements to this episode, it is fun to re-watch it only to notice the framing of Charlie and Floyd's car in a shot that is later shown in flashback form during Jessica's Summation Gathering.
- Yandere: Amy Wainwright is so desperate to be loved by Floyd that she tries to murder Wanda to protect his secrets from being exposed.
