The holidays have me busier than usual this year so I didn’t get a chance to polish my yule log and catch Glee’s “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” until later in the week. I can be a bit unfair to Christmas themed episodes due to the fact that I find Christmas music to be extraordinarily very tedious. Call me a Scrooge if you must but I did try very hard to not let my unmerry tendencies influence my enjoyment of this episode.

There was very little in the way of plot this week and based on what did seep through it was probably a good thing. It became obvious early on that Sue’s doctor has adjusted the dosage on her meds because she was so full of love and cheer that I expected her to ride down the street on the back of a reindeer throwing candy canes. I enjoy sweet Sue and wish we saw more of her. Long gone are the days when we were treated to heartwarming scenes between Sue and her sister. It’s time to give Sue a life outside of McKinley that does not involve being horrible to everyone.

This year her cause is bringing joy and cheer to the local homeless shelter and she enlists the help of New Directions to provide some Christmas music. The kids agree but quickly ditch Sue (Jane Lynch) in favor of local stardom and fame when offered their own basic cable Christmas special. And with a budget of $800 they manage to serve up a glossy 1960s Christmas full of lame (on purpose) jokes and lots of innuendo. The special-within-a-special was pretty fun actually and they could have salvaged the episode by taking us out of reality completely and devoting the entire hour to this black and white wonderland.

The episode was merry enough, and did remind me a bit of those terrible yet mesmerizing Christmas specials from my childhood that often featured unlikely duets such as Perry Como and Charo doing songs like “Have a Hoochie Coochie Holiday”. When thought of as just a standalone special it sort of works. But with all the lesbian drama and Sam (Chord Overstreet) being away from his family I think they really missed a chance to give us a heartfelt and emotional hour of television about the true meaning of the season. Instead we got a half-cocked sub plot about Rachel (Lea Michele) being selfish (SURPRISE) and learning that Christmas is about giving not receiving. YAWN. Give me Charlie Brown and his sad little tree any day over that mess.

The music was not awful, and that’s good because there was a lot of it. Mercedes (Amber Riley) kicked things off with “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and the songs came fast and furious, including “Blue Christmas” (Rory), “River” (Rachel) and the new track “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” (Blaine & Rachel). The title track was the best one of the lot actually. River was just painful but I think that’s because Tori Amos did that song at her Atlanta show back in November and well…sorry Rachel but she blew your maudlin warbling out of the water.

The TV special contained its own set of songs: “Let It Snow” (Blaine & Kurt), “My Favorite Things” (Mercedes, Rachel, Kurt & Blaine), “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (Finn & Puck), “Christmas Wrapping” (The Cheerios) and “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (Everyone). None of them really stood out for me but I wasn’t wincing in pain either so let’s hear it for Christmas miracles.

That’s it for Glee in 2011. Let’s hope Ryan Murphy and team come back in 2012 with a fiery hot whirlwind of awesome episodes.