Five of the Greatest Holiday Episodes of "How I Met Your Mother"

The holidays are upon us! It's that time of year when we are get in the holiday spirit by watching our favorite show's take on the holidays. In anticipation of what is to come this year, we can look back at some of the greatest holiday episodes of "How I Met Your Mother."

Holiday Episode of "How I Met Your Mother" #1: Belly Full of Turkey
In season one, Lily goes with Marshall to visit his family for Thanksgiving in Minnesota. However, she doesn't quite fit in. While helping the women make salad with potato chips and mayonnaise, Lily hears that the Eriksen babies are huge. Because Lily thinks she may be pregnant, this completely scares her, and she runs out on dinner to go to a liquor store to buy a pregnancy test. After Marshall bails Lily out of jail for urinating in public, they agree they will not raise a family in Minnesota. As it turns out, Lily is not pregnant. Back in New York, Ted and Robin decide to volunteer at a soup kitchen. Upon arriving, they find Barney there and hear surprising news that Barney was named "volunteer of the year," an award that is very uncharacteristic of him. After Ted finds out that some volunteers take food home with them, he grabs Portobello mushrooms and starts throwing them at everyone at the kitchen. Needless to say, Ted, Robin, and Barney get kicked out. Unfortunately for Barney, he needed that volunteer work to pay off his debt for being arrested for public urination earlier in the year. To make it up to Barney, the two go to a strip club with him for Thanksgiving.

Holiday Episode of "How I Met Your Mother" #2: How Lily Stole Christmas
In season two, Ted decides to stay in New York for Christmas because he doesn't want to be with his mom's new boyfriend or his religious cousin in Staten Island. Because everyone will be in town, Lily out does herself in decorating the apartment, but Marshall refuses to look at it until he is done with his last paper of the semester. While Marshall is working on his paper, Lily finds the old answering machine that still has a message on it. Lily plays it and finds out that Ted called Lily a "grinch" after Lily and Marshall broke up. Ted tells Lily that he said that to help Marshall get over Lily and because she acted like kind of a "grinch" that summer. In anger, Lily grabs all the decorations and takes them to her tiny apartment, so Ted takes her a beer to apologize. To make sure that Marshall gets his winter wonderland, he promises to go to Staten Island, but is still mad at Lily for never apologizing to him for leaving. Marshall gets his winter wonderland and doesn't know what has happened while he was at the library. He gives Lily her gift, an easy-bake oven, which was her childhood dream gift. However, Lily never told Marshall that story. Ted was the one who knew the story and told Marshall to get her that gift. Lily then goes to Staten Island, with the rest of the gang, to give Ted an apology beer.

Holiday Episode of H"How I Met Your Mother" #3: Slapsgiving
In season three, Lily and Marshall want to make their first Thanksgiving as a married couple perfect. Lily is fussing with all the dinner arrangements. Meanwhile, Marshall is obsessed with freaking out Barney with anticipation of the third slap from the Slap Bet to be given out Thanksgiving night. As slap bet commissioner, Lily decides that no slaps will be given out in order to make the Thanksgiving perfect. However, as the slap countdown continues, Barney taunts Marshall, and Lily allows him to slap Barney. Marshall has arranged a song for the occasion. Thus, Slapsgiving occurs.

Holiday Episode of H"How I Met Your Mother" #4: Three Days of Snow
In season four, the gang experiences a snowstorm. Ted and Barney meet two girls from a band and tell them to meet them at MacLaren's pub. However, due to the snowstorm, they are delayed. Ted and Barney beg Carl to let them keep the bar open. They live out their dream of owning a bar until Carl calls to tell them he will be returning to the bar. Because they vowed never to have last call, they move the party upstairs to the apartment. In the meantime, Lily and Marshall vowed to give up their little rituals, like when Lily comes home from a trip and brings Marshall, who is waiting at the airport, a 6-pack. However, while Lily is away, they both decide on their own that they must keep these rituals. Marshall forces Robin to drive him to the airport, but when he gets there, her flight has been cancelled due to the storm. When Lily's flight does come in, two days later, she arrives an hour early and decides to search the city for a 6-pack. When she gets back to the airport, Marshall isn't there. A marching band, the one from Ted and Barney's part of the story, starts to play. Marshall emerges, and a new tradition is born.

Holiday Episode of "How I Met Your Mother" #5: Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap
In season five, Marshall picked out the perfect turkey but accidentally left it in a cab. When Ted and Robin pick it up for him at Port Authority, Marshall generously gives them the opportunity to use one of his slap bet slaps to slap Barney before the night is over. However, they bicker over which one of them will slap Barney. When neither one can do it, the slap gets passed to Lily's dad who is visiting. He passes it to Lily in order to apologize for his actions during her childhood, but she can't seem to slap him either. Marshall tells everyone that the slap has brought them all closer. Then, he slaps Barney, and that's the fourth out of five slaps!

Sources:
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