On December 17th, 1989, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” premiered on Fox. It was watched by 13.4 million people in that initial airing, and was at the time the second highest rated program to ever air on the young network.

At this point I genuinely have no idea how many times I’ve seen the episode, and I have most of it committed to memory – not just from repeated viewings over the years, but because I also had the episode in book form. It is, and always will be, one of my favorite Christmas specials.

I can’t promise this will work for everyone but the episode is currently on YouTube for the anniversary, and how often do we get a chance to actually embed a legal copy of The Simpsons on this site? Even if it is unfortunately in widescreen? At least a few of you have admitted you’ve never seen the show, so here’s the best possible starting point.

And for a chaser? The Simpsons was such a powerful draw that night that the Tracey Ullman Show saw its ratings more than double from the previous week. Sure, some young dude named Keanu Reeves was the guest star, but I assume what audiences really wanted was another taste of that sweet, sweet can…uh, Simpsons. Here’s the short that aired as part of that episode, Bart’s version of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.

This night thread is dedicated to the memory of Snowball I.