A terrible winter storm arrives while the Simpson family is attending a fancy French circus. All the schools in the area are closed, but Principal Skinner is proud of keeping Springfield Elementary open whenever possible. A single classroom full of kids bother to show up, and all the teachers are off caucusing, so Skinner runs the class himself. He shows a beloved holiday movie, about "a grinchy little character who tries to steal Christmas."
But Skinner's favorite Christmas movie doesn't star a delightfully grumpy green monster; it's from 1938, and the production values aren't very high. Oh, and it appears to be over four hours long. The kids finally get a reprieve when the DVD catches fire, only to find they're snowed into the school.
Homer borrows Ned, and Ned's car, and part of Ned's roof, to try to plow the road and free the kids. (What's that? You want another Mr. Plow callback? Well, you've got one, complete with "His name was Stampy. You loved him."-style twist.) It goes about as well as we expect Homer's plans to go, so they're frozen by a fire hydrant and hallucinating from the exhaust. In the meantime, Skinner has a Vietnam flashback and rules the school in an orderly, military fashion, until Bart gets the upper hand and the kids rebel.
As the kids run amok, burning books and looking at their permanent files and the school's payroll, Skinner gets Nibbles, a classroom hamster, to deliver a message for help. Nibbles frees Homer and Ned, so they can skid into a convenient salt silo and melt all the snow. (Nibbles only has two appearances on the show -- the other is in "She of Little Faith," as Bart and Homer's model-rocket astronaut.)
As a Simpsons episode, I rate this 7/10. It doesn't have a lot of the deeper character moments or metaphor or commentary, but it's perfectly funny and well-crafted.
As a Christmas show, I rate this 7/10. There aren't a lot of decorations or music, but there's a lot of snow, and I love The Christmas That Almost Wasn't But Then Was.
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