Northern Exposure’s Christmas Episode walked away with the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in A Drama Series. Written by Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov,this episode first debuted on 16 December, 1991.

Lots is going on in Cicely, Joel (Rob Morrow) gets his first Christmas Tree and learns that the Raven is important in Cicely’s Christmas rites. Maggie (Janine Turner) ends up being very accident prone over the holidays, Marilyn (Elaine Miles) gets the big part in the local holiday play, and Maurice (Barry Corbin) discovers that he has a son, when a family from Korea arrives looking for him.

Having the tree causes Joel to debate his beliefs with the tree, while Maurice struggles to understand this new family he has, and what they may or may not want from him.

And Shelley (Cynthia Geary) is dreaming of an old-fashioned Charlie Brown Christmas. Holling (John Cullum) asks Chris (John Corbett) to help out but he’s a little unsure of how to help Shelly out. But Holling figures out what to do on his own, and it’s perfect.

Chris is very much the soul of the story, waxing poetic about the holiday, and what it means to many people, and also helping establish perspective… especially with Maurice understanding his new family (and his inherent racism). Maurice comes around.

And everyone in Cicely has a quiet and lovely Christmas, as only the inhabitants of that wonderful little town could. I really liked this one, and loved that Marilyn gets to tell the story of the Raven.

Dateline: Cicely first aired on 6 January, 1992. Written by Jeff Melvoin the quirky and entertaining is front and center, as Maurice, concerned about the loss of sales on his newspaper,not to mention how the locals treat and neglect it. So he comes up with a plan…

It seems Adam is back in town, working in the bar, cooking which delights everyone, but Joel always has to ruin it. I do like their clashes. Maurice sees an opportunity to hire the eccentric as his new ace reporter. Of course, Adam makes a spectacle of it. But what if he’s right about some of the things that he puts in the paper!

Maggie attempts to tell Joel about the talking trees (as it relates to an article Adam has written), but you know how that is going to go. Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips) agrees with Maggie talking about how gardeners talk to their plants, and how they respond to music, voices and their environment.

Holling isn’t a bad person, he just hasn’t paid his taxes in forever. So he’s looking for a little help. He honestly figured if the government really needed it, they would have reached out to him before then.

So… Chris becomes a co-owner in Holling’s bar. Since Chris got his inheritance he’s been trying to figure out what to do with it, and he is eager to get involved. It may have been a bad choice for Holling, but Chris is having the time of his life until he realizes the having isn’t always better than the wanting. Chris also gets an update from his brother.

It’s a fun episode, with lots of wonderful character moments. What a great series.