FUN FACT: This was the only Christmas episode for “The Andy Griffith Show”.

It’s Christmas in Mayberry and Andy is planning a great party with Aunt Bea and tells Barney he has to play Santa Claus. But because there currently are prisoners in the jail, Barney tells Andy he can’t attend because someone has to watch the prisoners. So, Andy makes the executive decision to release all the prisoners for Christmas.

Just as he does in walks Ben Weaver, a grumpy spirit store owner, with Sam Muggins, a citizen that Ben has caught making moonshine and cutting in on his business. He insists Andy arrest him and put him in jail. Ben states he’s going to watch the jailhouse and if Sam isn’t kept in his cell, he’s going to report Andy to the state.

So Andy is forced to place Sam in a cell but decides since it’s Christmas, he deserves to be with his family. Enter Sam’s wife and kids who also stay with him in the cell. And since Andy and Barney can’t go to the Christmas party at Aunt Bea’s, Aunt Bea and the Christmas party come to Andy at the jail.

Meanwhile Ben is watching everything. And secretly wanting to be a part of it. So much he tries to break the law in an attempt to get arrested himself. Andy catches on and hauls Ben in with his suitcase. Which just so happens to be filled with odd and end gifts for the children.

In the end Andy wakes Sam and tells him to go home with his family. Sam asks about the evidence of the moonshine and it turns out that Andy had placed the moonshine in the cell with Ben, who ended up drinking it.