Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year is this classic episode from “The Honeymooners” featuring an orange juice squeezer in the shape of Napoleon’s head and a lot of Christmas gift hijinks between Alice and Ralph. Because Alice can’t trust Ralph with not trying to find his present.
While Alice is gone from the apartment, Ed drops in and Ralph can’t help but brag about the present his has gotten Alice: a box to keep hairpins in. Ralph blabs on to Ed that he was told the box is all handmade, 2000 matches glued together and made in Japan. On top of that, the guy told Ralph that it’s the only one in the whole world and that at one time it was in the house of the Emperor of Japan. Ralph is convinced he’s sitting on a really special gift for Alice.
Ed convinces Ralph to give the gift to Alice that night, although the Kramdens usually wait until Christmas morning to exchange gifts. Just as Ralph is about to give Alice her gift, a neighbor, Mrs. Stevens, arrives with a gift for Alice. Wouldn’t you know it’s the same one-of-a-kind hairpin box that Ralph is holding behind his back. The look on Ralph’s face as he watches Alice open it is priceless. Now Ralph has a real dilemma on his hands.
Ralph needs to figure out how to get cash fast to buy another present. Ralph keeps knocking himself for spending his last $22.00 on a bowling ball. Because if he hadn’t, he’d have the money to buy Alice another gift.
Ralph believes his problem is solved when Uncle Leo stops by with a gift and it just happens to be a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to a store. But before he can spend it on another gift for Alice, a misunderstanding causes it to wind up in Alice’s hands.
In a twist straight out of “The Gift of the Magi”, Ralph decides to hock his bowling ball and takes the proceeds to purchase a new gift for Alice.
In the final scene when Alice and Ralph exchange gifts, Ralph discovers that Alice has gifted him a bowling ball bag and he has to come clean about his bowling ball whereabouts when she wants to see how well the ball fits in the bag. And what did Ralph buy Alice with his bowling ball proceeds? An orange juice squeezer in the shape of Napoleon’s head. Which Alice just loves. Probably as much as Trixie loves hers.
The episode ends with Ralph’s monologue about Christmas: “Christmas, well it’s about the best time of the whole year. You walk down the streets even for weeks before Christmas comes and there’s lights hanging up, green ones and red ones, sometimes there’s snow and everybody’s hustling someplace. But they don’t hustle around Christmastime like they usually do. You know, there’re a little more friendly. They bump into you, they laugh and they say pardon me, Merry Christmas. Especially when it gets really close to Christmas night. Everybody’s walking home, you can hardly hear a sound. Bells are ringing, kids are singing. Snow is coming down. And boy what a pleasure it is to think that you got someplace to go to and the place that you’re going to there’s somebody in it that you really love. Someone you’re nuts about. Merry Christmas”.



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