"Home for the Holidays" is a special half-hour Christmas episode of the CGI television series The Garfield Show (based on the newspaper comic strip Garfield), produced and aired as its second season premiere. To date, it is the most recent Christmas production starring the Garfield characters.
Summary
Part 1
The episode opens on Jon decorating his Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and explaining to Garfield and Odie that he's invited his family over for dinner tonight, and that Liz is also coming over with her parents. Jon sternly warns Garfield that he should be on his best behavior tonight, since Liz's mother wasn't happy about him letting her canary Petey fly out the window the last time they visited ("Mr. Wilson seemed pleased"). Jon then realizes he has to hurry to the grocery store and has no time to finish decorating the tree right now, but Garfield luckily takes care of that by using the chair's footrest to catapult the decorations onto the tree ("Like they say, lazy is the mother of invention").
Later, as Jon is shopping inside Mally Market, Garfield comes upon his on-again/off-again girlfriend Arlene, carrying some food and blankets, which she's bringing to some homeless animals at the old railway station. Garfield tells her about Jon's big Christmas Eve dinner party, and then rambles on about how he's looking forward to eating food and opening presents tomorrow. Arlene starts walking away in annoyance, and when Garfield asks why, she tells him that he doesn't seem to get the real spirit of Christmas. Garfield responds by inviting Arlene to the dinner party, but she declines, telling him that he should come with her to help her homeless friends if he wants to really understand what she's talking about. Upon returning home, Garfield admits to Odie that he's starting to feel bad about not going with Arlene to help the homeless animals, but he doesn't know what he can do about it, saying "It's not like I can take Jon's food down to the railway station."
That evening, Arlene shows up at the railway station to provide the homeless cats and dogs with the blankets, but admits that the only food she could bring today was some cheese and biscuits. Harry complains about how they don't get to eat as often as Garfield does ("We could live for a week on what he eats for a snack!"). Just as Arlene admits that Garfield doesn't seem to be in a sharing mood, Garfield and Odie drop in, having brought more blankets and some food from the back of Jon's refrigerator. After thanking Garfield and Odie for their kindness, Arlene introduces them to some of the animals living here: Rags, a big dog who's been living there for years; Spring, Summer, and Autumn, three kittens whom Rags has been caring for in honor of their late mother (their brother, Phillipe, has already found a home); and Nick, a canary who distrusts cats. Garfield admits to Arlene that he feels good helping these animals, and Arlene says that if they could just get some people to come here, they'd want to give them good homes. Odie then points to a big pile of junk and draws a Christmas tree in the dirt to give Garfield an idea - if they build a Christmas tree right here, they can get people to come to the railway station and adopt the animals.
Part 2
Back at Jon's house, he's frantically searching for his pets when his parents and brother arrive, as does Liz with her parents, Robert and Betty. After introducing his parents to Liz's, Jon tries to drum up some small talk between them and then leads them in singing for a full hour, despite them being ready for dinner. Jon then admits he's just been stalling for time until Garfield and Odie show up (to which Robert remarks, "I wondered why it was so peaceful around here"). As soon as they go in to Jon's kitchen for dinner, Garfield, Odie, Harry, and Rags sneak in to the living room and take the tree, which Robert overhears. When Jon and the others run back in and find the tree missing, Garfield and the other animals then snatch Jon's dinner, driving them to the railway station in Jon's parents' truck.
Back at the railway station, the animals have put lights around the junk pile, with a disco ball as the star. Upon arriving in the truck, Garfield directs them to shine its headlights at the disco ball, allowing the light reflected off of it to shine. They then set up a table with Jon's dinner entrees placed on it. Jon, Liz, and the others see the shining light and drive over to the railway station, where they find the animals having gathered together, and say it's a Christmas miracle. Betty takes a particular liking to Nick, due to his resemblance to her lost pet Petey, and decides to adopt him, calling him "Petey 2". Jon's parents decide to adopt the kittens, who aren't exactly eager to leave Rags, but he admits to them that he's not likely to be around for them much longer. Robert then decides that he and his wife will also adopt Rags, since they still have the bed that used to belong to their deceased dog, Junior. Liz then asks Jon what they're going to do about the other homeless animals here, since they can't possibly care for all of them. Just then, the rest of the local townsfolk appear and also offer to adopt the other homeless animals as their pets. Arlene compliments Garfield on his Christmas spirit, to which Garfield replies, "You know, the Spirit of Christmas is hungry," so they start eating the dinner Jon prepared.
Availability
The episode, along with the series' other Christmas episode, was included on The Garfield Show: Holiday Extravaganza DVD, released on September 4, 2012.
Cast
| Voice actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Frank Welker | Garfield Mr. Arbuckle Nick |
| Wally Wingert | Jon Arbuckle |
| Gregg Berger | Odie |
| David Lander | Doc Boy |
| Audrey Wasilewski | Arlene |
| Julie Payne | Mrs. Arbuckle Dr. Liz Wilson |