With that in mind, I woke this Christmas Eve morning reminiscing about this episode of "The Facts of Life" from 1984. It was Christmas Eve and all of the former Eastland girls were planning on celebrating the holidays at various parties. Everyone except for Blair who had made arrangements to entertain a bunch of boys at something called the Nickleby House. Turns out that the Nickleby House isn't a house for boys, but instead it's an auditorium within the state prison. All of her rich friends backed out and it was just up to Blair to cancel the gig.
Refusing to abandon the prisoners on Christmas Eve, Mrs. Garrett, Jo, Tootie, and Natalie (plus a reluctant Blair) volunteered to fill in for Blair's rich friends. They apparently did a similar performance two years ago so already had songs and costumes arranged.
And the men loved their performances! Nat & Jo sang a rousing rendition of "We Need a Little Christmas (Haul Out the Holly)." Then Mrs. Garrett sang a beautiful version of "O Holy Night" -- which incidentally is one of my favorite Christmas hymns. The Tootie came out and sang "Jingle Bell Rock" for the men.
The prisoners then began rioting for an encore, while the girls were ready to flee. Which prompted one of Mrs. Garrett's famous speeches: "When we leave here, we all go home to have Christmas with our families. But for these men, we're about all the Christmas that they are gonna get. We all showed the true Christmas spirit today, but how about a little more?"
This was enough to guilt Blair into coming out and signing a beautiful version of "I'll Be Home for Christmas." She was soon joined by the prisoners and the other girls. Which was a touching way to end this holiday episode.