Saturday Night Live‘s 10 best holiday sketches of all time, ranked

’Twas the night before Sunday and all through the house—the “house” being Studio 8H, of course—all of the creatures were stirring … with jolly-good ideas for a yuletide sketch. Yes, we’re talking about Saturday Night Live’s time-honored tradition of capping off the year with holiday-themed skits and bits, from the sweet (think Vanessa Bayer’s Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy adorably relaying the story of Hanukkah) to the silly (the seasonal “savior” that is a dusty, peach-scented Christmas Candle) to the downright saucy (a certain song about penis-themed presents comes to mind).

But not every festive sketch is created equal: Some have transcended from mere merry chuckles to Christmas classics in their own right. Here are 10 hilarious holiday “sketches”—and, yes, before you Grinches descend in the comments, we are using that term loosely to include monologues, Digital Shorts and “Weekend Update” appearances as well—that immediately put us in a festive mood.

10. John Malkovich Reads “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”

It’s a markedly simple premise but one that works solely because of its player: John Malkovich celebrated his third hosting gig in this December ’08 ep by settling down in front of a fake hearth to read Clement Clarke Moore’s classic Christmas poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” to a bunch of children during his opening monologue. And, this being the actor who gifted the world some of cinema’s most sinister villains—Mitch Leary, Cyrus Grissom, the Vicomte de Valmont—things get deliciously dark real quick. “Here’s a question: True or false, during the holiday season, the suicide rate increases significantly?” he asks the wide-eyed kiddos, just one of many cynical interjections he makes between those festive verses, touching on everything from home-invasion laws to holiday traditions (Santa steals children’s toes in Portugal?!) to Halls Mentho-Lyptus (“Anybody? No?”).