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.

9. “Santa Baby”

There’s something inherently creepy about the concept of Santa Claus, an unsettling quality that the show enthusiastically tapped into for this unhinged season-41 short, which stars host Ryan Gosling and cast member Vanessa Bayer as a new-to-the-neighborhood couple who believes a little too much in the existence of Jolly Old Saint Nick. A cheery holiday party morphs into a veritable horror-movie setting after the gullible pair catches word that “that beautiful ancient man” will be making a cameo at the shindig. The clip’s descent into an erotically charged psychological thriller (eating a candy cane has never looked so menacing) is sold by a delightfully game Gosling and Bayer, who fully commit to the absurd bit.