Nicholas catches an elderly man stealing the Bradford's Xmas gifts but assumes it's Santa Claus; Susan has apparently been kidnapped by her blind date; fate prevents David and his new girlfriend from driving to her parents' house in Monterey; Abby finds a hidden gift from the late Joan to Tommy.
This two-hour episode has been split into two parts for syndication and IMDB reviews, but this summary is for the episode in its entirety This would have been much better as a 90-minute episode because Part 2 really has to work hard to stretch things out to fill the running time.
Mary and Joanie are paired up for most of the episode, with the latter trying to get the Scroogey Mary to lighten up. Susan, Nancy and Elizabeth are more concerned with their Xmas Eve dates than anything else.
"Dynagirl" herself - Judy Strangis - plays David's girlfriend Noreen. She was never a great actress and kind of comes off like a younger version of Jaclyn Smith here. But on a fluffy show like EIGHT IS ENOUGH I suppose she fits the bill and looked like someone David would date. David is the only character to allude to Joan's death until Abby discovers the package hidden in the cupboard.
It's strange that Abby is the only one who surmises that "Tommy's cynical attitude is a front for something else". Even stranger is the fact for such a large family, they all wait until Nicholas is asleep on Xmas Eve before they even bother to bring the tree into the house and start to decorate it.
The thieving Santa is played by THE WALTONS' Will Geer. (My memory played tricks on me. I hadn't seen this in decades and remembered Jack Elam in the role. WRONG!). Geer's character is supposed to be a poor pensioner, yet the house we see doesn't exactly seem like he's living in squalor. Also, the Bradfords are way too forgiving in regard to his ruining their holiday. It is funny when the cops arrive at Geer's place and mistake the Bradfords for the thieves/kidnappers.
The bit where everyone holds up the crayon portraits drawn by Nicholas is cute as well as the part where they all read the recipe cards where Joanie has written what she would give each for Xmas.
Worth sticking it out for the final scene where Tommy finally comes out of his room and is presented with the gift from Joan. His voice cracks when he says, "It's from Mom". Get your Kleenex ready when he reads the inscription and everyone has tears streaming down their cheeks. I wonder if the cast were thinking of Diana Hyland when they filmed this scene?
Kind of a bloated episode, but very memorable for the final scene and Gen Xers will definitely get emotional seeing it again. 7/10.
