Carol of the Bells (Ted Lasso)

It's Christmas and AFC Richmond is celebrating in different ways.

Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple) plan for a "Sexy Christmas". However, Roy's sister undergoes surgery, forcing Roy's niece, Phoebe, to stay with them. Phoebe also feels saddened after a classmate mocked her for bad breath, which Roy and Keeley confirm. Meanwhile, Higgins (Jeremy Swift) hosts a Christmas party at his house with his family, inviting the players who can't travel home for the holiday. He is joined by Sam (Toheeb Jimoh), Dani (Cristo Fernández) and other players, all of whom bring their traditions to the dinner.

Ted (Jason Sudeikis) spends Christmas Day video-calling Henry and Michelle (Andrea Anders), but the expensive drone Ted buys his son causes Henry to run off to play with it. Michelle awkwardly hangs up soon after, which makes Ted feel he failed. Planning to spend Christmas drinking and watching specials, he finds Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) outside his apartment, inviting him to deliver gifts to underprivileged children in Richmond, aware that he is struggling with his divorce. This lifts Ted's spirits, thanking Rebecca for her help.

Roy and Keeley go door to door through Richmond trying to find a dentist who can help with Phoebe's bad breath. As night falls, they find a woman, Dr. Rogers (Claire Skinner) who can help them. She explains that the bad breath is due to Phoebe's new antihistamine for her cat allergy, giving her new medicine. Phoebe then makes amends with the boy who mocked her, visiting him at his house. Using notes, she says she felt hurt for his comments, telling him he should know better but that she forgives him, prompting him to apologize. Later, as Higgins celebrates with the club at his house, they find Ted and Rebecca outside singing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" with a street band. Everyone joins outside the house to sing and dance.

"Carol of the Bells" received critical acclaim. Myles McNutt of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" and wrote, "'Carol Of The Bells' is undoubtedly crowd-pleasing, if not necessarily an instant Christmas classic. I certainly will never turn down an opportunity to spend quality time with these characters just hanging out, but I left this welcome respite for the holidays a bit anxious to see how the second half of the team's season — and the remaining eight episodes of the show's season — will take the building blocks from the first few episodes and expand on them."[3]

Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "Season One skipped over Christmas altogether, perhaps because Ted and Rebecca's relationship was still too frosty, and the team still too fractured. Clearly, though, this needs to become an annual tradition, with Ted and company bringing the warmth of the holidays to these brutally hot midsummer days."[4]

Keith Phipps of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Done wrong, Christmastime ambition can get the better of a show, making it descend into soppiness. But done right, a Christmas episode can crystalize everything that makes a comedy great. 'Carol of the Bells' does it right, and it does right in an inconspicuous, almost sneaky way. It doesn't feel like it's going to end in a big moment, say one in which much of the cast shares a sing-along in a picturesque snowy street. Yet, when that moment arrives, it feels not just right but inevitable. It's a sweet, funny episode that explores the central Ted Lasso theme of what it means to be a good, generous person without making anyone behave out of character or getting cute about it."[5] Becca Newton of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Watching the characters sing, have fun, and be silly led to a couple of realizations. Ted Lasso doesn't need heavy plotting to be entertaining, and wouldn't it be great if the show did an episode where the characters don't do much but hang out? Fittingly, the Christmas-themed 'Carol of the Bells' grants this wish."[6]

Linda Holmes of NPR wrote, "The Christmas episode is a standard of television — and especially of British television, which Ted Lasso is not, but which it sometimes, for brief moments, feels like it is. In this particular Christmas episode, even though Ted is feeling blue, the team finds joy in bonding over dinner, while Roy and Keeley try out door-to-door dentistry."[7] Christopher Orr of The New York Times wrote, "Did I enjoy the episode? Absolutely. Does it make me worry for the future of Ted Lasso? Absolutely squared."[8]

• "Carol of the Bells" at IMDb