The Andy Griffith Show was television’s equivalent of the old Frank Capra movies with their mixture of warmhearted comedy and sentimentality. It was also the first of CBS’s “rural comedies,” paving the way for The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. And best of all, it gave TV audiences one of the tube’s funniest comedy teams: Andy Griffith and Don Knotts.

Christmas Story (originally broadcast on Dec. 19, 1960), the series’ only holiday episode, was directed by Bob Sweeney and written by David Adler. It’s Christmas Eve in the small town of Mayberry and Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith) and Deputy Barney Fife (Knotts) are decorating the jail and making plans for that night’s party with their friends and family.

Barney makes the mistake of letting Andy see the Christmas card he received from his girlfriend Hilda May. When Andy learns that Hilda May’s nickname for Barney is “Barney Parney Poo,” he can’t resist razzing his deputy about it. He also asks Barney to play Santa Claus this year. At first, Barney isn’t interested, but after a while, he warms up to the idea.

All of a sudden, Ben Weaver (Will Wright), the miserly owner of Mayberry’s only department store, bursts into the jail with Jim Muggins (Sam Edwards) in tow. It seems Ben caught Jim selling homemade moonshine and he demands that Andy lock up Jim right then and there. Andy tries to talk Ben out of having a family man jailed on Christmas Eve, but he’ll have none of it. Ben threatens to use his influence with the Governor to have Andy fired if he doesn’t comply with the law, so he reluctantly places Jim in a cell.

A little while later, Ben sees Andy driving up to jailhouse and ushering Jim’s family, wife Bess (Margaret Kerry) and their two young children, Ethie (Joy Ellison) and Billy (Kelly Flynn), into the building. Ben confronts him and asks what’s going on. Andy replies that, since the entire family knew about Jim’s moonshining, he had to arrest them as accomplices.

Soon, Andy’s girlfriend Ellie Walker (Elinor Donahue), his Aunt Bea (Frances Bavier) and his son Opie (Ron Howard) arrive and they start setting up a buffet supper. Watching all this from the back alley through a jailhouse window, Ben becomes envious of their happiness and comradery. Rather than spend Christmas Eve alone, he decides the best way to join the fun is to commit a crime so that Andy will have to arrest him.

First, he tries stealing the bench in front of the courthouse, but Ellie convinces Andy to let it slide in honor of the holiday. Then, Ben tries parking his car in an illegal space and, when Barney gives him a ticket, he tears it up. Once again, Ellie comes to his unwanted rescue: she pays the $2 parking fine herself.

Now, the party is warming up. Ellie sings “Away in a Manger” accompanied by Andy on guitar and an unusually skinny Santa puts in an appearance. Ben is watching in the alley when the box he’s standing on tips over and he falls crashing into the trash cans.

Andy: Santy Claus, did you park your reindeers out back?

Barney: Huh?

Andy: It sounds like Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph ain't gettin' along so good. I better go see what's rilin' them.

Andy finds Ben in the alley and can’t believe he’s still up to mischief, but then it dawns on him how lonely the old man is. He “arrests” Ben who asks to go back to his store to pack up a few belongings for his jailhouse stay. When he opens the suitcase at the party, it looks like he “accidentally” packed up a bunch of toys, so he gruffly gives them to the kids saying that he doesn’t need them.

And so a good time is had by all. At the end of the festivities, Andy lets Jim and his family go. Wouldn’t you know somebody – probably the old scoundrel who’s sleeping contently on his cell bunk – drank all the moonshine and he can’t very well charge someone with a crime when there’s no evidence!

The Andy Griffith Show: Christmas Story is available from Netflix (Season One, Disc Two) and Amazon.