This 1 Theory About Why ‘Sex and the City’ Didn’t Have a Christmas Episode Makes So Much Sense

So many TV shows commemorate holidays with annual Christmas and Thanksgiving episodes. These themed affairs provide a good excuse for characters to dress up, reminisce, and even relive some memories with each other. But it’s not something that ever happened on HBO’s hit series Sex and the City.

Surely Sex and the City fans would have loved seeing Carrie Bradshaw attending Christmas parties just for the outfits alone. But they never had the chance because of one important rule that the writers carefully followed.

Most of ‘Sex and the City’ happens during the summer

One obvious reason for never showing Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda exchanging Christmas gifts or stringing up lights in their apartments was simple. For most of the show’s 6 seasons, it was summertime.

There are vague references to spring and fall, but most episodes occur during the heat of the summer. This tactic is quite intentional. Without showing the seasons change and holidays pass each year, there’s less of a clear indicator of how much time has passed from one episode to the next.

Sex and the City focused on sex, female friendships, dating, and relationships. The four main castmates learned lessons along the way. However, the intention wasn’t to convey the literal passage of time. Sticking to one season helped blur that line a little.

The women on ‘Sex and the City’ never see their families

Most years holidays are all about spending time with family. Gatherings in 2020 might look a little different due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but usually, people travel and meet up. This basic truth could be the reason why Sex and the City never bothered putting together holiday episodes.

Except for the time Miranda attends her mother’s funeral, family is almost never mentioned on the series. It’s briefly mentioned that Carrie’s father left her mother when she was five but it’s unclear whether she had any siblings. None of the other women ever mention brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, aunts, uncles, or anyone else who would normally be part of an adult’s life.

Instead, the four best friends become each other’s family. This portrayed an unrealistic portrait of friendship where there’s endless time for lunches, shopping, and going to parties. It’s not like they had time for family drama anyway.

‘Sex and the City’ isn’t meant to be realistic

While the award-winning HBO comedy was meant to inspire and entertain, Sex and the City was never trying to convey real life, even for single women in New York City. While it’s true that plenty of people are estranged from their families, it seems unlikely that four women would never mention blood relatives over the course of years.

But then again, avoiding holiday episodes helped make this glaring omission less obvious, which is probably why Sex and the City writers chose to keep holidays off the series. Besides the one time Charlotte decorated her tree to bid adieu to Christianity, we’ll never know what kind of celebrations these four friends would have hosted.

Though we can assume they’d have been fabulous.