Brooklyn Nine-Nine, much like any great sitcom, has the tendency to have some of the most hilarious holiday episodes every year. Whether it’s for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or even Cinco De Mayo, they cover it all and take new and exciting approaches with each episode.
Most of the time, these holiday episodes become some of the best of the series and makes audiences eager to see what they come up with the following year. So in the spirit of the holiday season, let’s break down the all-time best holiday episodes from Brooklyn Nine-Nine in this definitive ranking of every one. We’ll have to see where your favorite episode falls on this list!
10 “Christmas” — Season 1
In the first-ever Christmas episode on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the stakes are high with Captain Holt’s life on the line. He is getting repeated death threats from a man he put away a long time ago. He tries to act as if it’s nothing he can’t handle on his own, but Jake is taking his job of protecting the captain very, very seriously.
This, of course, leads to comical hijinks that Jake and Captain Holt get themselves into. Plus, seeing Terry go from terrified to heroic in the course of this episode was truly something special. It was the beginning of many great Christmas episodes.
9 “Lockdown” — Season 2
In an unconventional take on a Thanksgiving episode, we have “Lockdown”, which shows the precinct going up in flames — literally. While Captain Holt and Terry are away from the precinct for the day, a suspicious package comes to the precinct, immediately causing a lockdown with everyone inside and leaving Jake in charge.
While officials try to see what substance this package is, Jake does everything he can to keep everyone calm and happy but goes about it all wrong. This leads to many hilarious mishaps including Charles performing the “Single Ladies” dance with prostitutes and yes, a fire starting in the precinct. Charles’ dance routine alone puts this one in the top 10.
8 “Halloween IV” — Season 4
In the Nine-Nine’s fourth Halloween Heist episode, many firsts occurred. Like Gina winning, making her the first winner of the heist who wasn’t a detective. Then, there was our first meeting of Bill, Charles’ lookalike who quickly became one of the best guest stars in Brooklyn Nine-Nine history.
We even got to see Captain Holt completely lose control by breaking through the glass of his office and charging at Jake for the prize. All of these circumstances, combined with Gina outsmarting all of the detectives in the 9-9, made this one of the best heist episodes done by the show.
7 “Mr. Santiago” — Season 4
By season 4 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake and Amy are a very serious couple and have a solid relationship. So when Amy’s dad is planning to attend her Thanksgiving dinner, with the rest of her squad and Jake, Jake goes all out to impress her dad. He even goes “full-Santiago” and makes a binder filled with important information about her father.
Little does he know that Mr. Santiago is onto his antics and soon learns that he does not approve of their relationship. He doesn’t think Jake is good enough for Amy. With Jake and Amy’s dad bantering back and forth and simultaneously solving a cold case together, and Amy and the squad dealing with a wild turkey in her apartment, it’s hard to find any fault with this episode.
The added bonus? Adrian Pimento and Captain Holt betting on a dog show — and winning.
6 “Captain Latvia” — Season 4
Who wouldn’t love a Christmas adventure with Jake and Charles taking down a Latvian crime organization? That is exactly what we get in this season 4 Christmas episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Charles’ gift for his son — action-figure Captain Latvia — has gone missing, and while tracking down its whereabouts, they end up finding a crime ring led by Latvian criminals. Eventually, the two detectives take them down.
Unfortunately, the action-figure didn’t survive, but Jake makes up for it by giving Charles a police officer action-figure to give to his son instead, which Nikolaj ends up loving. Seeing Jake and Charles bond with each other as well as Nikolaj was heart-warming, and we still got those comical moments between the detectives that we’ve come to know and love.
5 “Cinco De Mayo” — Season 6
The only holiday the heist has ever taken place on was Halloween, at least until season 6, when they decided to distract Terry from his lieutenant’s exam by holding the Halloween Heist on Cinco De Mayo instead. This worked, too, since their last heist had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances — that turned out to be completely fake.
Not only was it amazing to see their crazy heist occur on a totally different holiday than usual, but Terry ended up winning the whole thing, after always acting like he didn’t care about it. The cherry on top was that he already had passed his exam, and had fooled everybody into the heist just so he could win once and for all.
4 “Halloween” — Season 1
Speaking of heists, one of the best heists was the one that started it all. The first annual Halloween Heist in season 1 was one of the most iconic episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that kickstarted a tradition that we anticipate every year.
Jake makes a spur of the moment bet on Halloween that he can steal Captain Holt’s Medal of Valor before the night is over, which Holt agrees to. He doesn’t expect just how far Jake was willing to go to make sure he won, so when Jake is crowned the victor, Holt is taken aback, and we learn in season 2, he starts making plans for next year that moment. Without this first Halloween episode, we wouldn’t have gotten many more that were hysterical and definitely memorable.
3 “Two Turkeys” — Season 5
If we thought Jake meeting Amy’s dad was a hilarious disaster, we weren’t prepared for the monstrosity that was the Thanksgiving dinner with both of their parents in season 5.
Amy’s parents and Jake’s parents coming together to celebrate the joining of their families and eating Thanksgiving dinner together only resulted in chaos. Their dads are competitive in nature and began to compete with each other over everything. Meanwhile, their moms were making passive-aggressive comments to each other and eventually, competing as well. It all culminates with Jake’s dad cutting his thumb off while carving the turkey.
Needless to say, this was the funniest Thanksgiving episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine ever. Plus, seeing Captain Holt interrogate the squad over who took his pie only added to the hilarity.
2 “Yippie Kayak” — Season 3
A Die Hard-themed episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the ultimate payoff after watching Jake obsess over the action film since we first met him. See, Jake, Charles, and Gina end up being in a hostage situation while at a store on Christmas Eve.
They were only there because Jake forgot to get Charles a present, but Charles thinks it was Amy he forgot. Then, thieves take over the building and they must go up against them while keeping Gina safe.
Of course, nothing goes as planned on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and even Charles ends up being the one to have the “John McClane moment” instead of Jake. It was honestly the funniest most action-packed Christmas episode of the show, and we couldn’t have asked for anything more.
1 “HalloVeen” — Season 5
On the fifth annual Halloween Heist episode, big things were happening. There was the return of Bill, Charles’ lookalike, and the fact that Charles used him to betray Jake in hopes of earning the prize of the heist.
Then, there was every man and woman in the precinct working to earn the title of “Ultimate Human/Genius”, making the heist that much more exciting and challenging for the previous champions.
But the biggest thing to happen was when Jake used the prize — the cummerbund…or belt — to propose to Amy. It was a serious romantic gesture that had Amy immediately saying yes and was the first heist where no one “technically” won. The comedic moments mixed with the romantic one made this easily the number one holiday episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, ever.