In the holiday episode of "Modern Family," after the Pritchett mom bails on Christmas to be with her new boyfriend on a Christmas cruise, the family realizes they will all be apart for the holidays. With Cam and Mitchell going to Missouri, Jay and Gloria headed down to Mexico; they try to figure out a way to spend some holiday time together.  

Phil gives the idea that they should celebrate Christmas while they are all together for the next four hours, saying, “have you ever heard of Express Christmas? No you haven’t cause I just invented it.” The group makes an efficient plan to create an early Christmas over a week before the actual day.  

Claire has to give Haley a pep talk while shopping for Christmas gifts to make her the best power shopper in order to get all of the gifts and dinner cooked on time. Their desperation even leads Haley to pose as a Target employee in order to get their last item on the list, a ladybug nightlight for Lily.

Cam tries to bond with Jay while wrapping presents, and ends up storming out when he realizes he gave him a much to intimate and sentimental gift. Meanwhile, Phil is meeting a man selling a vintage baseball card for $200 (plus a butterball turkey) to win Jay’s respect. 

Luke and Gloria were responsible for the angel on top of the tree, but after Gloria thought she saw a spider, the angel got run over. That was shortly after the tree was run over in the middle of the road. 

The family sees Express Christmas falling apart, so instead of Christmas, they decide to go out for a traditional “Jewish Christmas” and go out for a Chinese dinner. They open the door to find Jay had gotten a snow machine to bring the family a white Christmas. 

Reach writer Sam Katzman here