Christmas is coming early if you're a Bob's Burgers person, which, if you're reading this, you probably are. There's a new holiday short on the way and it's a streaming thing, not a FOX broadcast: it hits December 7 on Hulu, and Disney+ too. That's per Vital Thrills, with Collider and ComicBook backing up the date and platforms.

Wild that this show has been around since 2011, right? Premiered on FOX January 9 of that year, pulled 9.39 million viewers, highest-rated new series debut of that season. Fifteen years later the Belchers are still going and still doing holiday content and somehow it never feels like a cash grab. that's rare. Most animated shows hit a point where the specials feel like homework.

I haven't seen more than the first clip myself so I'm not gonna narrate beats at you, but the vibe is exactly what you'd want from a Bob's Burgers holiday thing: small stakes, cozy, slightly unhinged. The clip's making the rounds and it's got that energy the show does better than basically anyone. you know the shape. It works every time.

Not gonna pretend a holiday short is major news or whatever, but there's a version of this where the show mails it in and (ok not being dramatic, just, like, factually) it never does. H. Jon Benjamin and the whole cast still sound like they're having fun, and you can hear it. That's the whole trick with this show and they've never lost it.

Anyway. Clear a little room on your watch list before December 7. Grandma raised me on the idea that if a gadget exists you should see what people make with it, and a fifteen-year-old animated show still turning out charming holiday shorts is a pretty good example of exactly that.