Not very much to say. I like these three-story episodes for the most part, especially as an outlet for the wacky stuff, and this was pretty fun. No major comments on the first story, except that I enjoyed it. Grampa's fanciful tale took a little while to get going, but his senile storytelling finally got a little breathing room and that was interesting. The Nutcracker act was not what I had imagined when I first heard of it, but it was probably the best of the three, and good to save for last. (And divided into three pieces itself! Excellent timing on the fast-paced ensemble piece; a somewhat dark section with Moe's suicide attempts was still funny; and Homer's gift search worked well with the music, with a touching ending.) With so much stuff to pack in, I was glad that not much time was wasted on framing segments or filler. Nothing really negative is coming to me at the moment, so with that I'll wrap up and see you all in a few weeks.
DYN: ...act titles were not included, even though titles did exist (see old "Upcoming Episodes" posts)? ...even Skinner is asleep during the SES Nutcracker? ...Bart's wearing his lucky red hat again, for no particular reason? ...no one but the regular cast is listed (though doesn't Tress MacNeille voice the cat lady?)?
Previous episode references AABF14: The first story is framed in a way similar to this episode's 3F19: Burns serving with Abe in WWII DABF07: Anachronistic "young Grampa Simpson" similar to Abe's Buck McCoy fan club membership card CABF10: Old clip of Krusty (in Nutcracker segment) getting pegged in the groin reminded me of a clip from this episode - after which Krusty even made a Nutcracker joke! EABF13: Rabbi Krustofski shows up for a Christmas joke (and in both cases is not voiced by Jackie Mason)
Finally... Do we know yet what episode HABF03 is going to be? These days it seems like the titles and plots are known well over a month in advance; I think I can handle the suspense, but it just seems a little unusual.