The Twilight Zone Creator Rod Serling Created The Christmas Episode For One Reason

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A Christmas episode of "The Twilight Zone"? As unlikely a combination as that sounds, it happened in the show's second season: "The Night of the Meek." Henry Corwin (Art Carney) is a mall Santa who loses his job after showing up drunk. Corwin's drinking isn't from apathy, though; quite the opposite. He cares too much and it breaks his heart to see so many living in poverty on Christmas. 

Henry Corwin wants to see "the meek inherit the Earth," as the Bible once promised they would. Stumbling through the city (and still in costume), Corwin comes across a bottomless bag that can conjure any gift someone requests. So, he takes it on himself to be Santa for real. At the very end of the episode, once all the gift-giving is done, he stumbles onto a reindeer-pulled sleigh and an elf beckoning him to the North Pole. Apparently he's such a good Santa Claus that he's earned it as a full-time job. It's a surreal ending in line with the show's usual tone, but also much happier than the most famous twist endings of "The Twilight Zone."

The episode's debut was timed for Christmas 1960. ("The Night of the Meek" aired on December 23 that year.) Serling pushed for the episode, according to producer Buck Houghton, not just because he wanted a Christmas episode. In "The Twilight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree, Houghton is quoted as saying Serling would sometimes develop "enthusiasms" for certain actors and want to work with them.

"There was a Christmas show that we did just because he wanted to see Art Carney play Santa Claus," Houghton revealed. Carney was best known for playing Ed Norton (no relation) on sitcom "The Honeymooners." As Henry Corwin, he laid his heart bare and showed there was more to his talent than comedy. (Carney did later win Best Actor in 1975 for "Harry and Tonto.")

In a promo for "The Night of the Meek," Serling stated that Carney "plays [his part] with the heart, the warmth, and the vast talent that is uniquely Carney." No false advertising there.

"The Night of the Meek" still got some people riled up for depicting a drunk becoming Santa Claus, but there's not a cynical or anti-Christmas word in the episode's script. The episode is also refreshing because Corwin is not a Scrooge or a Grinch. Our lead already knows the magic of Christmas, he just needs the chance to spread that message. After "The Twilight Zone," Serling wrote his own take on "A Christmas Carol" — "Carol for Another Christmas," directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz — which debuted on ABC for the holiday season 1964.

While Serling himself was Jewish, his family still celebrated the Christmas holiday. Christmas was a special day for Serling in another way too: it was his birthday! Born on December 25th, 1924, it seems Serling naturally never lacked yuletide cheer. As bleak as his writing could sometimes be (see: "Planet of the Apes"), the humanism of "The Twilight Zone" also showed that Rod Serling loved his fellow man. 

Last year, Serling's daughter Jodi spoke to People Magazine for what would have been her father's 100th birthday. She described Christmas as "the most exciting time for my dad."

"He had a huge tree. My dad decorated it. He was like a little kid, because he used to always say to me, 'When you lose your childlike qualities, then you become old.' He always wanted to open up the Christmas presents the day before Christmas, like a little kid does and my mother would say, 'No, no, no, we have to wait for Christmas.' So, Christmas was a really important time ... He used to say that he was an unwrapped Christmas gift when he entered into the world on Christmas Day."

Serling's other daughter, Anne, revealed in her 2021 memoir "As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling" that the Serling family eventually made watching "The Night of the Meek" a Christmas tradition. Through his writing, Serling gave his family — and the rest of the world — an everlasting Christmas gift.