While they deal with death on a daily basis, there are few people less festive than Ned, Chuck, and Olive over at the Pie Hole on Pushing Daisies. How did they manage get into the holiday spirit? I re-watched the Pushing Daisies Christmas episode "Corpsicle," which also served as the Season 1 finale, to see how they celebrated back in the day. What immediately stuck out to me is that despite the Christmas setting, it's not the most overtly holly and jolly episode — which is in keeping with the series' tone. Instead, the bits of holiday cheer in "Corpsicle" are mostly found in the background details.
The aesthetic of Pushing Daisies is perfect for this time of year (by the way, the Blu-ray edition of the series is gorgeous and would make a great last-minute gift for a fan), as everything is warm and color-coordinated, and that really shines in "Corpsicle." The episode opens with claymation, one of its first scenes focuses on a falling snowflake, and almost every costume and setting highlights the red and green color palette. Here are some more joyful tidings from the episode that will get you in the holiday spirit, from little hints to morals and insightful monologues.
1. The Music
The score for the episode is peppered with sleigh bells, "Jingle Bells," and two selections from The Nutcracker.
2. The Coroner's Christmas Sweater
Why would somebody give somebody a Christmas sweater for Christmas? You can only wear it that day. Either you gotta take off what you got on to put it on, or you gotta wait another year for the next holiday season.
Everyone's favorite dour morgue employee (who has decorated the outside of his building with candy cane stripes) is surprisingly the most spirited of the bunch, and delivers this hilarious Christmas sweater speech.
3. Olive's Ensemble
Only Kristin Chenoweth can pull off that cozy-looking hat.
4. Up On The Pie Hole's Rooftop
Of course Charlotte has decorated her beehives for the season, and of course her outfit is holiday #goals too.
5. This Bear
See him under the lamp? There are plenty of Christmas toys and decorations at this house that Emerson investigates, but the bear is the winner.
6. A Not-So Jolly Snowman
It's moments like these, when dead bodies are elaborately hidden in snowmen, that I remember what made Pushing Daisies so awesomely weird and special.
7. A Not-So Friendly Elf
This lady became a serial killer just to grant a dying child's wish that the people who wouldn't donate organs to save his life would drop dead. If that's not in the (demented and twisted) holiday spirit, I don't know what is. At the end of the episode, just like the Gift of the Magi, she died and her organs were able to help him. It's a Christmas miracle!
8. The Dickensian Headstone
Are graveyards very Christmas-y? Ask Ebenezer Scrooge.
9. The Final Scene
What's more apropos to the holiday season than family secrets, am I right? The episode ends with a doozy — Lily is Charlotte's mother! It's a Christmas cliffhanger perfect for Pushing Daisies that I'll never forget.
Images: Warner Bros. Television (9)
