Mad Men - Episode 4.02 - Christmas Comes But Once A Year - Recap

As evidenced by the title, “Christmas Comes But Once A Year” takes place just before Christmas, 1964. It delves deeper into what life has become for Don and Sally since the divorce, with Don continuing his descent into loneliness and Sally dealing with her struggle with the help of a friend.



We see from the very beginning of the episode that Allison is one of the better secretaries Don has had. She brings him his mail, reads him the letter from Sally (and gets teary over Sally’s despair of not having Don around for Christmas), and agrees to buy the presents for his family. It is clear that the two have a connection that hasn’t been there with any of his other secretaries, and although this appears to be a good thing, we see that in Don’s current state it is anything but.

Freddie Rumsen makes his triumphant return, 16 months sober with a $2 million account for Pond’s Cold Cream. He joins together with Peggy to work on the advertisement (since he doesn’t want Pete anywhere near it), but his ideas are old fashioned. He lists older women he thinks would be great for the ad, and when Peggy tells him Pond’s is trying to attract young women, he simply tells her that young women look up to older women. Although he tells her to come up with ideas, he only uses those ideas to come up with improvement on his own. Despite his disregard to Peggy’s concern about the pitch, he does lend an ear for Peggy’s problems at home. Her boyfriend Mark is pushing her to have sex (although he is misinformed that she is a virgin), but Peggy isn’t sure she’s ready to take that step. Freddie tells her that if she wants to marry him she needs to wait, as he’ll take advantage of her otherwise, but Peggy is too concerned about being alone on New Year’s that she gives in and has sex with him.

It has been clear for a while now at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (and Sterling Cooper before that) that the business world is becoming more forward thinking (something Freddie clearly missed out on during his leave of absence). More evidence of changing business practices is shown in this episode as Dr. Atherton and Faye Miller come to SCDP to present the evolution of consumer evaluation. Faye passes out a test that they have created to determine what people really want, not just what they say they do. When Don realizes he will have to indulge personal information he excuses himself from the meeting.

Roger gets a call from Lee Garner Jr., the head of Lucky Strike (SCDP’s biggest client) and unbeknownst to Roger, Lee is in New York. When Lee hears word that SCDP is having a Christmas party the next day Roger is forced to invite him. Roger calls Joan into his office to put her in charge of improving the Christmas party. We get a reminder of just how important she is to the success of the business as she works her magic, setting up the party for his arrival and making sure it’s alive when he does arrive with a full welcoming committee to applaud him as he enters. Lee knows as well as everyone at SCDP just how important he is to them, and uses that power to convince (or force, perhaps) Roger to dress up as Santa Claus (a job reserved for Freddie had he not avoided the party to stay sober). As Santa, Roger gives Lee a Polaroid camera, in yet another attempt to ensure that he is satisfied with their business.

Don decides to leave the party early, but when he arrives home he realizes he doesn’t have his keys and calls Allison to bring them to him. As she tends to him, Don pulls her onto his lap and tries to kiss her. She pulls away twice, but finally gives in to him. She decides not to spend the night as she had promised Joey and some other friends from the office that she would meet them out, but it is clear how happy she is with what has happened as she smiles and kisses him goodnight. However, when the next morning comes around, Don makes things very uncomfortable for Allison when he invites her into his office. He refuses to shut the door, and makes no acknowledgement of what took place the night before (although he does thank her for bringing his keys and getting the presents for his family). She is clearly shaken by Don’s attitude and action, and when he gives her the Christmas card with a $100 bonus inside, it feels more like a payment for sex than it does a bonus.

The other women Don encounters in this episode are not as taken by his advances as we are used to seeing. He meets his neighbor, Phoebe, when she wakes him up one morning nailing up decorations for a Christmas party she is having and subsequently invites Don to attend. He doesn’t make it to the party, but does pass her in the hall as she is cleaning up afterwards, and she helps him into his apartment. While he tries to get her to join him in bed, she declines the invitation and leaves him to sleep alone. As the Christmas party comes to an end, Faye Miller enters Don’s office to talk, and although he admits he was hoping she was there to flirt, she is there to talk business (specifically, why Don left her presentation). He asks her if she’s interested in getting dinner, but as Phoebe did in his apartment, she declines. Both women are aware of Don being a divorcee, and perhaps that is what caused them to spurn his advances (and it was this that led him to force himself on Allison), but it is still strange to see Don get turned down, let alone twice in a few days.

As mentioned earlier, this episode also gives us a deeper look into what life is like for Sally now that her father has moved out and her new dad has moved in. While looking for Christmas trees with her family she runs into Glen the creepy neighbor, who is also living with a mother that has remarried. Their conversation is quickly interrupted when Bobby comes looking for Sally, but Glen tells her he’ll call her sometime. When he does call, Sally tells him how hard it is living in the same house her father used to live in now that he’s not there. Glen tells her not to worry, because someday her mother and new husband will want to move. We later see Glen take a stand for Sally, as he breaks in to the Draper house and vandalizes every room but Sally’s in an attempt to make everyone else feel as uncomfortable there as she does.

Overall this wasn’t one of the better episodes of Mad Men, but I’ve come to understand that not every episode is going to be a masterpiece. I was happy to see Freddie back, even if his job at SCDP is not yet permanent, and more Joan is always a good thing as well. For the most part, though, this episode didn’t really do much for me. I’m not sure if it was because it was a Christmas episode in the beginning of August, or if it was just the way Don acted around Phoebe, Faye, and Allison, but something seemed off. Not a whole lot seemed to get accomplished in this episode, but hopefully next week things will start to take off.

Mike