How We Met That Grinch | S2E11 "How Lily Stole Christmas"
How We Made Your Mother
Audacy & Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas
4.8 • 922 Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas revisit Season 2, Episode 11, “How Lily Stole Christmas,” the show’s first real Christmas episode—and one of its most emotionally honest. They talk about the fallout from Marshall and Lily’s breakup, especially Ted’s complicated position as best friend to both of them, and how the episode hinges on a single censored insult (the infamous “Grinch”) caught on an answering machine—an extremely 2006 plot device. The conversation digs into what a best friend actually owes you after a breakup, why Ted’s anger at Lily is about more than just defending Marshall, and how that confrontation ends up being about friendship, hurt feelings, and chosen family. Along the way they shout out Barney’s sickness subplot, Christmas movie influences like A Christmas Story and Love Actually, and reflect on why this episode still hits hard for fans who return to it every holiday season as a comfort watch.
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Transcript
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| 0:29.6 | Right, that's it. Come on, lights out. You've got a test tomorrow. |
| 0:32.6 | Just two minutes. I'm about to reach the next level. |
| 0:35.6 | It's going off now. |
| 0:36.6 | Yeah, whatever. |
| 0:38.0 | Let's see. Where's the app? |
| 0:39.4 | Oh, here it is. |
| 0:41.0 | What? How? Oh, no. |
| 0:43.6 | You're out. Better look next time. |
| 0:45.1 | Mom! |
| 0:46.1 | It's game over for late nights on school nights. |
| 0:49.0 | EE Wi-Fi controls help you get them off the Wi-Fi and into bed. |
| 0:52.9 | More parents are choosing EE broadbandroadband, the UK's fastest |
| 0:56.2 | growing broadband provider. To verify I see E.e.com.uk slash claims. So yeah, we've been asked a lot over |
| 1:04.6 | the years, what was the work? What did Ted say? It's created a lot of debate over the years. |
| 1:10.1 | You know what? After all this time, |
... |
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