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The Old Man & the Tree

"The Old Man & the Tree"
Modern Family episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 10
Directed by Bryan Cranston
Written by Paul Corrigan
Brad Walsh
Production code 5ARG10
Original air date December 11, 2013
Guest appearance(s)
Episode chronology
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List of Modern Family episodes

"The Old Man & the Tree" is the tenth episode of the fifth season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 106th overall. It was aired on December 11, 2013. The episode was written by Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh and directed by Bryan Cranston.

This is the second episode directed by Cranston, with the first being the episode "Election Day". The episode also features Elizabeth Peña's second appearance as Gloria's (Sofía Vergara) mom, Pilar.

Gloria's (Sofía Vergara) mom Pilar (Elizabeth Peña) comes for Christmas visit and she drives Gloria crazy. Gloria wants to have some time away from her, so she calls Claire (Julie Bowen) to pass by and be with Pilar. Claire who thinks she will baby sit Joe goes but at the end the two of them, Claire and Pilar, get along, and seeing the two women bonding makes Gloria jealous. Gloria tries to "win back" her mom, and she ends up fighting with Claire who also admits that she is jealous of her because her mom comes all the way from Colombia just to spend the holidays with her when her mom does not even take the bus (three hours away) for her and she instead sends her a pair of slippers as a gift every year since she was eight.

Jay (Ed O'Neill) takes Manny (Rico Rodriguez) to cut down their Christmas tree since Jay believes that the Christmas tree should be a real one and not fake. After searching for a while, Jay finally finds the "perfect" tree but it is not that easy to cut it down. First the axe breaks and then the saw stacks, so they decide to tie it in the car and pull it. Their attempts fail one after another but at the end, they manage to get the tree with the most unexpected way.

Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Alex (Ariel Winter) take a job at the mall as the elf and the wife of the Santa (Charley Koontz) respectively, but things do not go really well when the Santa decides to take a break but never comes back. Kids go crazy asking for Santa, and the two girls end up locked in the little Santa house to protect themselves.


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