A Christmas episode of the Twilight Zone? Yes, such a thing does exist. In Night of the Meek, an unemployed man (Art Carney) is given a chance to be Santa Claus. This is a wonderful episode that truly captures the spirit of the season.
Night of the Meek was written by Rod Serling and directed by Jack Smight. It was originally broadcast on December 23rd, 1960.
Through the Shattered Lens 
That was most enjoyable. It’s nice how Rod Serling gave us that second part to the magical ending. It’s things like that that separate The Twilight Zone from both its contemporaries and its successors.
What a great performance from Art Carney. Really liked this.
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This was remade for the 1980s version of “The Twilight Zone” with Richard Mulligan in the Art Carney role–really good episodes, too.
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One of the oddest things about this episode, and I’m sure other people have noticed this is the resemblance to the movie “bad santa”, minus the F words and less of an edge on the vulgarity and sexual content due to the changes in modern times. But the general idea is surprisingly similar. A haggard, drunk santa disgraces a department store. He’s unkempt, rough around the edges, scares off the children who are expecting a normal “decent” santa. There’s even a similar bar scene in both this episode and bad santa, (well, sort of) where Santa’s behavior pisses off the bartender. What’s different, of course, is the second act. Santa finds a magic bag of gifts that keeps changing between a trash bag and a gift bag. And this Santa ends up having a very good heart and wants to give gifts to the homeless and to the children.
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