There is nothing like a trip to Nonnatus House on Christmas Day to get you in the festive spirit, and the Call the Midwife Christmas special 2023 is no exception.
Catching up with our Poplar favorites has become a yuletide tradition, and this year's episode opens with Nancy and Colette getting their very own room at Nonnatus House after Sister Julienne decides it is time they had their own space. Colette is over the moon to finally be a permanent fixture in Poplar, and Nancy couldn't be happier with her new living arrangements.
However, not everyone has a happy home, and just down the road Cyril and Matthew are taking on the harrowing task of turning out residents of a dilapidated building that has become unsafe for anyone to live in. One of the residents not happy about leaving, despite living in squallar, is Mr Sharma who Cyril takes a shine to.
With Christmas 1968 just days away and Apollo 8 about to orbit the moon, the people of Poplar are feeling positive. But, sadly, Sister Monica Joan isn't sharing their festive spirit and tells everyone over dinner that she's convinced this will be her last Christmas. As everyone tries to talk her out of her slump, it is Colette who manages to work out a way of cheering her up after Sister Monica Joan talks fondly of Christmases from when she was little.
After Doctor Turner diagnoses Sister Monica Joan with depression, everyone in Poplar gathers together to give her a Christmas she won't forget as they decide to put on a Victorian nativity, just like the one she remembers from her childhood - complete with live farm animals!
Soon Nurse Crane, who is away on a refresher course, has been commissioned to knit a Victorian-style stocking, and operation cheer-up-Sister-Monica-Joan is underway!
Meanwhile, Matthew and Trixie are looking forward to their first Christmas together as a married couple, and despite the fact Matthew's mum is throwing a spanner in the works when it comes to Christmas Day, the newlyweds are excited about making their own festive traditions. However, their plans are short-lived when Trixie's brother, Geoffery, turns up at their house unannounced and asks if he can come and live with them as his Christmas plans have been ruined.
Trixie is thrilled to see her brother, but it is clear that he is getting in the way, and soon he leaves the couple to their family life and tells Trixie he will find somewhere else to live. Little does she know, he is only moving down the road and soon becomes a paying lodger at Nonnatus House! Geoffery is in his element when Sister Veronica asks for his help sourcing the costumes for the nativity, and soon he is fully-emersed into life in Poplar.
Of course, this wouldn't be Call the Midwife without some babies being born, and the two expectant mothers that this Christmas special focuses on soon turn out to know one another from when they were at school. Antonette Douglas is an unmarried mum-to-be, who comes face-to-face with Brenda Shelby, an expectant mother of twins who is being cared for under a consultant after falling pregnant following fertility treatment.
The pair weren't friends at school, but Brenda soon feels for Toni, who is alone with her boyfriend away at sea and after all her family died when she was little during an air raid. Brenda's life couldn't be more different with her mother fussing around her and her husband doting on her, and soon the pair bond when Brenda comforts Toni following a difficult birth. Brenda has her babies a few days after Toni - but more on that drama later!
While the plans for the nativity are coming together nicely, with Reggie brilliantly demanding that he is an angel and not a shepherd because they have better costumes, Cyril is looking after Mr Sharma, the man living in poverty by taking him a food parcel and cleaning his home. However, it soon turns out that Mr Sharma has more to worry about than the cockroaches that he's sharing his house with when Cyril sees the sores on his legs.
Mr Sharma is adamant that he won't see a doctor, so Sister Veronica goes and dresses the wounds. However, she is concerned that he might have diabetes and wants him to have a blood test in the hospital. But Mr Sharma, who it later turns out is suffering from post-traumatic stress from the war, hates being in hospital and soon discharges himself, wandering out into the heavy snow that is now falling on Poplar.
Meanwhile, Brenda has gone into labour, but instead of giving birth at the maternity home with Dr Turner, her consultant is adamant that she be brought to him in an ambulance and she sets out with Sister Julienne and Nancy, only for her babies to have other ideas and she ends up giving birth in the back of the ambulance as snow falls around them. However, when a car then swerves to miss a struggling Mr Sharma, who is trying to get home after discharging himself, the car ploughs straight into the ambulance, leaving Brenda and her babies stranded.
With no choice but to help deliver the second twin, Dr Turner gets into the ambulance and a little girl is born. However, Brenda takes a turn for the worst as her blood pressure drops and it is a race against time to get the ambulance back on the road and the labouring mum to hospital.
By the time she arrives, Brenda has had three babies but is suffering from blood loss and is rushed into theatre. However, it is only after she comes out again that doctors announce there was a fourth baby, an unexpected result of the fertility treatment, but all babies and Brenda are doing well.
It's only later when Brenda struggles to keep up with feeding all four of her babies that Nancy has the idea of asking Toni to donate her breastmilk, and soon it becomes clear that Toni and Brenda are going to become life-long friends.
Back in Poplar, Cyril thankfully finds Mr Sharma and convinces him to accept help, and soon he is offered a new home by the sea by the British Legion. He is thrilled, and it seems his story is finally going to have a happy ending.
At Nonnatus House, Phillyis finally makes it home from her refresher course in time to enjoy the Victorian nativity, and all our Call the Midwife favorites are at the church playing their role in the surprise when Sister Monica Joan arrives, grateful that she has been able to relive one of her most precious Christmas memories from her childhood.
Call the Midwife season 13 will start on Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 8pm on BBC One. You will also be able to catch up on iPlayer after the episode has aired, where you will also find all previous series of the drama.
In the US, season 13 will start on Sunday, March 17 on PBS.
