10. Blue Christmas

Complete story — includes the ending

Zoe finds herself anxious that her ever-critical mother will be visiting Bluebell soon for the holidays. In order to avoid spending quality time with her mother, she busies herself with a patient but potentially ruins Christmas Eve for the whole town by giving the man playing Santa Claus the day off. Trying to fix the problem, Zoe upsets Wade by turning to his alcoholic father, Crazy Earl ( Christopher Curry ) to ask him to play Santa at the town's annual Christmas party... a part he gave up years ago after the death of Wade's mother, which drove Earl to drinking. Meanwhile, Lavon is desperate to make the week special for Ruby, but his plan goes awry when Lemon gets involved. Elsewhere, George is struggling with picking out the perfect present for Tansy. A wedding ring left in the Joseph suit starts the rumor George is going to propose to Tansy, but it's Lavon's desperate attempt to persuade Ruby to stay in town. Zoe gets caught in ill-conceived lies to pretend to be a total success for her mother, who actually gives her the needed nudge to humbly make up with Wade. Also, George catches Brick in bed with Shelby.