Bob’s Burgers Season 16 Episode 9 Recap: Stunt Rivalry & Tree Rescue Chaos

The Belcher family’s holiday plans took a chaotic and competitive turn in Bob’s Burgers Season 16 Episode 9, titled “It’s a Stunterful Life.” In this year’s Christmas special, a trip to a tree farm splinters into three stories: a high-stakes stunt war, a cookie decoration mission, and a crusade to save unwanted trees. The episode aired on Sunday, December 14, 2025, at 9:30 PM ET/PT on Fox.

Episode Plot: A Night at Tree Town Christmas Village

The Belchers visit Tree Town Christmas Village, a holiday attraction built around a working Christmas tree farm. The family arrives together but quickly splits up to pursue their own interests on the cold winter night. Louise, Tina, and Gene head straight for the park’s miniature Christmas steam train. Bob stays behind at the cookie decorating station after declaring the kids’ overly-iced creations unworthy for Santa. Linda decides to browse the tree lots, drawn by the festive atmosphere.

The peace is disrupted when the Belcher kids encounter their occasional bully, Logan, who is at the farm with his parents, Cynthia and Tom. Logan introduces the concept of “train stunting”—jumping off the slow-moving kiddie train, touching decorations, and getting back on. Louise immediately sees this as a challenge, and a fierce competition for bragging rights and the park’s novelty currency, “mistledough,” is born.

Meanwhile, Linda’s tree browsing takes a dramatic turn. She discovers that the farm’s unsold and “ugly” Christmas trees are fed into a wood chipper to be turned into mulch for the next season’s trees. Horrified by what she calls “Christmas tree cannibalism,” she makes it her mission to save them from destruction.

The Great Train Stunt Competition

The core of the episode follows the escalating stunt duel between Louise and Logan on the holiday train. What starts with simple jumps and high-fives with Santa decorations quickly becomes more daring and dangerous.

• Tina acts as a nervous spectator, repeatedly begging them to stop and pointing out the risks and the cold.
• Gene remains on the train, largely motivated by the promise of hot chocolate once the ride ends.
• The competition is less about the prize and more about pride and the refusal to back down, capturing the intense seriousness children can bring to a game.

The rivalry reaches a breaking point when Louise, attempting an ambitious stunt, accidentally knocks a toddler’s beloved stuffed dog, Nebkin, into a high tree branch. The child’s tears change the mood instantly. The situation becomes more emotional when the boy’s father explains that the toy was the last gift from the child’s late grandfather. Even Logan is taken aback, showing a rare moment of maturity.

Bob’s Cookie Craft and Linda’s Tree Rescue

Away from the train, Bob finds himself alone at the cookie station, meticulously decorating treats for Santa. His focus on “frosting balance” and the “physics of candy cane splintering” draws confused and concerned looks from other park visitors who find a solitary man intensely decorating cookies unsettling.

Linda’s storyline sees her transition from horror to activism. After failing to morally persuade the farm workers to stop mulching trees, she takes matters into her own hands. She begins rescuing the so-called ugly trees from the discard pile and tries to sell them herself to customers, offering deals and insisting every tree deserves a home. Her efforts meet with little success until Cynthia, Logan’s mother, buys one precisely because it doesn’t smell like pine, a small but satisfying victory for Linda.

How the Episode Ends

With only one train ride left in the night, the kids and Logan must work together to retrieve Nebkin. Tina devises a plan where Logan stands on a seat, and Louise climbs onto his shoulders to reach the branch. During the final, faster ride, chaos ensues inside a tunnel. Louise grabs the toy but gets stranded on the tunnel’s roof.

In a moment that stuns everyone, Louise sprints across the roof and leaps back onto the moving train, successfully delivering Nebkin. The toy is returned to the grateful child, and Logan, genuinely impressed, concedes the competition by handing over his mistledough to Louise.

The episode closes with Linda, having failed to sell most of the trees, deciding to take all the rescued “ugly” trees home. She plans to put one in every room of the Belcher apartment, even the bathroom. Bob finally finishes his perfect cookies, and the family leaves Tree Town, their Christmas spirit—and their home—unexpectedly full.

Episode Release and Streaming Details

“It’s a Stunterful Life” is the ninth episode of Bob’s Burgers’ sixteenth season and the show’s fourteenth Christmas-themed episode overall. The episode originally aired on Fox on December 14, 2025. Following its broadcast, new episodes are available for streaming on Hulu in the United States. Internationally, Season 16 of Bob’s Burgers is now available to stream on Disney+.

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