Jason Sudeikis and the rest of the cast of his Emmy-winning Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso have just unwrapped a surprise holiday gift for fans: a claymation holiday short called The Missing Christmas Mustache. 

As they did with the animated opening of the August 13 episode “Carol of the Bells,” the short features cute clay avatars for Sudeikis and his fellow Emmy winners Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein, as well as for Brendan Hunt‘s Coach Beard, Juno Temple‘s Keeley, Jeremy Swift‘s Higgins, Nick Mohammed‘s Nate and Phil Dunster‘s Jamie. 

In the short, Sudeikis’ Ted stuns himself — and his Plasticine pals — when his trademark mustache vanishes, ahead of a FaceTime call with his son in the States.

The gang tries to find the missing ‘stache, and failing that, tries to make a duplicate — courtesy Coach Beard’s handy disguise kit. When that fails, Brett Goldstein’s Roy literally rips his own eyebrows off to create an analogue. He then grunts and sprouts a replacement pair for himself. “You’re so hairy,” Temple’s Keeley swoons. 

Ted realizes that nothing can replace his own lip warmer, but he makes peace with it, as only Ted could.

“It’s not about making Christmas perfect for the people you love, it’s the people you love that make Christmas perfect,” he says.

And with that Ted Lasso-ism, his trademark crumb catcher magically reappears, just in time for his FaceTime.

“Have a perfect Christmas,” Ted tells viewers in a fourth-wall break. “Ah, an imperfect Christmas, because it’s the imperfections that make — I mean you get it, you saw what we’re going for, right?”