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December 21, 2025

Dec. 21 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #42 – 33

By Joe

We’re back to the regular entries, but not for very long. Hopefully you enjoyed yesterday’s entry on old Emmet Otter, but we’re ditching the puppets today in favor of traditional, 2D, animation. Well, for the most part. We do have one CG entrant for today to wreck the party, but since we’re talking about a top 40 Christmas special I guess it can be forgiven. Today’s entrants are all of the nice, or genuine, variety as I classified them when sorting my list. It’s also a solid mix of 90s and 2000s cartoons with one extreme outlier so this isn’t a chunk of the list being driven by nostalgia, for the most part. My nostalgic attachment is mostly pre 90s with a few exceptions. In general, if I am allowed to toot my own horn for a second, I’m impressed with my own ability to set aside nostalgia when compiling these rankings. Oh sure, some of it plays a role. Is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer really as good as I’m going to rank it? Probably not, but I’m also not out here to formulate hot takes. You just have to find that happy medium between genuine quality and cozy nostalgia. With Christmas specials, it can be hard to separate the two and in some cases downright impossible. One Christmas episode that I have zero attachment to is leading us off today, and it might be the Christmas special that surprised me more than any other.

42 – Buzz Lightyear of Star Command – Holiday Time

In this episode, Buzz gets into the “holiday” spirit.

I don’t say that Buzz Lightyear of Star Command surprised me because I expected it to be crap, I just didn’t really have any expectations going in at all. I had zero interest in the universe Buzz Lightyear hailed from. Like the unsuccessful film of a few years back, this show depicts the fictional show the toy in Toy Story would be based on. I guess this is the cartoon Andy might have watched while sitting in front of the TV with his action figure. It’s a 2D animated show that actually looks pretty good for something that aired in 2000. What really works though is the casting of Patrick Warburton as Buzz and Wayne Knight as Zurg. Those two Seinfeld alum are fantastic in their roles and the show is fast-paced, witty, and full of action as Buzz and his fellow members of Star Command have to aid a guy claiming to be Santa in order to save their “holiday.” That might have been my one critique here is that the show is clearly avoiding the term Christmas which feels overthought. I get it, it made no sense for the Flintstones to say Christmas since they predate Christ, but if you’re going to replace the term then come up with something better than “holiday.” That’s a very minor complaint though as this episode was a lot of fun. It’s just a shame Disney has no interest in preserving it or making it available as in the five years since I first wrote about it the show has still not been added to Disney+. I’m blaming the failure of Lightyear for that.

41 – Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! – Scary Christmas

Shaggy and Scooby had a little trouble with the wrapping paper.

Scoob and the gang didn’t mess with Christmas a whole lot. Perhaps it was because their vibe was more in-line with Halloween, but the remnants of Hanna-Barbera started to rectify that in more recent times. Be Cool, Scooby-Doo might be the best Scooby-Doo show that’s ever been produced. I can’t really claim to be an authority on that as I have long since lost track of the franchise. The earliest works are kind of bad though, even though I watched a ton of them. I did enjoy A Pup Named Scooby-Doo as a kid and can appreciate it still on some level and through my kids I’ve been exposed to some of the movies and other modern shows. Of them all though, this is the only one I’d sit down and actually enjoy as it’s pretty funny. It’s kind of like a very tame version of The Venture Bros. as we have the usual mystery solving gang dealing with some supernatural element each episode that’s probably a robot or something. In this one, it’s a robot dinosaur that’s plaguing a town at Christmas and looking to mess up an annual celebration. The show is able to create comedy without really dumbing down the characters. Fred is a bit like the character from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in that he’s more stubborn than dumb. The only real negative is the show isn’t as fun to look at as some others. It’s not terrible, but I’d put it on par with an adult animated sitcom like Family Guy or Bob’s Burgers. There’s a flatness to everything, but it mostly animates well. I might be ranking this one a bit too high, but it feels more impactful given that it’s a venerable franchise finally getting a good Christmas special.

40 Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Invasion of the Secret Santas

Batman and Red Tornado are teaming up to save Christmas.

Speaking of a venerable franchise getting a good Christmas episode, here’s the caped crusader himself – Batman! I dismissed Batman: The Brave and the Bold when it aired in the 2000s because I had heard it was a kid-focused show. I wasn’t mad or anything, I just figured it wasn’t for me. I may have been wrong. This is a softer take on Batman, but the show is really well-animated and Diedrich Bader is a fantastic Batman. It has a dry humor and there’s a subversive element at play and it’s on display in this episode. Especially when a robot Santa goes up in flames revealing a robotic skeleton underneath it. The show had a team-up format where Batman would partner up with another hero in the DC Universe and this one includes Red Tornado. As an android, he has to try and figure out this whole Christmas thing which is pretty humorous all the while Fun Haus is wreaking havoc on a small town and attempting to steal Christmas. There’s some flashback stuff as well to Batman being a little dick at Christmas when he was a kid just adding another layer of guilt to the trauma-laden character. The episode finds time for some sweetness at the end too, which honestly surprised me a bit just given the overall tone of the episode up to that point. More surprising, is that this is probably my favorite Batman Christmas special. It’s more enjoyable than either of the episodes from Batman: The Animated Series and I’m also ranking it above Justice League. That’s definitely not something I expected going in.

39 – Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too

Oh, you silly old bear. And pig.

As something of a last hurrah for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh comes this Christmas special, Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too. These days it goes by a different name, A Very Merry Pooh Year, which sounds kind of gross, but the special is the same. Disney just added some wrap-around plot and a new cartoon to basically fill out an hour. This entry is just for the original though and it’s a very gentle, sweet, Christmas episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, as one would expect. The Winnie the Pooh franchise is definitely one more aimed at young children, but it’s so charming that adults can certainly enjoy it on some level. This one has Pooh forget to ask Santa for a Christmas present, but when he and Piglet try to retrieve the list it gets all messed up. They take it upon themselves to try and play Santa and make sure their fellow denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood have a merry Christmas, but they’re not exactly successful. It’s cute and has a familiar message of not focusing on the material aspect of the holiday and it’s lovingly animated. It’s very much a nice, feel-good, Christmas special you can watch with your kids.

38 – The SpongeBob Christmas Special

We all remember the time Squidward slapped his cheeks in SpongeBob’s face.

The SpongeBob generation is not one I’m connected with, but damn if that sponge doesn’t make good Christmas specials! This is the original where SpongeBob learns about Christmas from Sandy and makes it a point to share the news about the holiday and Santa with all of the people of Bikini Bottom, much to the annoyance of Squidward. He finds everything about the holiday repugnant, but when Santa passes them over the guilt of how much he enjoys their misery is too much and Squidward basically assumes the persona of Santa and gives all of his possessions away. Ordinarily, I’d be annoyed with a Nickelodeon show denying the existence of Santa Claus, but here it’s rather believable that he could miss a village of fish. Plus, he makes an appearance at the end to make things right. Though I should point out, the Santa in this one is a live-action Santa whereas future holiday episodes will make him something of an elf. It’s honestly not the most flattering depiction of the big guy that I’ve ever seen, but at least it’s unique. This one is charming and pretty funny. There’s a great musical segment in the middle and if this is a show you grew up watching you probably have it ranked higher. I’m not sure if I’m at risk of angering the SpongeBob fanbase for having it ranked behind a later Christmas special, but it’s my list and I say this is the second best SpongeBob Christmas.

37 – Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas

He’s so bad at Christmas he managed to decapitate Santa.

This Christmas episode of Goof Troop is another example of Disney using a Christmas special as a series finale. It’s considered by the company to be a stand-alone holiday special so if you go to Goof Troop on Disney+ you won’t find it. I find this extremely annoying since it means this Christmas episode has been missing ever since the service launched and it’s a damn shame. While I felt slightly let down by this one, it’s still a great Christmas episode of a solid cartoon. It’s another tale of Goofy trying to do something right, but he goes way above and beyond what he’s capable of doing when it comes to Christmas and he “goofs” it up. Along for the ride is Pete and his family who thought they were getting away from the Goofs, only to find out they rented the cabin next door for their Christmas too. This one doesn’t dive into the Goofy and Max conflict like A Goofy Movie does or even like the segment from Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. If the Goofy segment in that were a stand-alone special I’d be curious to see if I would place it higher than this one. The fact that it lacks some of that more emotional material is why I’m not as high on this one as perhaps I thought I’d be, but it’s still an annual tradition in my home.

36 – Life with Louie – A Christmas Surprise for Mrs. Stillman

Electrical cords are so hazardous in cartoons.

The first episode of Life with Louie is basically the only one I remember. Well, it and the other Christmas episode since I watched it somewhat recently. This was our introduction to the Anderson family in toon form and it’s a funny and sweet little Christmas episode about a neighborhood coming together to surprise a widow on Christmas. The humorous bit is that she’s actually Jewish, but it’s the thought that counts, right? A lot of the humor comes from the Andy character, Louie’s dad, who is the one most put out by helping the old lady out, but despite his grumbling we get to see he’s actually a good guy. Louie, for his part, provides a dry wit and there’s plenty of physical comedy as well as situational comedy like when a pair of cops mistake Andy for a prowler. The Fox Kids shows produced some good Christmas episodes, and this is one of the better ones.

35 – Olaf’s Frozen Adventure

Olaf brings the feels when others do not.

For a time, Disney’s Frozen was inescapable and the company wanted it that way. The 2013 film was a bit of a surprise hit. I’m sure the company expected it to do well, it just was so big that such success could not be predicted or counted on. To keep the franchise in the cultural zeitgeist, Disney commissioned a pair of theatrical shorts. One was indeed short while the second was certainly not. Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was clearly developed as a network special because that’s what the runtime would indicate, but that didn’t stop Disney from attaching it to the Pixar film Coco. Sure, Mickey’s Christmas Carol had the same runtime and was released in the exact same manner, but it was attached to a re-release of The Rescuers, not a completely new film going for a very different vibe. Some found it annoying, but remove it from that context and this special starring the world’s second most popular snowman is quite delightful. At least, when he’s allowed to be the star, but in order for Olaf to go on his quest to discover new Christmas traditions we first have to deal with the lack of them in the castle. Elsa has to make every problem all about her so she goes back to being mopey and blames herself for their family’s lack of holiday traditions. It’s a stretch and something the special didn’t need. She and Anna could have just said “Oh yeah, we don’t really do anything, do we?” and left it at that for Olaf to make a big deal out of. As a result, this is the one I’m sure to question my placement of on this list for years to come. And like it or not, this is one of the few Christmas specials that receives an annual showing on network television thanks to Disney owning ABC.

34 – Tweety in “Gift Wrapped”

Come on, Sylvester, kiss the little birdy!

Here’s a nice, simple, cartoon from the golden era. It’s a Sylvester and Tweety short where the cat is out to eat the little, yellow, canary, only this time it’s set at Christmas. That’s it. And you know what? That’s all it has to be. Adding Christmas to the usual dynamic is enough to spice up the old formula and make this a fun viewing around the holidays. Tweety is a gift from Santa for Granny, but Sylvester gets to the tree first on Christmas morning so he tries to swap his gift (a rubber mouse) with Granny. She, of course, catches him which sets the stage for more attempts at the bird. Unfortunately for Sylvester, Granny also got a dog from Santa so we get to add a big bulldog into the mix (he’s basically Hector from The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, but I don’t know if he actually had a name in 1952). There aren’t a lot of Christmas cartoons in the Warner library from this era and this one is the best one. We would have to wait many years for Warner to top it.

33 – Taz-Mania – No Time for Christmas

The rest of his family may let him down, but Taz can always count on the love of his turtle.

51 years to be exact! That’s how many passed between the release of Gift Wrapped and this episode of Taz-Mania, the Fox Kids show starring everyone’s favorite devil from down under. I didn’t watch a lot of this show growing up. I don’t know why, but it just didn’t appeal to me. I found it a little slow as the episodes felt like they went on and on. I think I was just at an age where I was losing interest in comedies and was ready for a show like Batman to come along. When I returned to this one in 2018 I wasn’t expecting much, but damn did I enjoy it! This episode centers on Taz who is really excited for Christmas only no one else seems to share in his enthusiasm. Or, they’re more concerned with their own selfishness. As the title implies, all of the characters just don’t have time for Taz and his Christmas. He interacts with a lot of the cast of the show and they’re all preoccupied with something else. Some try to use Taz for their own needs while others just kind of ignore him. It wares down the devil and we even see him have a sad cry. The town rallies in the end as they realize what’s been going on and it’s a nice moment. Did I cry? I might have, it was seven years ago that I watched this thing. I’d love to watch it some more, but Taz-Mania is a hard show to track down these days because the Warner company absolutely sucks. If you do put in the work to find this one I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

That does it for today, but even though we just returned to the countdown format tomorrow we’re switching it up again! For the final time in 2025, we will be doing a traditional write-up of a holiday classic. And tomorrow’s entry is unique in that it’s actually the one redo I mentioned way back in November. What special is it that I felt was so important that I needed to expand on what I wrote back in 2014? Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow and find out.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 21 – TaleSpin – “Jolly Molly Christmas”

Kids who did a lot of their growing up in the 90s likely have fond memories of The Disney Afternoon. There were a lot of programs competing for eyeballs in the weekday afternoon timeslot and Disney put forth a pretty compelling block of animation, even though the actual launch wasn’t that exciting. It included two…

by Joe

Dec. 21 – RoboCop: Alpha Commando – “Oh Tannenbaum Whoa Tannenbaum!”

It’s been said that the 80s were pretty wild, and it’s not much of an exaggeration. At least where children’s media is concerned. After years of the government getting involved in what was okay to broadcast to children, the Reagan administration basically said “Eh, kids deserve to have everything and anything marketed towards them.” There…

by Joe

Dec. 21 – A Muppet Family Christmas

This year we’re celebrating two things at The Christmas Spot. Well, 3 things if you count Christmas by itself, which I suppose you should. Every fifth day, we’re celebrating the best of the best which is why yesterday was A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you read the feature on December 1st for this year, then…

by Joe

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December 18, 2025

Dec. 18 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #63 – 54

By Joe

December 18th brings with it the realization that we are now one week away from Christmas – start panicking! Why panic? Well, if you’ve been putting off your Christmas shopping you’re now in danger of missing out all together. This is the point where it’s risky to order anything online expecting it in time for Christmas unless you’re willing to spend a gross sum of money on next day air. If you’re the sort that prefers to shop in person you have one weekend left to venture forth and brave the crowds. They’re probably going to be at their worst this weekend, though probably not as bad as they would have been for Black Friday if you’re looking for a silver lining.

I tend to be an early shopper because I like getting it out of the way so for me December 18 brings a different kind of anxiety: we only have one more week for Christmas viewing! When I was a kid, I kind of extended the Christmas viewing season to New Year’s Day, but the older I get the less willing to do that I am. Once Christmas comes and goes so too does the magic. Even the night of Christmas can be a tough time to figure out what to watch. Sometimes I have too much left on my plate that it feels pointless, and with the actual festivities in the rear view mirror the holiday just feels over. That’s why I cram as much viewing into the days leading up to Christmas as I can. In a way, the day of Christmas doesn’t even present much of an opportunity to watch anything. I usually throw on The Christmas Tape in the morning and sometimes I end up just doing the same at night. Since we’re nearing the top 50 of our countdown, there’s still a lot to go over. These are all pretty great so if you’re watching along you have some serious work cut out for you!

63 – Robot Chicken’s Santa’s Dead (Spoiler Alert) Holiday Murder Thing Special

One of these jerks killed Santa. Or all of them?

If you’ve seen one episode of Robot Chicken you may feel like you’ve seen them all. It’s essentially a stop-motion sketch comedy show that makes use of old toys in place of expensive puppets. Well, this episode is entirely different! Not in medium, it’s still stop-motion using repurposed action figures, but it’s not a sketch format. This is a standard length episode of Robot Chicken which is about 11 minutes, but it tells one cohesive story. As the title reveals, Santa is dead and the format is a murder mystery on a train. Only one person is up to the task of solving this one and his name is Jesus! The suspects? A reindeer with lash marks, a nutcracker who happens to be Jewish, MAGA Krampus, and a cookie looking for a sugar daddy, among others. It still contains a lot of the same brand of humor one expects of the show and actually has an impressive voice cast which includes a couple of Seinfeld alums. The format helps to make this the most memorable Robot Chicken Christmas special and, for now, it’s also the last one. Saving the best for last is always a good move.

62 – Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future

Nothing says “Christmas” like Glenn Danzig and a swimming pool full of blood!

Do you like your Christmas specials to feature as little of the holiday as possible? Then Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the show for you! This is barely a Christmas special as a weird robot ghost claiming to be from the future shows up and starts haunting Carl’s house. He has a story to tell about the origins of Santa Claus, or Claws, which he does in very elaborate fashion for all who care (or don’t). That story takes up about half of the episode’s duration and once it’s over so is Christmas. It then pivots to a story about Carl trying to sell his haunted house and one person takes interest: Glenn Danzig. Yes, as a fan of the man’s music I am predisposed to like this, but it is genuinely funny if you like the sort of humor Adult Swim was going for in the early aughts. Danzig (playing himself) likes the house because the ghost makes the house bleed which nets Carl a cool million, but forces the ghost to take on a housemate he really doesn’t like. It’s pretty nonsensical and lacking in holiday cheer, but it’s also really brief and pretty funny so why not watch it every year?

61 – Regular Show – The Christmas Special

This show certainly has a unique look to it.

This appropriately titled episode of Regular Show sees the main cast try to celebrate the holiday with a low key party, but when the pair of Mordecai and Rigby discover a near death Santa in their friend’s garage they have a Christmas quest forced upon them. They basically are entrusted to destroy a MacGuffin and keep it from falling into the hands of an elf gone bad. Unfortunately, that elf has his own militia that the boys and their friends have to run from which takes them on a pretty gnarly journey. This is a fast-paced and surprisingly action-packed holiday episode that has a fair amount of real suspense, though I don’t think anyone expects the bad guy to win and for Christmas to be destroyed. It makes an attempt at creating some Christmas lore and it’s not bad and probably works for the show – if they revisit it (I didn’t watch further). The animation is mostly good, though the character designs are kind of intentionally ugly in places. It’s not as ugly as Bojack Horseman, but the two share a similar aesthetic only Regular Show has characters made out of inanimate objects as well as animals. It’s certainly a choice.

60 – American Dad! – The Best Christmas Story Never Told

“Merry Christmas!”

American Dad! is perhaps the most reliable source of Christmas content year in and year out and this is the episode that started it all. Coming in the show’s third season is “The Best Christmas Story Never Told” which sees Stan and Francine travel through time to save Christmas. Because of the time travel story, it actually doesn’t take place at Christmas beyond the first act and briefly at the end of the episode to tie everything back together. As an early American Dad! episode, Stan’s hyper-conservative ideals are on full display as he basically has a meltdown over a clerk saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” which he irrationally blames on Jane Fonda. This puts him at odds with his family and triggers a Christmas tradition: a visit from a ghost. The Ghost of Christmas Past finds Stan that night and takes him back to the 1970s in a bid to teach him the true meaning of Christmas, only Stan goes AWOL to try and track down Jane Fonda to prevent the future he despises from coming true. Long story short, Stan screws up and makes the future a communist hell hole and the only way to save it is for him to shoot his idol: Ronald Reagan. It’s a complex plot, but one that pays off and basically tortures its protagonist, but since he’s kind of the villain of the show, we’re okay with the torture! It’s a hell of a Christmas debut for the now long-running series.

59 – Metalocalypse – Dethmas

There’s something you don’t see every Christmas. Or maybe you do?

Metalocalypse is the show I always say is one I should like more than I do. It’s just never “clicked” for me like some other shows, maybe because it came just a little too late for me? Had this premiered earlier in my life I probably would have watched it over and over like I did most Adult Swim shows, but alas, it did not. Still, when I do catch it I find it funny and this episode is a rather absurd look at the Christmas holiday through the lens of a death metal band. The boys, as the biggest band in the world, are tasked with putting on a Christmas show while also dealing with their own visiting mothers and a coked-out clown. They have so hard of a time finding a sponsor for their special that they’re forced to work with the Christian Church which nixes most of their ideas consisting of murder and tits. It naturally goes horribly wrong and the special is a disaster that pisses off the church, but at least the creepy clown gets a handjob! I guess it goes without saying that this probably isn’t the special to watch with your grandmother.

58 – King of the Hill – Pretty, Pretty Dresses

This image of Bill eating spaghetti will live rent free in my head for the rest of my days.

Oh Christmas, you are such a wonderful time of year for many, but for others you’re the worst. Take Bill, for instance. He’s an unhappily divorced, middle-aged, childless, man with little to live for. Christmas basically breaks him in this episode of King of the Hill that makes caring for your suicidal friend seem funny. The show is able to get away with it because Bill’s attempts at suicide are so clearly a cry for help and not serious. Or they are serious, but he’s just really bad at killing himself. Eventually his brain breaks and he starts believing that he’s his ex wife, Lenore, putting his buddy Hank in a tough spot when Bill shows up at his work Christmas party in a dress. Hank’s very conservative peers don’t take to that very well. It has a positive outcome, but watching Bill’s pathetic descent is where the real comedy lies. I will never forget the image of Bill eating his spaghetti dinner alone after he breaks his lone plate. He slaps the pasta on his counter, scoops it into his mouth, then takes a swig of sauce straight from the jar. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the Bill character.

57 – Bugs Bunny’s 24-Carrot Holiday Special

Sorry kids, but the Christmas presents are going to be a little rough this year.

Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes have not had a great time when it comes to Christmas, but the most recent attempt is almost certainly the best. On its own, it’s plenty solid and quite entertaining, it just feels like a property as storied as Looney Tunes should have something truly monumental. This comes from the new Looney Tunes Cartoons which began life as an HBO Max exclusive, but have since jumped to Cartoon Network. This special is just a sequence of cartoons with one starring the duo of Porky and Daffy, another Sylvester and Tweety, and finally a Bugs and Elmer cartoon. In between are some segments of Taz attempting to go caroling and there is a wrap-around segment to set the mood. By far, the best of the bunch is the Porky and Daffy cartoon which sees the two perform as scabs in place of Santa’s striking elves with mostly disastrous results. The other two are solid, but if there’s one failing of this special it’s that the finale featuring Bugs and Elmer is barely a Christmas cartoon. It’s basically just a big snow fight, but there is a Christmas decoration on Elmer’s door. It’s silly, but if they just threw some lights on Elmer’s house and paid lip service to the holiday I’d probably elevate this one to at least the next day. Still, it’s funny and the animation is great so if you want Christmas with the Looney Tunes and only have time for one this might provide the most bang for your buck.

56 – Peace on Earth

Nothing puts a kid to sleep like a story about a mass-extinction event.

The MGM short Peace on Earth is a favorite of those who like their Christmas specials to be preachy, but not about Jesus. In this classic short, an old squirrel tells a story to his grand kids on Christmas Eve about how humanity came to an end. Arriving at the cusp of the second world war, this anti-war cartoon makes the bold prediction that humanity will only destroy itself with more war. Obviously it didn’t, but the second world war certainly lead to many deaths and casualties as well as apocalyptic creations like the atom bomb so they weren’t entirely wrong. Plus, there’s still time! I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly profound in this one and its message is probably going to land more with children than adults. Not that adults are too cynical for the message, it’s just not subtle about anything nor does it offer any real solutions apart from an idealized version of how a new society could rise from the ashes if we only took the ten commandments more seriously. What is not in doubt though is that the animation is gorgeous and if all we saw was the squirrel walk through the snow it would still be worth watching this holiday season.

55 – SpongeBob Squarepants – SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas

The little invertebrates are going on an adventure!

SpongeBob Squarepants may have arrived well past my Nicktoons viewing era, but it’s a show I’ve been able to get in touch with via its Christmas specials. This is one of the most recent ones, if not the most recent (they did a clip show one the next year) and it’s kind of the most straight-forward. There’s no live-action stuff and the plot involves SpongeBob finding a gift he left for Santa that Santa apparently missed when he visited on Christmas. The problem is it’s now months later, but SpongeBob can’t wait until next Christmas to give Santa his present so he sets off on the road to the North Pole to deliver it in person. Along for the ride is Patrick, which makes sense, but also Plankton, which does not. He has nefarious intentions, but also he has the means to travel to Santa. There’s a brief detour, but the trio does eventually make it and we get to see what the North Pole looks like in the offseason. And since Santa is actually away on vacation when the trio get there we get to see elves behaving badly. At least as bad as they can be on Nickelodeon. The elves are in no mood to entertain the little fellas though so they basically shut the door in their face forcing SpongeBob and Patrick to sneak in. When they’re caught, the elves mistake them for thieves which sets off a huge confrontation until Santa is able to show up and set things right. It’s amusing and quite entertaining. Whenever I sit down to watch a new episode of SpongeBob Squarepants I expect to not like it, but I pretty much always am proven wrong so I don’t know why I don’t adjust my attitude going in. This is a great addition to the Christmas catalog, just not quite as good as the other two I’ve seen.

54 – Bob’s Burgers – Bob Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins

This is the kind of thing that can happen when you humor a crazy person.

Bob’s Burgers is a pretty reliable source for Christmas each year and it’s also pretty good. Is it as good as American Dad? That’s a tough question as the only thing they really share in common is that they’re both, at their core, animated sitcoms. Bob is far more low key and in this first Christmas episode for the show the family winds up in a really odd situation where a homeless man moves into their restaurant’s basement and uses his talents to create elaborate window displays. The catch? He claims to be a mannequin turned human and he longs to be reunited with his estranged wife who is also a mannequin. That is presumably still a mannequin. The kids buy into this story because they want to and Bob’s agreeable wife Linda seems to eventually get onboard as well. Bob does not because it’s absurd and even though this is a cartoon, it’s not a fanciful one. There are no magic mannequins in the world of Bob’s Burgers just like there are none in our world. Still, the man is good for business so Bob is forced to tolerate it but when he insults the guy he goes dark and the only way for Bob to make amends is to track down his mannequin wife, which happens to be modeling fetish gear in a sex store. Bob’s Burgers isn’t the most subversive of animated shows, but it finds a way. This obviously is not my favorite Christmas episode from this show, but it is funny and includes one of the best Christmas songs of all-time, “Father Christmas” by The Kinks so that scores it some bonus points.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 18 – Pillow People Save Christmas

Yesterday, we took a look at an obscure Christmas special I had no familiarity with. Today, we’re looking at an obscure Christmas special that I do have some familiarity with. Pillow People were a line of pillows with faces created by Penny Ekstein-Lieberman (you can see a commercial here, if you’re curious). According to the…

by Joe

Dec. 18 – Batman: The Brave and the Bold – “Invasion of the Secret Santas!”

Come 2008, the DC Animated Universe had been dead for 2 years. Justice League Unlimited aired its final episode in 2006 bringing an end to something that had been ongoing since 1992. As I touched on earlier in this year’s countdown, the DCAU wasn’t something I was particularly invested in so it’s end went unnoticed…

by Joe

Dec. 18 – X-Men – “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas”

Today, The Christmas Spot temporarily alters it’s name to The X-Mas Spot. As a sort-of celebration for the animated series X-Men turning 30 this past Halloween we’re going to look at the show’s lone holiday special – “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas.” The show X-Men was a pretty serious affair as far as kid…

by Joe

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December 14, 2024

Dec. 14 – SpongeBob Squarepants – SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas

By Joe
Original air date December 10, 2021.

I did not grow up with SpongeBob Squarepants. He is very much a post-Nick show for me as I wasn’t paying much attention to the cable channel when he premiered. Over the years, little has changed for me when it comes to SpongeBob Squarepants save for the fact that I’ve come to appreciate the show’s take on Christmas. SpongeBob Squarepants has two all-timers for Christmas specials on its resume. There may be more than just the two, but as far as I know the little sponge is batting 1.000 when it comes to Christmas. When I found out a new Christmas episode was due to air in 2021 I immediately took notice. I obviously didn’t write about it then, or the year after, or the year after that, but today I am going to remedy that. Can “SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas” possibly live up to the show’s other Christmas specials? Let’s find out.

The episode begins as any other without any extra holiday fanfare. The title card is at least set to an instrumental version of “Deck the Halls.” When the episode begins, we’re shown a traditionally animated (for this era of the show) shot of Bikini Bottom decked out for the holidays. It’s somehow covered in snow or a snow-like substance, but this show has very few rules when it comes to its setting. SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) is in his aforementioned pineapple under the sea preparing for Santa’s arrival. Unlike most people, or sponges, SpongeBob actually has a present for Santa. Either he’s really generous or he’s angling for a little something extra. Either way, it’s a nice gesture that goes beyond the typical cookies and milk.

I don’t think you’re fitting down that chimney, pal.

SpongeBob, along with his pet snail Gary, retire for the evening since Santa doesn’t visit homes with active residents. And soon enough, Santa (Lewis Black in what is a pretty atypical role for him) arrives! It’s a bit weird seeing him animated in a more traditional sense after only seeing him depicted in the stop-motion A SpongeBob Christmas, but his design seems to be more or less the same. He has a rather elven appearance to some of his facial features, but he also has the big, round, belly one would expect of Santa. Initially, he has a little trouble navigating SpongeBob’s home on account of the fact that he’s way too big. I guess we didn’t see this aspect of Santa back in that other special, but he actually needs to shrink himself with magic dust in order to enter the home. Once inside, he’s positively giddy as he dances and prances about SpongeBob’s living room. His jiggling, bulbous, ass knocks the present SpongeBob left out for him behind the couch without him ever noticing it. He places a gift for SpongeBob under the tree and then departs.

This story is a tragedy unlike any other.

Seven months later, we find SpongeBob doing some vacuuming in his home. He moves the couch to vacuum behind it and there he finds the present he left out for Santa all covered in dust and cobwebs. At first, he has almost no reaction to it, but then the realization sets in. Santa didn’t get his present! It’s two-hundred and twelve days late (making this exactly seven months later on July 25th, assuming no leap year) and all SpongeBob can do is clutch the present to his bosom and roll around on the floor sobbing. Roses rain down upon him as he does and they’re from Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) who thinks SpongeBob is performing or something. SpongeBob rises to his feet and informs Patrick of the situation. He doesn’t see the big deal here and rather matter-of-factly just suggests to SpongeBob that he deliver the present to Santa himself. Sleigh bells ring in SpongeBob’s head at the suggestion which he absolutely loves! Patrick volunteers to go too, but the only issue remaining is how to get there? Patrick suggests they push and shove their way to the North Pole and, wouldn’t you know, SpongeBob loves that idea too. He opens his face like a locker and stores the gift for Santa inside himself for safe-keeping, then Patrick shoves him out the door.

Plankton does make for a pretty convincing booger.

The two idiots, I mean friends, take turns pushing each other down the street laughing all the way. Nearby, Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) emerges from the confines of The Chum Bucket looking rather smug. I don’t know why, or if that’s just his natural disposition, but he soon gets squished by a rolling SpongeBob. SpongeBob pops up from the ground and Patrick mistakes the glob of Plankton on his nose for a booger. He offers SpongeBob his handkerchief who accepts it and delivers a hearty blow leaving behind what Patrick refers to as the ugliest booger he’s ever seen. The booger soon reveals itself to be Plankton who seems to be taking this all in stride. SpongeBob tells him what’s going on and Plankton gets an idea. Ever since he got the phrase “Born to be Naughty” tattooed on his right arm Santa has had him on the Naughty List. If he were to sneak into Santa’s workshop and change his designation on said list then he could finally receive the Krabby Patty secret formula for Christmas! Again!

They’re going to be traveling in style.

Plankton informs the two that he’s coming with which they don’t seem to mind at all. When they ask how he’d like to be shoved, Plankton smugly whips out a remote. Informing the two they’ll travel via other means, he presses a button and out from the Chum Bucket emerges a sort of fishbowl on snowmobile treads and skis. Plankton informs the pair he built it to fly and run over bodies in preparation for the zombie apocalypse. I’m guessing they needed to include the zombie apocalypse bit to please the network censors since they likely couldn’t simply depict Plankton as murderous.

Is that regret I see on Plankton’s face?

The three strap in with Plankton insisting on fastening their seatbelts. SpongeBob does as he’s told while Patrick just pulls his shorts over his head. Plankton is clearly showing some signs of regret in bringing these two along, but the decision has been made. He fires up the vehicle and it rockets off nearly taking out Mr. Krabs as they zoom past the Krabby Patty. SpongeBob and Patrick almost immediately jump out of their seats to look out the window and at all the fish they’re passing over including one farmer fish who mistakes their vehicle for a UFO. Plankton barks at them to return to their seats, but Patrick points out that the seatbelt light has been turned off. Plankton has no retort and the flying machine soars off into the sky. Or undersea. Whatever.

Plankton is only interested in what’s in the box for about five seconds. That’s about as long as I pondered the subject, myself.

Night falls and Plankton is looking beat. Lucky for him, the ship is equipped with autopilot so he’s able to go to bed, but first he needs to pick on SpongeBob. SpongeBob has been polishing his gift (it’s wrapped in a conventional box so he’s just polishing paper) and Plankton decides that he’s entitled to a peek. He snatches it out of SpongeBob’s hands and starts shaking it around wondering what’s inside. SpongeBob isn’t telling, and he turns his own eyeball like the dial of a safe to open his face and stash the gift back inside. Plankton expresses hope that the contents are a stink bomb since he has a hatred of Mr. Claus, which SpongeBob takes offense to when Plankton refers to him as potbellied (“Santa is not potbellied, he just suffers from seasonal bloating”). Plankton doesn’t care enough to argue and heads to bed, which for him is a cot onboard the ship. For SpongeBob and Patrick, it’s the floor.

The North Pole?

When Plankton wakes up in the morning he’s irritated to see SpongeBob and Patrick at the controls of the ship. He demands to know what they’re doing, but they’re happy to inform him that they’ve found the North Pole and way sooner than he said they would. Plankton is skeptical and asks how long he’s been asleep, but there’s no time for that as the ground is rapidly approaching. The ship smacks into the sign for Christmas Land Theme Park and it would appear to be on actual, dry, land. Plankton jumps onto the console to claim his rightful spot as pilot, but the seatbelt light is on so Patrick just slams him into the co-pilot chair and straps him in. Patrick is apparently the one in charge, and when Plankton asks if he even knows how to land this thing he responds with, “I know how to crash land!” The ship, almost gently, crashes into the snow-covered ground and skids to a halt at the actual North Pole. It just barely touches the pole as it comes to a complete stop and naturally this results in an explosion.

They’re certainly convinced.

Despite the explosion, the ship seems to be fine. Well, everything except the navigation system. The boys emerge from the ship (with fishbowls full of water on their heads) to bask in the glory of the North Pole. Plankton is rightly irritated with the damage done to the ship, while Patrick and SpongeBob don’t appear to be phased one bit. As they start walking through the park, Patrick and SpongeBob are captivated by their surroundings. They’re also unable to discern a fake elf or fake reindeer from a real one. Plankton, on the other hand, has taken note of the lack of coldness and the presence of smog in the air, but SpongeBob and Patrick just declare it’s some special “snog” and continue prancing along delighted by their own ignorance while Plankton just looks defeated.

This place has seen better days.

SpongeBob and Patrick then come to the heart of the apparent North Pole: Santa’s workshop. Inside, some barely functioning animatronic elves are working a toy assembly line and, once again, the two knuckleheads think they’re real. SpongeBob finally shows a tiny bit of concern on his face when one of the robot heads falls off the body of the elf and onto the assembly line where the next elf smashes it with a hammer. His concern quickly evaporates though when he takes note of a sign that says “Meet Santa Claus.” The building where this meet n’ greet is to take place is actually one the nicer pieces of scenery so far. SpongeBob and Patrick head in enthusiastically while Plankton is still piecing things together. He hasn’t quite figured out where they are, but he knows it’s a sham. SpongeBob tells him that Christmas is about believing while Patrick either has a different philosophy or mishears him as he chimes in with “Yeah, Christmas is about bleeding.”

Wait! What? Santa?!

The three walk down a dilapidated red carpet (the interior of this place is not the equal of the exterior) until they finally come to him – the big man! Or, well, he is indeed a big man, but he’s also asleep and snoring loudly in a big chair. SpongeBob and Patrick run at him while Plankton can scarcely believe it. The two nitwits each jump onto one of Santa’s knees and sit with giddy anticipation for Santa to wake up. His eyes crack open a tiny bit and he asks them what they want for Christmas. SpongeBob and Patrick immediately start shouting over each other a whole bunch of unintelligible stuff as they must be among the few thinking of Christmas lists in July. Santa’s eyes then finally flutter open to see who is actually on his knee. To my surprise, he knows them by name! Is this guy the real deal after all? He also tells SpongeBob that he’s his biggest fan and SpongeBob is forced to correct him that Patchy the Pirate is actually his biggest fan. Which makes sense, because this ain’t Santa.

Oh, it’s just Patchy! I was wondering if he was going to appear in this one.

It’s Patchy (Tom Kenny)! He pulls off his Santa costume and presents himself to SpongeBob and Patrick. Upon seeing this, SpongeBob and Patrick’s head literally explode. Once reassembled though, they’re pretty happy to see old Patchy, but what they’re not happy about is finding out they’re at an amusement park in Encino and approximately 4,000 miles away from the North Pole. Plankton is pretty pissed they went so far off course while SpongeBob is just bummed that their GPS is busted. Patchy cheerfully offers an alternative to GPS – a map! And don’t forget about Potty (Lawrence), the broken down toy parrot thing, who drops in with a compass which just so happens to land on and subsequently crush Plankton. He shakes his fist at the parrot while asking “Polly want a smacker?!” SpongeBob and Patrick cheerfully hop down off of Patchy’s knees with their map and compass and bid their old fan goodbye. As they depart, Patchy requests they tell Santa “Hi” for him and to let him know that he wants a new parrot for Christmas. Potty smacks him over the head and tells him he’d like a new pirate for Christmas.

The real North Pole is a lot colder than that other one.

The boys set off once again and we see their adventure unfold over the map. They get off to a bad start first traveling across the U.S. all the way to Florida where they’re eaten by an alligator. They escape to Idaho, before getting diverted to Nova Scotia where an angry moose donkey-kicks them up to the North Pole. When they arrive, we see the effects of the cold as Plankton is encased in a block of ice while SpongeBob has turned blue and is shivering beside him. Patrick, who has been asleep, is also blue and wakes up to ask if they’ve arrived yet, only for his eyes to shatter. Patrick and SpongeBob then disembark from the ship to approach the real Santa’s work shop. Plankton is conspicuously absent, or not. He’s actually still in ice and SpongeBob asks Patrick if he’s enjoying his “Plankton Pop.” Patrick, who has Plankton pinned between his face and the glass of the bowl over his head, declares he can’t wait to get to the chewy center. We get a close-up of Plankton which looks rather horrifying.

She may seem nice, but she’s kind of terrible.

SpongeBob and Patrick approach the door with giddy expressions on their faces. SpongeBob then realizes that Plankton has gone missing and asks Patrick where he went. The starfish looks momentarily perplexed, then his jaws are forced open by a very haggard looking Plankton. He’s able to get out of Patrick’s bowl-helmet and tells the guy he needs to do something about his terrible breath. The door to Santa’s work shop is then opened and a female elf (Jill Talley) pokes her head out. She immediately mistakes the pair for trick-or-treaters even though they would be three months early. Plankton, now seeing an open door, vacates the area as he doesn’t care what’s going on with Patrick and SpongeBob. He slaps a pair of elf ears onto his own bowl and heads inside.

I’m not so sure that’s milk.

SpongeBob tells the elf they’re not trick-or-treaters, but are actually here to see Santa. It would probably have been helpful if he explained why, but he doesn’t. The elf has some bad news though: Santa has gone on vacation with his wife in Aruba and isn’t currently here (so that’s what he does during the offseason). She speaks to them in a cheerful, but supremely condescending manner which makes her kind of terrible. She tosses the pair a candy cane each and then bids them farewell with a “Happy Halloween.” SpongeBob is pretty downhearted about the rejection, but Patrick is happy to have some free candy. Really happy. He reacts to eating the candy cane like it’s crack or something. That’s probably not a good thing. The two peer through the window and see the total elf rager going on inside. They’re behaving like drunks, but they’re clearly just drinking milk and eating cookies. Plankton is also in there trying his best not to get stepped on. SpongeBob reasons they need to get inside to leave Santa his present. Patrick has an idea for how to get in, but SpongeBob decides they should do it Santa style. Patrick, who can be seen at the controls of a wrecking ball, is disappointed in SpongeBob’s choice.

They have some pretty big reindeer up here.

Meanwhile, Plankton is strolling about the area in search of Santa’s mainframe. He intends to hack it so that he can put himself on the Nice List. Or take himself off the Naughty List. I guess he has to do both. As he walks through the compound, he sees a group of reindeer working out. These reindeer are pretty serious as they pump iron. Their overall shape reminds me of the shaven yak from The Ren & Stimpy Show. Plankton avoids them, but apparently not well enough for he’s soon approached by a rather nasty looking reindeer. He has a round, blue, nose which is probably why he’s called Bludolph (Clancy Brown). I don’t know if the name is ever said in the episode, but it’s how he’s credited. Anyway, he thinks Plankton is up to no good and Plankton certainly doesn’t look like any elf he’s ever seen. Plankton tries to play it cool, but when Bludolph is clearly not fooled he kicks snow in his face and calls him a moose. Bad move, Plankton, as Bludolph summons the other reindeer for some reindeer games. And the game is hacky sack with Plankton serving as the sack. As he’s sent through the air we get a poop joke as he shouts “That better be mud on your hooves,” after getting kicked.

Uh oh, they’ve angered the elves!

We cut to a fireplace and out from it emerges SpongeBob and Patrick. They’re in a rather cozy looking room and before them stands Santa’s Christmas tree. The two are in awe, but despite their reaction I have to say it’s a pretty conventional looking Christmas tree. All that’s left is for SpongeBob to do what he set out to and leave Santa his present, but as they approach the tree with their arms linked an alarm is triggered. The elves burst in and the girl elf from early recognizes the pair of “trick or treaters.” They think they’re hear to steal toys. They’re also too angry to listen to any sort of reason as they burst in forcing SpongeBob and Patrick to escape by climbing up the tree.

Both parties seem to give as good as they get.

It’s at this point that Bludolph and the other reindeer storm in as they were alerted to the break-in as well. This means Plankton’s beating is over, but he gets stepped on by a reindeer for good measure. He pops up wondering if they’ve had enough and calls them a bunch of cariboobs. It’s a good insult since reindeer are indeed caribou. I guess Bludolph and company are kind of like the security up here, but they also seem to have some conflict with the elves. They feel like the reindeer are out of line for coming to their aid and there’s quite a bit of hostility between the two. When a reindeer gets mistakenly hit by a toy the elves were throwing at SpongeBob and Patrick, a brawl breaks out between elves and reindeer. Despite the reindeer being the far larger species, the elves certainly came to play and both sides take on some casualties. Though some of it is self-inflicted on the part of the reindeer. One of them, I think it’s Prancer, manages to get his antlers stuck in a ceiling fan causing him to fall on some elves. Then his snout gets run over by a train.

Looks like Plankton found what he was looking for. Take that, Bono.

SpongeBob is forced to observe the horror from high in the Christmas tree. He blames himself for this since he was the catalyst for the confrontation. He looks to Patrick for support, but he’s enraptured by the aroma of candy canes and of no use to SpongeBob now. A vicious looking elf is also climbing the tree. What he intends to do to SpongeBob should he reach him is anyone’s guess. SpongeBob tries bombarding him with Christmas ornaments, but that only seems to fuel him. Meanwhile, Plankton, having recovered from his own beating, strolls in deftly avoiding the many feet around him. He’s overjoyed when he comes upon the thing that which he seeks: Santa’s mainframe. It’s not issue for him to access it and add himself to the nice list. As he strolls out the door though, he’s once again stepped on.

Don’t worry everyone, Santa will set everything right.

The foot that stepped on Plankton belongs to none other than Santa! He’s none too pleased to have to come back from his vacation early due to the alarm going off in his quarters. He’s less happy to find the elves and reindeer seemingly at war with each other, but he brightens up when he takes notice of SpongeBob who was about to be attacked by the elf from earlier. He even playfully refers to SpongeBob as a menace which the little guy laughs off. He hops down and it’s at this point I’m reminded that Santa had to shrink himself to fit into SpongeBob’s house at the beginning of the episode because now SpongeBob sits in the palm of the big elf’s hand. He explains what’s going on and pulls out the gift he has for Santa. Santa seems touched and he carefully opens the tiny present to find a gloss bottle inside with a piece of parchment within it.

Read it, Plankton!

Plankton, upon seeing the gift, assumes it’s the thing he covets most: the Krabby Patty secret formula! Seeing what he wants before him, he abandons his plan to remain nice until Christmas and instead opts for thievery. He swipes the bottle and taunts Santa for good measure with his tattoo before opening the bottle and taking a look at the message inside. Of course, it’s not the secret formula (why would SpongeBob even have it?) and he sheepishly offers to return the gift to Santa. Seeing an opportunity to punish Plankton a bit, Santa instead demands he read it and Plankton reluctantly does. It’s just a simple message from SpongeBob that notes there’s no present that would be commensurate to what Santa has gifted the world over the years, so instead it’s just a simple message of thanks. Santa gets all teary eyed for no one has ever given him a Christmas present before. No one until SpongeBob Squarepants.

In the next episode, Patrick goes to rehab.

Santa thanks SpongeBob, but the little guy is always looking out for others. He makes sure to point out to Santa that he would never have made it to the North Pole without Plankton’s help. He even tosses in a “he’s not such a bad guy,” to try to sweeten the sentiment. He also credits Patrick to getting him there, which causes him to remember that Patrick is still in the tree! We pan to Patrick in the tree who has managed to get his hands (flippers?) on several candy canes. His eyes are all striped again and he just offers up a “Happy holidays to me!” I think it would have been funnier if he said happy Halloween.

SpongeBob is the king of thoughtful, inexpensive, gifts. I kind of envy him.

Fast forward five months and it’s a Christmas party at the famed The Krusty Krab. SpongeBob and all of his friends are enjoying the festivities as presents are being handed out. Plankton is there as well and we see him cheerlessly open another present which contains a lump of coal. He tosses it aside where it lands amongst a pile of other coal. SpongeBob then sidles on up and gives Plankton a gift as well. It’s a picture of him, Patrick, and Plankton with Patchy the Pirate from their adventure to the North Pole. It also contains a message of encouragement from SpongeBob for Plankton as it says “One day you will destroy us all!”

Though in this case, SpongeBob’s words of encouragement have apparently unleased this thing upon the undersea world.

Upon reading such words of encouragement Plankton appears touched. Then his soft expression is replaced with a hardened one. One of determination and malevolence! He shovels all of that coal immediately into a giant robot which has just been standing there. The coal-powered monster belches fire and we cut to an exterior shot of the restaurant now glowing from the fire within as the sounds of screams (and Plankton’s laugher) coming from inside take us to credits.

SpongeBob’s journey to the North Pole did not surprise me in that it doesn’t quite live up to what’s come before it. That’s not a slight against this Christmas episode, but more an acknowledgement of how good the previous two were. I do like the premise as it’s very much a SpongeBob plot to want to make sure Santa Claus himself gets a present on Christmas. The show does a fine enough job of coming up with something for SpongeBob to hand over to Kris Kringle and it’s not really important, anyway. This episode is about the journey. It’s a road trip for SpongeBob and his best friend plus the odd pairing of Plankton. All good road trip movies include an oil and water dynamic and that’s what inserting Plankton into the plot does here. It also provides the plot a mode of transportation and giving Plankton the goal of getting himself onto the Nice List works well enough.

Plankton carries this one for me. He’s so deliciously evil!

Where things stumble a bit for me is in the actual journey. Every road trip story needs a part where the journey clearly has gone wrong and a wrong destination or a wrong turn is often the device utilized. Here, it’s a dilapidated amusement park which I guess was fine? It’s a way to work in Patchy the Pirate who played a role in past SpongeBob Christmas episodes so I guess it’s kind of his thing. My issue with it is I think we’re denied more time at the North Pole. There are some unusual dynamics going on up there between the elves and reindeer and I’d have appreciated some more context there. Maybe we could have even had time for Mrs. Claus? It all leads to a sensible resolution though and I like the somewhat violent ending with Plankton. It caught me by surprise and that’s a pretty hard trick for a Christmas episode to pull off.

“SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas” is a perfectly charming and entertaining little Christmas episode. It’s unlikely to blow anyone away, but it’s entertaining and not too derivative of other Christmas travel specials. It’s only real failing is not being as good as A SpongeBob Christmas. If you’d like to spend time with the sponge and his friends then you can find this episode streaming on Paramount+. It’s also likely to be shown on Nickelodeon a few times this month and I bet you still have time to find it if you still have a cable subscription.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 14 – All Grown Up! – The Finster Who Stole Christmas

In 2001, Rugrats had the honor of being the first Nicktoon to make it 10 years. The path to that honor was not a smooth one as the show had effectively been cancelled in 1993 with the third season. That appeared to not be performance related, but more strategic on the part of Nickelodeon as…

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by Joe

Dec. 14 – Rugrats – “The Santa Experience”

Yesterday, we took a look at the 1992 Christmas special from the third Nickelodeon Nicktoon The Ren & Stimpy Show. Today, we’re basically working backwards and talking about the second Nicktoon to premiere: Rugrats. The Ren & Stimpy Show is probably the most celebrated of the original Nicktoons when it comes to animation circles, but…

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by Joe

Dec. 14 – Gifts from the Air

For today’s subject, we’re going all the way back to 1937 to talk about the Columbia Pictures Gifts from the Air. This particular cartoon comes from an era dominated by Disney, Warner Bros, and MGM with a tip of the cap to Noveltoons. The Color Rhapsody Theatrical Cartoon Series is not particularly well-remembered outside of…

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by Joe

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December 10, 2021

Dec. 10 – It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!

By Joe
Original air date November 23, 2012.

For December 10, we are returning to the theme of this year which is to revisit the best of the best. When I originally ranked my favorite Christmas specials, I had the recently released It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! ranked at #19. The years have been kind to this throwback Christmas special as last year I bumped SpongeBob and the residents of Bikini Bottom all the way up to #11! And from where I sit, it’s not in any danger of dropping back to 19, if anything, it’s a threat to move up into the Top 10 because this is a pretty fantastic way to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas returns to Bikini Bottom, but in a cool, new, old, way!

SpongeBob Squarepants is a show, and character, that I missed. I wasn’t watching Nickelodeon when he premiered and I’ve never made it a point in my life to see what all the fuss is about. I’ve seen episodes here and there, enough to know how the show works, but the only appointment viewing this show has ever produced for me is this Christmas special. When I saw the promos for this special I immediately was interested because the show had made the decision to produce a stop-motion Christmas special in the same vein as the old Rankin/Bass specials. If you’re going to enter the crowded world of Christmas specials and you’re looking to stand out, nostalgia is a recipe for success! Now, not everyone can just up and decide they want to do something like this and it helps that SpongeBob appeared to have the backing of Nickelodeon and the Viacom company since this sucker was ticketed for a CBS premiere. Sadly, CBS hasn’t turned this one into an annual tradition, but at least for one night there was an air of importance attached.

SpongeBob has the right DNA for a Christmas protagonist.

The animation for this episode was produced by Screen Novelties and directed by two of the studio’s founders: Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh. Screen Novelties is a modern producer of stop-motion and has worked with yesterday’s feature, Robot Chicken, as well as famed visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, so SpongeBob found himself in good company for this one. Screen Novelties also participated in the restoration of some of the puppets from the original special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so they have significant Christmas cred. A collective of writers worked on this story, and it was partially inspired by the song featured in the episode, “Don’t Be a Jerk (It’s Christmas),” which was recorded by Tom Kenny and Andy Paley in 2009. It’s a semi-conventional plot, where a bad guy and naughty list regular tries to trick Santa into giving him a present for Christmas. The unconventional part is the method utilized to get on Santa’s famed nice list.

Patchy and Potty are back for another Christmas episode!

The special begins with old friend Patchy the Pirate (Tom Kenny) and his parrot sidekick, Potty (Paul Tibbitt). We met both in the original Christmas special from SpongeBob Squarepants, and when we catch up with them here we find Patchy driving a mail truck. It’s design, and Patchy’s, is reminiscent of Special Delivery from Santa Claus is Coming to Town, though it has conventional tires. Patchy informs us he’s giving the mailman some time off, by tying him up in the back of the truck. He wants to get to Santa so he can ask him to introduce him to his hero, SpongeBob, and Potty seems to be just along for the ride. Unfortunately, they’re about to hit a literal fork in the road which causes the vehicle to spin out of control. While the truck is spinning, Patchy suggests we peek in on old SpongeBob and see what he’s up to this Christmas.

SpongeBob has a rather festive pineapple.

We then head under the sea, after a modestly festive rendition of the credits, and the stop-motion set looks gorgeous. SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) emerges from his bed singing a festive tune, “Santa Has His Eye on Me,” as he decorates his home. He spins his entire pineapple house to wrap lights around it, and there is an animation cheat when it’s done as the lights that wrapped around his door have vanished. He sprouts a Santa hat and hops his way over to Squidward’s (Rodger Bumpass) house to find his crotchety neighbor decorating as well. This seems like a change of heart since we last saw Squidward at Christmas, but he lets us know his decorations serve a purpose: to tell Santa to go away! SpongeBob then checks in on his buddy Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) who appears to be setting up a traditional box trap. It’s baited with a Christmas cookie, and Patrick explains to the tune of “The Nutcracker Suite” that he intends to catch Santa so he can have Christmas every day! He then sees his cookie and promptly traps himself. Also, an image of Santa dominates the “sky” momentarily while SpongeBob sings about Santa having his eye on him and it’s super creepy. Santa is some sort of sea elf. He looks like an old doll that was left to soak in the ocean and then dried out.

Squidward’s home is considerably less festive.

SpongeBob then pays a visit to his pal Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence) in her dome. She’s deconstructing the Christmas spirit or something via alchemy and seems to be having a good time. At the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) is decorating the restaurant in anticipation of the “Season of getting.” When SpongeBob tries to correct him, he further corrects SpongeBob because he’s a greedy prick.

Plankton has a plan to get on Santa’s nice list.

At the Chum Bucket, Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) continues our song as he sings about Santa watching him too. He punctuates the song by announcing that every year he gets a stocking full of coal! His computer A.I., Karen (Jill Talley), chimes in that he’d probably get presents if he wasn’t the biggest jerk in Bikini Bottom, and that’s when we find out Plankton has a plan. Since it would be too hard for him to just be nice, he’s going to make everyone in Bikini Bottom a bigger jerk than even he so that he looks nice by comparison. And just how is he going to do that? By lacing the most innocent of holiday treats, the fruit cake, with the substance Jerktonium. Apparently, just one speck of the stuff will turn an ordinary person into a colossal jerk!

Fruit Cake jokes are a pet peeve of mine when it comes to Christmas specials. Here, it works because the special has you bracing for such a joke, but it never comes. Instead, everyone loves the stuff, especially SpongeBob.

Plankton prepares his fruit cake and then loads up a special dispenser he created that’s part oven and part go-kart. He takes it for a spin outside and immediately encounters SpongeBob. Upon seeing the little fruit cake cart, SpongeBob gets excited and asks if he can try some of his fruit cake. Plankton is happy to oblige and SpongeBob devours a slice. When Plankton inquires to see how SpongeBob is feeling, he finds he’s his usual cheerful, annoying, self and won’t stop raving about the fruit cake. Plankton gives him some more, but the result remains the same. Plankton then goes into a mini rage and starts firing fruit cake at SpongeBob who continues to devour it. Defeated, Plankton decides to retreat into the Chum Bucket, but before he does he hands SpongeBob the keys to his fruit cake cart since he’s so eager to share it with the rest of the town.

This idyllic Christmas setting is about to be poisoned by fruit cake.

SpongeBob pilots the cart over to a trio of carolers (Kenny, Fagerbakke, Lawrence) and offers them some fruit cake. They’re all happy to be offered the most foul of holiday “treats” and eat a slice each as SpongeBob looks on. After they’re done eating, a change comes over the carolers and each ends up with angry eyes and a five-o-clock shadow. They bicker about what song to sing and argue over which “bells” song is superior: “Jingle Bells” or “Silver Bells.” The third chimes in about wanting to sing “Randolph the Red-Nosed Seahorse” and they start to fight. SpongeBob drives away content that they enjoyed the fruit cake, seemingly oblivious to the violence that has commenced, while Plankton emerges from the Chum Bucket pleased to see the Jerktonium working on these “jerks.”

SpongeBob is so hopped-up on Christmas spirit that he’s oblivious to the chaos all around him.

SpongeBob then happens upon a festive, Christmas, parade. He decides that this would be a wonderful place to spread Christmas joy via Plankton’s fruit cake and hops right into the fray. SpongeBob goes into a new song about spreading holiday cheer as he fires off volley after volley of fruit cake towards the onlookers. They all eat their fruit cake and immediately turn into jerks. We see some minor stuff like a kid popping a balloon and another smashing a present. We also get to see Mr. Krab’s whale daughter, Pearl, get angry and start blasting others with her blowhole (that’s a weird sentence to type). Soon the town is in flames as fish grapple in the street while a kid (Carolyn Lawrence) seated on a fake Santa (Brown) details the stuff he wants for Christmas. SpongeBob gives him some fruit cake and the Santa turns into a jerk and tells the kid to get a job. SpongeBob then gives the driver of the float some fruit cake causing him to abandon his responsibilities sending the float to drive off a cliff. The kid seems happy about it though as he starts bouncing on the semi-conscious Santa like a trampoline.

Plankton has a pretty solid Plan B.

Plankton then returns to the Chum Bucket pleased with how things are going. He just has one problem: SpongeBob. Karen refers to the sponge as a fatal flaw pointing out that he’s immune to the effects of Jerktonium. Plankton assures her he has an answer to that problem and unveils his latest creation: Robot SpongeBob! The robot looks just like SpongeBob, only he’s all steel and probably twice as big. A reasonable person wouldn’t confuse the two, but that’s the joke! Plankton winds him up and commands his creation to go ruin SpongeBob’s good name as it blasts a stream of fire from its nose. He then heads for the Krusty Krab, smashing a boat along the way. Mr. Krabs meets the mechanical sponge at the door and immediately mistakes him for SpongeBob, but seems to assume he’s not the one responsible for the commotion since he’s SpongeBob and all. The robot then knocks over the Krusty Krab sign which lands on the restauranteur while Plankton looks on with glee.

It’s so cold Patchy’s signature eyewear is cracking.

We then hop back to check-in on Patchy and Potty. Their mail truck is still spinning but it eventually crashes into a snowbank allowing the mailman to escape. The hogtied mail carrier hops away while Patchy inspects the damaged tire which still has the fork stuck in it. He tells the viewers to go make some coco while Potty builds him a fire. When we return, the duo are freezing around a fire in the middle of the night. Patchy laments he hasn’t eaten anything for 20 minutes and could really go for a plate of Buffalo wings. He then hallucinates Potty as a plate of just that and tries to eat the bird, but gets a mouth full of log instead. When he comes to his senses, he apologizes to Potty who then in turn hallucinates Patchy as some sort of pizza slice covered in bird seed. He hops onto Patchy’s head and starts pecking at him as we dissolve back into the undersea world.

Squidward, a regular jerk, is about to have a splitting headache.

SpongeBob is driving around in Plankton’s fruit cake buggy and is surprised to find everyone acting like jerks. Mr. Krabs sees him and lets him know he’ll be garnishing his wages to pay for repairs to the restaurant. SpongeBob then comes across Patrick who is setting up a more elaborate trap for Santa. He’s also stuffing his face with fruit cake and acts like a jerk towards SpongeBob. Dismayed, SpongeBob heads home in confusion. He wakes up the next morning, Christmas Eve morning, hopeful things will be better, but when he heads out the door he sees two fish fighting in the street. He decides to check-in with Squidward who won’t even answer the door. He tells him to go bother Sandy and SpongeBob remarks he’ll have to thank Squidward for the advice when Squidward gets home – stupid sponge. As he bounds away, robo-SpongeBob shows up and knocks on the door. When Squidward won’t answer, the robot simply rips the door off of its hinges. Squidward shows up now, and I feel like I should point out he isn’t under the effects of Jerktonium – he’s just a regular jerk, and demands SpongeBob put his door down. The robot does as it’s told by smashing it over Squidward’s head and leaves.

SpongeBob makes an important discovery!

SpongeBob then goes to bother Sandy, as Squidward instructed, about how everyone is acting like jerks. He then finds the squirrel also under the effects of Jerktonium, but she’s at least lucid. Still, she’s a jerk towards SpongeBob and he frets he needs to go find someone who isn’t a raging jerk. As he goes to leave, he slips on an acorn and a piece of fruit cake he was holding goes flying into Sandy’s Christmas analyzer thing-a-ma-jig. She gets pissed at him for getting fruit cake in the machine, but then pauses her anger when the machine reveals the cake is laced with Jerktonium. She then asks where SpongeBob got the cake, and he says from Plankton. When she questions in an incredulous manner that he fed everyone fruit cake made by Plankton he just blankly says “uh huh,” prompting her to call him an idiot. SpongeBob then panics for a moment because he’s eaten a ton of the fruit cake, but Sandy points out the combination of SpongeBob’s pure heart and tiny brain have rendered him immune. She then turns to her machine for an antidote and it spits out sheet music. Sandy gets angry, but SpongeBob (rather surprisingly) recognizes the tune for what it is and can even read it. As he hums it aloud, the Jerktonium affecting Sandy wares off leaving SpongeBob overjoyed. He then sets out to spread the antidote around town.

Just sit back and enjoy the song.

SpongeBob arrives with an “Ahoy everybody!” and goes into the flagship song of the special: “Don’t Be a Jerk (It’s Christmas).” It’s a plenty delightful little song that will definitely stow away in your brain and pop up at the drop of a hat. It’s a real banger in my household. As SpongeBob sings, he does good deeds around town and and we see everyone shaking off the Jerktonium. By the end of it, the whole town is singing and dancing along!

That is one unpleasant looking Santa.

Sandy congratulates SpongeBob for saving the town from Plankton, and just in time, because Santa is here! Despite being under the sea, he arrives via conventional means though only sporting six reindeer. As SpongeBob races over to welcome him to Bikini Bottom he finds a rather sullen Santa. He has the unfortunate responsibility of informing everyone they’re getting coal this year because they’ve all been a bunch of jerks. And much to his surprise, only Plankton is on the nice list! Plankton shows up to get his gift: the secret formula for the Krabby Patty. Delighted, he takes his prize while Mr. Krabs asks Santa how he got that. When he informs the crab that he has his ways, we see an ugly little elf pick his pocket.

I don’t think this is going to be an even match-up.

SpongeBob then pleads their case with Santa, but he’s not interested in hearing an explanation from the naughtiest person in town. He then points out that SpongeBob is being naughty right now and gestures to the robot which is wreaking havoc still. It smashes through a crowd of people then begins to target Santa. SpongeBob jumps in front of his hero willing to defend him with his life, which he may need to expend. The robot SpongeBob doubles in size, apparently going into assault mode or something, and karate chops SpongeBob right between the eyes. The dazed and disfigured SpongeBob still stands ready and the robot picks him up and flings him off into the distance.

Who will save Santa?!

Santa then beats a hasty retreat, but rather than fly away, he tries hiding in the Krusty Krab. The robot simply lifts the restaurant up and pulls Santa out. When all hope appears lost, SpongeBob returns! Now driving the fruit cake cart once again, he whirls and fires away at the robot with sticky fruit cake. It appears to gum up the exhaust ports and the robot soon explodes!

It’s SpongeBob! With a cool, motion-blurring, background!

Santa shakes SpongeBob’s hand and thanks him for saving his hide. He’s now convinced that SpongeBob is indeed a very good boy, but frets over how his list could be so wrong. The elves then bring something to his attention: the wind-up crank leftover from the exploding SpongeBob robot. Santa inspects it and finds a message stamped onto it, “If found please return to the Chum Bucket.” He then shouts out for Plankton in an angry tone, who sheepishly tries to duck away still clutching onto the bottle that contains the secret formula. Mr. Krabs gets to him and orders him to hand it over. When he initially refuses, Mr. Krabs pinches his head with his claws and takes it away then flings him up against the Chum Bucket like a freshly picked booger.

SpongeBob just got onto the nice list for life.

Back in his sleigh, Santa is ready to take off. He wishes everyone in Bikini Bottom a merry Christmas as the reindeer take flight, or swim, or whatever. As Santa flies off, we see Patrick has stowed away on the back of the sleigh armed with a net. As they fly in front of the full moon, Patrick strikes! If he is successful at catching Santa, we don’t know, but he sure gave it a good try.

Stupid Plankton.

We then check-in with Patchy and Potty once again. Patchy appears to have stumbled onto Santa’s workshop which is in a snowy cave. He races inside to find the fat man seated on a throne. Patchy immediately whips out a list and tells Santa that what he wants for Christmas is to meet his hero: SpongeBob Squarepants! When he finishes his request, he finds Santa is pouring salt over his head. The screen then dissolves and we find out that Patchy is hallucinating again and the creature gently salting him isn’t Santa, but a very hungry polar bear! He runs out of the cave with the polar bear chasing after him The real Santa and Potty are standing outside the real workshop while Santa checks his list. Noting that stealing a mail truck definitely counts as naughty, he adds Patchy to his list as he and Potty share a laugh. They then turn to the camera and wave wishing us all a merry Christmas!

Even under the sea, we still get a moon shot!

And so ends the very special It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! Many Christmas episodes feel just like that, an episode that just happens to feature Christmas. Few are worthy of the term Christmas Special, and this one certainly qualifies. The music and festive scenery go a long way in conveying that special Christmas magic, but it’s the animation that really takes this one to another level. Stop-motion lends itself very well to Bikini Bottom. When your main character is an actual sponge, that certainly helps because it’s wonderful to see this character have actual texture. It works for the other characters as well and the ones who shouldn’t be squishy or furry are done in a different style. Mr. Krabs is a good example there as he has a smooth texture befitting an actual crab and the robot SpongeBob looks like an actual wind-up toy. The only character I wasn’t enamored with is Santa himself, who just features a weird design. He looks like he’s falling apart or something and is kind of gross, but he’s not in it that much in the end.

Patchy probably getting what he deserved.

The interesting thing about this special is if you strip away what makes it so special it would still work. If this were traditionally animated and without songs it would be a fun Christmas episode. It works as just a soundtrack, and I would totally buy a set of figurines made to look like the puppets in this special and make a Christmas display out of them. It’s a rare example of a show going all-out for Christmas and totally nailing it. It’s one I recommend to fans of SpongeBob and to people who have never watched a second of the show. It’s easily one of the best Christmas specials of the past decade and deserves to stand alongside the classics as well.

Is Patchy responsible for all of those infractions on Santa’s list? No wonder why they’re apparently letting the polar bear have his way.

If you want to catch It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! this year, and I obviously recommend that you do, then tune into Nickelodeon and its various offshoot channels all month long as it’s guaranteed to air multiple times. The entire show is also streaming on Paramount’s streaming platform and this episode can be found in Season 8. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if a special holiday channel is also featured on the network that makes finding this one even easier. If neither option works for you, then you can also buy the special on physical media or rent it via other streaming platforms. However you choose to view it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 10 – The Town Santa Forgot

Come the 1990s, the cartoon juggernaut known as Hanna-Barbera was fading. It’s said the company once had control of approximately 80% of the children’s programming on television and even come 1990 it was still around 20%. The studio’s last big hit had been The Smurfs which set all kinds of Saturday morning records despite few…

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by Joe

Dec. 10 – Merry Christmas, Super Dave!

  There are a lot of cartoons that have come and gone in my lifetime, many I forgot even existed until something jars my memory. Earlier this year we lost comedian Bob Einstein. Einstein is probably best known for his role on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but twenty years ago he was best known for his…

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by Joe

Dec. 10 – The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries – “Feather Christmas”

One of the earliest Kids’ WB shows was The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries. It centered on Granny (June Foray) and her pets Tweety Bird (Joe Alaskey), Sylvester the cat (Alaskey), and Hector the bulldog (Frank Welker) and they went around, I bet you’ll never guess, solving mysteries. The personalities of the characters are all pretty…

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by Joe

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in christmas, Television

December 24, 2020

Dec. 24 – The SpongeBob Christmas Special

By Joe
Original air date December 6, 2000

When I listed out the best Christmas specials over a week ago, I included the stop-motion A SpongeBob Christmas. And I stand by that as that special is pretty great. Before there was A SpongeBob Christmas, there was The SpongeBob Christmas Special. Confused? Well, there are only so many ways to title a Christmas special. To make things a bit easier (or more complicated) it’s also titled “Christmas Who?” This was a milestone episode of sorts for the now long-running SpongeBob SquarePants as it introduced Patchy the Pirate and his parrot Potty and told the story of how Christmas came to Bikini Bottom. It was also the first double-length cartoon for the show as most episodes are split into two segments. It’s probably not quite double-length though due to the live-action segments featuring Patchy, but you get the idea.

Meet the president of the SpongeBob fan club, kids!

SpongeBob Squarepants was created by the late Stephen Hillenburg, who got a lot of coverage on this blog in 2020 since I went back and revisited Rocko’s Modern Life, a show he was intimately involved with. It was due to the success of that show that Nickelodeon took a chance on a cartoon headed up by Hillenburg himself. Other veterans of Rocko joined him on SpongeBob, including Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence, and his show has largely eclipsed the former in terms of popularity. It’s probably become Nickelodeon’s most recognizable show at this point and I’m not even sure another show could really challenge it for that title at this point.

Do you like alternate titles, because we’ve got one here.

In spite of SpongeBob’s popularity, the show has mostly been a blind spot for me. The show just came at a time when I wasn’t watching the channel, and even though I have kids of my own now, they’ve yet to really latch onto anything on Nickelodeon. Maybe they will in time, though with everything moving towards a streaming format I’m less certain of that. Even though SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t my childhood, I can recognize it for what it is: a pretty solid comedic cartoon. I see a lot of influences from past cartoons in it the few times I watch it, and I’ve never really had much of a reaction to it beyond that.

For today’s special, we’re heading to the home of Patchy the Pirate located in the unfestively warm California (I have a cold weather bias when it comes to Christmas).

Even though I’ve seen very little of SpongeBob SquarePants, I still really enjoyed the stop-motion special so I’ve always wanted to check out this one. It just took me going out of my way to make sure I saw it. Thankfully, I have cable still so I didn’t have to go out and buy this thing, and with 2020 just being a tenacious pile of misery, I actually welcomed Nickelodeon’s Christmas in July programming during the summer. That’s how I finally experienced the first SpongeBob Christmas special. Maybe it’s not the authentic, December, experience it was meant to be, but it also meant I got to re-experience it later in the year too thanks to the wonders of DVR!

The bird is the real star.

After a festive rendition of the show’s theme, the special begins at the home of the president of the SpongeBob fan club: Patchy the Pirate. Played by Tom Kenny, Patchy is happily preparing for Christmas in the not idyllic setting of southern California. Even though there’s no snow to speak of, Patchy’s house is pretty well decorated and he’s got his parrot, Potty (voiced by Hillenburg) by his side as well. Patchy is a pretty conventional looking pirate, while Potty is an intentionally obvious puppet. Patchy is welcoming, like a classic holiday special would be, though he has an antagonistic relationship with his parrot. He’s in the process of making cookies, and isn’t eager to share the dough with Potty.

R.I.P. Potty…

The segment is pretty long and probably overstays its welcome. There’s some visual jokes, like a predictable bubble pipe joke, but little truly lands. I did like that Patchy flips his eyepatch up to read a letter, revealing a perfectly functional right eye, and dons a pair of glasses with the right lens blacked out. The setup for the introduction of the cartoon is created when a letter received by Patchy asks about Christmas in Bikini Bottom, prompting Patchy to tell the audience that the dwellers of Bikini Bottom didn’t always celebrate Christmas. Before we can get to the cartoon though, Potty has to consume the cookie dough, and explode. It leads to the very bizarre image of Potty’s dismembered head suspended in the air while Patchy looks on with amusement. Poor Potty, Patchy is the asshole in this segment and yet it’s the bird who gets blown up.

Well Sandy, if you’re going to live underwater you should expect to get wet now and again.

The actual cartoon begins with SpongeBob (Kenny) outside the home of Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence). Sandy is a squirrel living in the outskirts of Bikini Bottom, and being a squirrel, she needs oxygen in gas form to breath, so she lives in a bubble. SpongeBob is looking to infiltrate the bubble to drop some karate moves on her. I assume this is supposed to be a good-natured prank as SpongeBob doesn’t have a mean pore in his body.

Turns out, oak trees make pretty nice Christmas trees!

As SpongeBob prepares to enter the bubble, he notices Sandy lighting up a tree with lights. Mistaking this for fire (he’s not very smart), SpongeBob grabs a bucket of water and races inside only to douse Sandy herself. She’s rightfully annoyed, but soon realizes that SpongeBob has never seen a Christmas tree before. Not only has he never seen one, he’s never even heard of Christmas before. We then receive a montage of Sandy explaining Christmas to SpongeBob. We don’t actually hear what she’s telling him and can only see her pantomiming various parts of her lesson, most of which appear to have nothing to do with a discussion on Christmas (that’s the joke).

I love Squidward’s energy here.

SpongeBob is quite taken with the whole concept of Christmas (and who wouldn’t be?) and races over to The Krusty Krab to inform the others what Sandy has taught him. There he regales Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke), and Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) a tale of Christmas with emphasis on Santa Claus. Mr. Krabs thinks it’s pretty great to hear about a guy who will give you whatever you want for Christmas and he’s eager to write a letter to the jolly, fat, man. Patrick is equally excited and sets out to write a letter to Santa as well.

SpongeBob is shockingly literate.

Squidward is the lone holdout. He finds the story preposterous and refuses to participate. SpongeBob tries to talk him into it, but he’s not coming around. All the while, Patrick keeps interrupting their conversation because his piece of paper has split in half. After he requests a new page a few times, we see what’s causing the problem. Patrick is sitting down with the pencil in between his legs pointing up. He then presses the paper down against the pencil in order to write on it. I’m now curious if he often has problems with the written word in other episodes.

Is he an inventor? I’m so confused by the existence of this competent machinery.

After the letter-writing is over, SpongeBob shows Patrick the machine he’s come up with to deliver the letters to Santa. They place each letter in a bottle and the machine fires it up to the surface of the ocean. It (shockingly) works just fine, and SpongeBob starts sending the letters to the surface. For his gift, he just wants to bring Christmas to Bikini Bottom, but the others want something more material. Patrick wishes to have more paper, and the message in his bottle is clearly ripped in half, while Mr. Krabs wants a pony…with saddlebags full of money. He gets it!

This is probably going to ruin the life of some castaway.

The other townsfolk get involved too and soon the surface of the water above Bikini Bottom is full of letters. Squidward is still holding out, and SpongeBob and Patrick get set to making the town look merry for Christmas via song. It’s called “The Very First Christmas,” and it’s plenty catchy. It’s not as good as “Don’t Be a Jerk,” but it’s fine. During the song, we see SpongeBob and Patrick chop down Squidward’s coral “tree” to set it up in town and decorate it with glowing jellyfish. Patrick is a natural fit for the top of the tree as the star.

Time for an image blitz because there’s a lot going on. First, SpongeBob and Patrick chopping down Squidward’s…tree?
At least they made it look nice.
Mr. Krabs coming in with the high notes.

When the song is over, Squidward is relieved that he can now peacefully go to bed. Only he can’t, because the entire town is outside his house to sing another song welcoming Santa. It’s basically “Jingle Bells” only with the words changed to reflect their Santa-eagerness. Time passes though, and as Squidward sleeps peacefully the folks outside sing all night to no avail. When the morning comes, everyone is still there, but there’s been no sign of Santa. The crowd angrily turns on SpongeBob, who shrinks before their gaze.

So who told them they should all stand outside and wait for Santa? Maybe that’s why things start to go wrong from here.
I admire that one fish in the front row still looking pretty hopeful.
This is how I felt right around noon of every Christmas Day for much of my youth.

Squidward rises to the misery, and is delighted! When the crowd leaves, he races outside to taunt SpongeBob about how wrong he was about Santa. SpongeBob doesn’t put up a defense and just stands there looking miserable. Squidward snaps a photo to remember this moment, and for some reason he gets off by putting his ass in SpongeBob’s face and slapping it. The cartoon literally tells us he’s being a jackass by superimposing an image of a donkey over him.

Squidward, feeling pretty god damn fabulous!
I don’t think SpongeBob can possibly be drawn any sadder.
Whoa Squidward! This is trending towards harassment here.
You’re lucky SpongeBob didn’t give you any advice on where to shove that thing. Don’t you feel like an ass now, Squidward?!

With Squidward’s antics mostly over, SpongeBob hands over the gift he made for him. SpongeBob was concerned that Squidward would be the only member of Bikini Bottom to not receive a present since he didn’t write a letter to Santa so he made him one instead. SpongeBob drags himself away leaving a stunned Squidward to stand there alone holding his gift. He opens it to find a clarinet that SpongeBob had made himself and instantly feels bad. Meanwhile, SpongeBob is miserable as he begins to take down the Christmas decorations he put on his own house as well as Squidward’s.

Raining underwater? It’s a Christmas miracle!
Looks like someone’s been hiding a secret Santa fetish…

Uncharacteristically, Squidward decides he needs to make things right. He goes home and puts on a Santa costume. I have no idea why he had such a costume in his house, but hey, it’s needed for the plot! He calls out to SpongeBob from his roof, before falling, leaving SpongeBob stunned with silent glee.

What’s with that look, Squidward? What did you think would happen?

Squidward gets SpongeBob to snap out of his trance long enough to tell him he’s here to thank SpongeBob for bringing Christmas to Bikini Bottom. He has to endure a pair of hugs from SpongeBob, but the exchange goes well for Squidward as SpongeBob heads back to his house. Feeling pretty good about himself, Squidward turns to enter his own home, but a little girl is standing in his way. She asks for her gift, and SpongeBob then reappears to encourage “Santa” to bestow a gift on this deserving young girl. Not knowing what else to do, Squidward ducks into his house for a present and ends up giving away a monkey wrench.

Squidward was not prepared for this contingency.
And he especially was not prepared for this!
Everyone seems to take their crappy gifts in stride, like this woman who wanted a new hairstyle, but instead was gifted a bowl of mashed potatoes.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t solve Santa Squid’s problem. A line of citizens has formed outside of his house and they all want a present. He goes in and out of his house getting items and gifting them to the people outside. They’re never what is asked of Santa, but the fish receiving them make do with what they have. They all seem to leave pretty happy, but they also leave behind an empty house for Squidward.

More or less how I feel every year when Christmas is over. Only there’s more stuff, a lot more stuff, in my house thanks to my kids.

With the crowd gone, Squidward removes his costume and wonders why in the world he just got rid of all of his personal belongings just to make SpongeBob happy. Oh Squidward, you just got caught by the Spirit of Christmas! A knock on the door comes from SpongeBob, who excitedly tells Squidward all about Santa, apparently oblivious to the fact that it was Squidward he encountered and not the real Santa. He mostly keeps repeating that Santa has a really big nose, though Squidward seems to take this all in stride.

Apparently someone was watching.

When SpongeBob finally returns home, Squidward notices a letter has been left outside his door. It’s from Santa! It thanks Squidward for bringing Christmas to Bikini Bottom, though makes no excuse for why Santa passed them by. Squidward can hardly believe it, but sure enough, up in the…sky?…is Santa in his sleigh. He’s portrayed with a live-action actor, played by Michael Patrick Bell, and he does a lot of “Ho ho ho’s” and waves. Squidward thinks he’s going insane and returns to his empty house. He breaks out his lone material possession, the clarinet SpongeBob gifted him, and seems to enjoy insanity. Above, we see Santa fly in front of a setting sun.

Santa, surprisingly being played by someone not named John Goodman or Ed Asner.
Squidward’s just taking it all in stride.
Hey look! A twist on the old moon shot!

At Patchy’s house, the special is over. He’s acting out some sea wreck thing and we interrupt him. He finds a present from a reassembled Potty has been left on his head, a nest full of wrapped eggs. Patchy doesn’t seem too interested and is more focused on the mistletoe hanging in his home. He stands under it hoping a woman will magically appear and give him a kiss, but instead Potty comes soaring in to do the honors. The episode ends with Patchy basically running from the sex-crazed puppet. The special ends on an external shot of Patchy’s ranch with a “Happy Holidays” message spelled over it.

A last bit of chaos at Patchy’s house lets us know we’re done.

The SpongeBob Christmas Special is a pretty satisfying piece of Christmas comedy. It starts with a solid premise, and then does a good job of playing with the viewer’s expectations. Squidward was setup to be a Scrooge, and I even found his choice of pajamas to be very Scrooge-like. I thought for sure we were going full parody when he went to sleep on Christmas Eve, but instead we got something very different. Squidward had to learn on his own that wishing misery upon others really doesn’t bring about good feelings in himself. It was sweet to see him affected by SpongeBob’s sadness, and he actually had to learn about Christmas the hard way when he gave all of his stuff away to maintain his ruse. I liked that he wasn’t rewarded with anything material in the end, he just did what was necessary (albeit, in a comedically exaggerated fashion), and found the true meaning of Christmas within himself.

When I saw this outfit I thought we were going full Scrooge. I’m glad I was mistaken.

The odd part of the special is the fact that Santa apparently planned all of this? Did he decide to fulfill SpongeBob’s wish through Squidward? Or maybe we’re supposed to assume that SpongeBob’s unorthodox way of getting everyone’s letters to Santa was simply a flop? SpongeBob did wait until the last minute to get those letters out and Santa is only capable of so many miracles.

The part of the special that didn’t add much for me was the live-action component. I just don’t find Patchy all that funny. I’m also not 7, so maybe it’s just not for me. The cartoon was entertaining, just that component felt a bit long. It doesn’t ruin it or anything, I could just do without.

The Christmas card ending; a tried and true classic.

This Christmas special isn’t as good as the one that follows, but it’s plenty entertaining for an annual viewing. And I feel confident in saying that anyone who likes SpongeBob probably enjoys this episode too. If you have cable, this one should be very to easy to view even this late in the game. It’s possibly available for streaming on Nickelodeon’s website, and it may even air today! It’s also available on various holiday themed DVDs and as part of the second season of the show. It’s also available digitally because it’s SpongeBob, one of the most accessible shows around. If you have yet to view it this year then find 20 minutes today and rectify that.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 24 – Silly Symphony – “The Night Before Christmas”

We have reached a day of great, holiday, release – Christmas Eve. And what better way to mark the occasion than with a holiday short titled The Night Before Christmas. A lot of cartoons have made use of this title, but today’s subject is the Silly Symphony short that falls under that heading. It felt…

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by Joe

Dec. 24 – Ren & Stimpy’s Crock O’ Christmas

In 2018, it feels like the novelty music genre is mostly dead. Back in the day when radio was the primary vehicle for delivering new music the novelty song had a place. Usually they would be part of commutes or morning shows when producers thought a laugh was in order. I know where I grew…

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by Joe

Dec. 24 – Chucklewood Critters: T’was the Day Before Christmas

In the 80s, if you had any connection to a successful animation production unit you could probably get a shot at creating your own series. Such was the case for former Hanna-Barbera animators Bill Hutten and Tony Love. They left that famous cartoon factory to create a series of holiday specials that would eventually lead…

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by Joe

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December 7, 2015

#19 – It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!

By Joe

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It’s a SpongeBob Christmas (2012)

Here’s a tip for any would-be designers of future Christmas specials looking for a quick and easy way to my heart: add plenty of nostalgic value that harkens back to the classic Christmas specials of Rankin/Bass and the like. Think South Park’s episode “A Very Crappy Christmas” which basically parodies Twas the Night Before Christmas. Or, just watch special #19 on my list, “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!”

SpongeBob came after my time. He’s a character that I understand has been rather popular with the generation that followed mine. He’s been on television for what feels like forever and has added a few feature films to his resume as well. He’s been so pervasive that I’ve obviously seen an episode here and there and I can see why kids would enjoy him but I don’t have any particular affinity for the character or show.

“It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!”, on the other hand, appeals to me because it seeks to emulate the look of the classic stop-motion specials like Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And to the credit of Nickelodeon and the producers involved, the show really was done with stop-motion puppets as opposed to being computer generated to simulate the stop-motion look. The result is striking and it almost looks like an aquarium come to life, just minus actual fish.

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SpongeBob confronts his evil robot doppelganger, who may or may not be a nazi.

The story for the special is that Plankton invents a fruitcake (laced with Jerktonium) that turns nice people into naughty ones when they eat it and he tricks SpongeBob into driving around some cart and firing off hunks of fruitcake into the mouths of his victims. There’s also an imposter SpongeBob roaming around to turn everyone against him by making him look like a jerk. Plankton’s ingenious plan is intended to make everyone look worse than he so that he’ll end up on Santa’s nice list, and it works! Of course, things end up working out for SpongeBob and the citizens of Bikini Bottom in the end and the result is a pretty delightful little holiday special.

“It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!” was a big enough deal when it was first released that it actually debuted on CBS before airing again on Nickelodeon. It also introduces a new catchy holiday tune in the form of “Don’t Be a Jerk (It’s Christmas)” which always seems to add to a Christmas special’s longevity. And because it’s so recent, it’s still shown quite frequently on television during the holiday season, though I don’t know that CBS will show it again but Nickelodeon certainly will. If you can’t be bothered to find it, there’s also a stand-alone DVD available that usually sells for less than ten dollars.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Best of Christmas - TV, Television