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Christmas Episode

Go To
Merry Crimble to those who live five days ahead of time!
"Hang the star upon the tree, it's Christmas again
Candy canes for you and me, it's Christmas again."

Known in Britain as a "Christmas Special" (not to be confused with a Christmas Special, a series or franchise based on Christmas itself), the Christmas Episode is a one-off seasonal episode of an ongoing series, typically a comedy or comedy drama. Sometimes the Christmas Episode will be shown in two or three parts over consecutive nights, typically in the build-up to Christmas Day. Only the most popular shows get their Christmas episodes shown on Christmas Day itself.

Note that unlike other holiday episodes included in a series, the Christmas Episode is usually a special production or commission separate from the season it occurs alongside; as such, it generally just features the series' core cast (and sometimes, popular secondary characters) and is not necessarily in continuity to the rest of the season — though it can also be used to set up major changes in continuity through events such as a Christmas wedding or a Christmas birth (a popular one for obvious reasons), which can then be canonized in the next year's season. Alternatively, the Christmas Episode may be the last-ever episode of the series, as happened with the UK version of The Office, Doug (before getting Un-Cancelled), Invader Zim, Roary the Racing Car, and Only Fools and Horses (although the latter had more Christmas Episodes commissioned afterwards). In Grand Finale cases, a Christmas Episode may overlap with a Christmas Epilogue.

It is not unusual for British sitcoms to continue producing new Christmas Episodes for several years after the show has finished as an ongoing series; the final series of The Royle Family was aired in 2000, but new Christmas specials continued to air sporadically until 2012, and more than half of Mrs. Brown's Boys ended up being specials in a similar manner.

In Britain, a more recent variation is a specially recorded Christmas day message on Channel 4 which is then run in competition with the monarch's televised Christmas message (recent years have seen announcements from Ali G and Marge Simpson). However, since this is breaking the Fourth Wall, it is not typically part of an actual story.

During the 1980s and 90s, British Christmas specials usually took place in some decidedly un-Christmassy part of the world such as Florida (Only Fools and Horses) or Majorca (Birds of a Feather (1989)). This has been less popular since those decades, although Death in Paradise continues the tradition with its Caribbean setting.

If a Christmas Episode is depressing in tone, this is a case of Twisted Christmas. British Soap Operas in particular tend to make the Christmas Episode the most depressing episode of the entire year. (Which is saying something; Brit soaps like EastEnders tend to be depressing anyway.) It is not uncommon for a long running character to die in Christmas Episodes of this kind, and another occurrence is a disastrous wedding where everything goes wrong and the wedding doesn't occur, or a disastrous birth where the baby, mother or both die in the process.

May overlap with Vacation Episode if travel is involved. It's distinct from the Wintertime Episode, which involves snow and ice and may take place in December, but has nothing to do with the holiday season.

See also Christmas Special, which is based on Christmas itself instead of a pre-existing series. Also see You Mean "Xmas", where a world where Christmas doesn't exist gets a similar holiday for the purposes of having an episode for it. Compare Christmas in Japan. See April Fools' Plot or Very Special Episode for another themed episode found in shows. If the plot is taken by a certain Dickens' tale, you might be prompted to say Yet Another Christmas Carol. Action-adventure shows may have An Ass-Kicking Christmas if those elements don't take a holiday. Dramatic shows may lighten up the tone for a Merry Christmas in Gotham. Saving Christmas, of course, is not unheard of. Expect an "Everybody Helps Out" Denouement.

Look out for the theme tune of the Christmas Special being customized for the season, perhaps with sleigh bells and snippets of things like Jingle Bells, and the opening credits being overlaid by lots of jolly things like tinsel and glittering snowflakes.

Often overlaps with Christmas Enthusiast.

For other holidays, see Hanukkah Episode, Halloween Episode, Thanksgiving Episode, Valentine's Day Episode, St. Patrick's Day Episode, and Easter Episode.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Advertising 
  • "One More, Dave", "Christmas Pudding", and "Mark" from the Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives campaign take place around Christmastime.
    • "One More, Dave" features a woman having to liquify and spoon-feed Christmas dinner to Dave, who became a quadreplagic after driving drunk.
    • "Christmas Pudding" has a woman getting a call during Christmas dinner that her boyfriend David, who had been drinking prior, was involved in an accident. The woman imagines the pudding on the table, which is on fire, as David's car, which is similarly ablaze. This ad has the special slogan of "Drinking and Driving Wrecks Christmas".
    • "Mark" mentions that the titular Mark gave some children "their most memorable Christmas ever" when he hit and killed their parents while drink-driving.
  • A few Energizer Bunny ads feature a more festive flair, from the Bunny having to save Christmas because of Santa oversleeping (thanks to a Supervolt powered alarm clock), to having to deal with his Obnoxious In-Laws.
  • Jack in the Box has made a few Christmas commercials, usually advertising their Holliday Antenna Balls. One ad saw Santa accuse Jack of ruining Christmas after one of his burgers made twenty of his elves full, making them behind schedule.
    Jack: That burger was never meant for elves!
  • M&M's: Of course, there is the famous "Faint" commercial where Red and Yellow are planning to give Santa holiday-coloured M&M's, only for both Red and Santa to Faint in Shock when they see each other. A sequel was made in 2017 where Yellow, realizing that Santa is unable to deliver presents after he faints, sets out in Santa's sleigh to deliver everyone’s presents to save Christmas, but being Yellow, he mistakenly gives everyone the wrong presents. The following morning, everyone comes outside to give each other their right presents, thus uniting them and giving a Surprisingly Happy Ending, with Red waking up and assuring Yellow that he made Christmas better.
  • One Meth Project ad called "Parents" took place around Christmas, as evidenced by the Christmas tree in the living room.
  • Qrazy Chocolates: The first video showing the Chocorat was posted on Christmas Eve, and shows the creature as being the result of a misspelled request to Santa for chocolate.
  • A special Wilkins Coffee ad featured Wilkins and Wontkins dressed as Santa and a reindeer, respectively.
    Wilkins: Merry Christmas! It's a joy to serve Wilkins Coffee to so many people at Christmas!
    Wontkins: It's a joy to you! You're not pulling the sled!
    Asian Animation 
  • The Motu Patlu (2012) episode "Motu Patlu: Christmas Special" is a JioHotstar-exclusive, half-hour-long Christmas special where Motu, Patlu, and their friends go to rescue Santa from the clutches of the Devil, who plans on ruining Christmas for children by invading Santa's palace, taking his place, and making evil toys.
  • In the PangPond episode "Santa Pond", PangPond gets the chance to deliver presents like Santa.
  • In one episode of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the characters celebrate Christmas and dress up as Santa Claus.
  • Pleasant Goat Fun Class: Travel Around the World: The first episode is about the goats' gang going to Finland, meeting Santa Claus there, and getting to ride on his sleigh.
  • Roll No. 21 has one, which shows the main cast preparing for Santa's arrival, and he arrives that night, but he is led astray by Kanishk, who leads him into a trap, with only his reindeer Rudolph escaping. The rest of the episode has Kris and his friends going to the North Pole to rescue Santa, both to ensure everyone gets their presents, and to save Christmas.
    Audio Plays 
    Comic Books 
  • The 33rd issue of 52 (a weekly series entailing what happened during the year Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman lied low after the events of Infinite Crisis) takes place during the Christmas season.
  • The Beano often has a bumper issue for Christmas usually being on sale for two or three weeks rather than the usual week. The Christmas issue would also often feature long stories involving all the current Beano characters. Which is unusual seeing as the Beano is an Anthology Comic.
  • The Beetlejuice comic books had a "horror-day" issue in which the cover story, "Get Me to the Church on Slime," takes place at Christmas. The focus isn't really on Christmas, however, but rather on the fact that Lydia's celebration of the holiday gets hijacked by her ghostly best friend being forced into marriage. It Makes Sense in Context (kind of).
  • Bone: During the epilogue. The gang gets snowed in for the winter, so while they're waiting for the thaw an entire (albeit brief) issue is spent celebrating the Winter Solstice.
  • Issue #55 of Cartoon Network Action Pack is one, with all the stories inside being Christmas-themed; it's also notable for being the last issue of the comic to adapt stories that weren't based on either Ben 10 or Generator Rex.
  • Deadpool (2018): Issue #7 takes place around Christmas, and features guest appearances by Santa and Mrs. Claus.
  • The DCU and Marvel Universe Holiday Specials, featuring Christmas with various superheroes.
    • Infinite Crisis Holiday Special: A story that takes place out of continuity has Superman attempting to visiting an upset child dressed up like a Santa Claus-version of himself. Batman shows up and chides Superman for acting childish and making himself look silly, which tarnishes his reputation as an icon for good. Superman reluctantly agrees and ditches the costume, but still decides to leave all the gifts he was going to bring for the kid. But as he enters his house, the first thing he sees is Batman dressed up as Bat-Santa... he actually just wanted to hog all the glory for himself. Supes gets pretty pissed and proceeds to smash Batman's face in. The funniest part is that it's only at that point that the Elseworlds logo appears — until then it could have been canon.
    • In 1988 story Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2: Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot, the Pre-Crisis Supergirl briefly appears👁 Image
      ◊ right after having been erased from continuity👁 Image
      ◊:
      Kara: We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition... We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed.
    • In DCU Infinite Holiday Special issue #1, Supergirl gets to answer some of the Christmas letters that get sent to her cousin. One of those letters is from a girl who wants to see her father. However her father is an asshole who doesn't want his daughter to know he is a screw-up. Supergirl manages to talk him into clearing things up with his ex-wife and daughter through... unorthodox means. Several months later, in Supergirl (2005) #50, the little girl thanks Supergirl for bringing her dad back:
      Supergirl: You know the cliché, Fred. Everyone does. "When you're about to die, your life flashes in front of your eyes." But I've been there, and it's crap... isn't it? You see something, though. You see the holes... the missing bits. And all of the things that would have made your life complete, if you had one more year... a day... a second. I don't know what you saw, Fred, but considering you were in free fall for a solid minute, I bet it was an eyeful. Maybe you are a screw-up. A loser. A drunk. But maybe, the piece you're missing... can make you something better. But only if you go to her, and try. Merry Christmas, Fred. Hope it's a good one.
    • In the DC Universe Holiday Special 2008: A Day Without Sirens, a "Day Without Sirens" is proposed right before Christmas. Commissioner Gordon believes such an initiative is doomed to failure. The criminals of Gotham would never heed such a calling. However, the day proceeds without police sirens. It turns out that Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon handled covertly all emergency calls during that day👁 Image
      ◊.
      Batgirl: Just rest easy knowing you did something special today.
      Supergirl: You really think so? Do you think this one day is going to make a difference?
      Batgirl: I know so. Never discount the healing power of a little hope, Kara.
    • A Green Lantern storyline had Larfleeze (an Orange Lantern who represents avarice) discovering Christmas and attempting to celebrate it.
  • The Hack/Slash bonus story Slashing Through the Snow, featuring a wannabee slasher named Rudolph. Despite the name, he was a Bad Santa. Also, it was done in chibi-style👁 Image
    ◊.
  • The Hellraiser comics had a Christmas special. Seriously👁 Image
    .
  • Henchmen: The short story "Winter Blunderland" sees Gary taking a job on Christmas for Santa Claws, a villain whos plan is to corrupt all the toys at a Mega Mart into his personal "Terror Toys(tm)" to give out on Christmas. His plan is interrupted by a Superhero name Retailer, who engages Santa Claws in a fist fight. Gary decides to shrink both of them on the spot and give them to his daughter as a Christmas present.
  • Hitman: In issue #22, "The Santa Contract", Tommy and Nat are hired to kill a radioactive murderer in a stolen Santa suit on Christmas eve. The best part is the rhyming narration In the Style of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".
    "Word!" Said his homie, "I got my nine! Now let's go bust a cap in that nuclear swine!" So they took their nine 'mils and a big forty four, and a hand grenade Tommy'd been keeping in store, and enough ammunition to fight a small war. And went off to inform vile Bob of the score.
  • Invader Zim (Oni): The third Quarterly issue is an anthology containing three Christmas-related stories — the first shows what happened to Zim's sentient Santa suit after it was tossed into space, the second has Zim in Yet Another Christmas Carol, and the third chronicles Professor Membrane's life-long vendetta against Santa Claus.
  • Jem and the Holograms (IDW): The Christmas issue involves the titular band being paired up for Secret Santa with their rivals The Misfits.
  • JSA Classified: In one two-part story Alan, Jay and Ted attend a parade, which is crashed by Solomon Grundy and Vandal Savage, and then attend the JSA's annual Christmas get together.
  • Justice League Unlimited (2004): The 16th and 28th issues take place during Christmas.
  • Mary Marvel (1945): Issue #22 has the "The Year-Round Santa!" story, featuring an old lady called Miss Pringle who still believes in Santa Claus, even if her neighbors think she should be institutionalized.
  • A Christmas story was the basis of The Muppet Show Comic Book in the last issue of the Four Seasons arc (which was ultimately published by Marvel in a miniseries titled just The Muppets due to Boom! Studios losing the comic book license to the Muppets), which involved Miss Piggy attempting to get Kermit to kiss her under the mistletoe and a burglar dressed as Santa Claus robbing Sam the Eagle while he was distracted reading a version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
  • The Powerpuff Girls #29 (DC run) had "Helliday" which had Him creating a Christmas-like holiday in Townsville in which everyone (except Buttercup) is highly involved.
  • Marvel had at least six featuring The Punisher. Frank Castle dressing as Santa to gun down mafiosi? Two years in a row? Awesome!
    • Marvel even did a story once where a little blind boy who was kidnapped by bad guys on Christmas Eve gets rescued by Ghost Rider and is convinced for the rest of his life that he was saved by Santa Claus.
    • And another time Doctor Doom took the mantle of Santa Claus.
    • Even Howard the Duck got in on the action in the third issue of the black-and-white 64-page version of his comic, where he had to save Christmas from being taken over by a villain named Greedy Killerwhatt.
  • Sensation Comics had an issue where Wonder Woman modified her costume a little to look more Christmas-like and added a red cape with white fluffy trim and then went to a tenement in a downtrodden neighborhood with a sack full of toys and gave cool quality toys to all the children there. She also fought a gangster who was abusing his niece and nephew she came across in the building.
  • Simone: The Best Monster Ever: The comic has a number of strips that revolve around Christmas, whether they be Simone and Morris celebrating it, and discovering how different it is for each of them, or strips starring the monster world's Santa Claus, who's a Spider Person with four arms and multiple legs.
  • Sin City had a Christmas one-shot called Silent Night. Outside of the title and the funny pin-ups in the back, the comic simply looks as if it takes place on a snowy night.
  • The Smurfs had "Little Peter's Christmas" and "The Smurfs Christmas" as its comic book stories.
  • Issue #15 of the Sonic X Archie comics takes place during Christmas, where Eggman attempts to extort Station Square of its money by interrupting a live-broadcast disguising himself as Santa Claus, though no one except Sonic realizes it's just Eggman in a costume. When Eggman threatens to not give anybody presents in exchange for Sonic himself, Sonic plays along up until Eggman's plan is busted near the end.
  • Supergirl Adventures - Girl of Steel: The final chapter takes place in Christmas, with the younger Leaguers celebrating the holidays.
  • Superman:
    • For a few years, the books would do a Christmas issue where the hero answers some letters that pile up in the Metropolis post office.
    • Superboy (1980): Issue #39 "A World without Christmas" has the Kents and friends celebrate Christmas, and Clark notice to his schoolmate -and bully- "Bash" Bradford looking glum and gloomy. Since Bash is feeling disillusioned and depressed, seeing no point in Christmas, Superboy takes him to a parallel world lacking the spirit of Christmas so that Bash can understand its worth.
    • My Adventures with Superman: The comic takes place in the week before Christmas, with Clark dealing with being away from home for the first time due to the repairs there after the show's Season 1 finale.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW):
    • Issue 65 has Michelangelo having a Christmas Party at the lair
    • Issue 89 has Splinter playing the part of Ebenezer Scrooge in Yet Another Christmas Carol.
  • The Transformers UK featured several Christmas issues:
    • In "Christmas Breaker", Optimus Prime got dressed in a Santa suit and Circuit Breaker didn't kill Jazz due to Christmas. Yeah.
    • In "The Gift", Buster helps Jetfire to appreciate his Earth heritage as a Christmas gift.
    • In "Stargazing", a kid tries to have Starscream do good deeds due to the Christmas spirit. At the end, Starscream still doesn't care for others, but he wishes the kid Merry Christmas.
    • In "Cold Comfort and Joy", while Optimus blames himself for the war reaching Earth, a misunderstanding causes the Powermasters to fight the Wreckers.
    • In "The Greatest Gift of All", Optimus uses the last shard of the Creation Matrix to restore the environment of an area damaged by a battle, as a gift to Earth.
    • While issue 302 didn't include any UK-original comic story, it included a short No Fourth Wall text story of Dreadwind having Yet Another Christmas Carol which convinces him to leave the letters page.
  • Viz: Every December issue sees the usual characters dealing with various aspects of the festive season, with examples of Away in a Manger and Yet Another Christmas Carol.
    Films — Animation 
    Films — Live-Action 
    Music 
  • The first song released by Alvin and the Chipmunks was "The Chipmunk Song", aka "Christmas Don't Be Late".
  • The Bangles also made Christmas tapes for their fan club in the '80s, "inspired by - okay, a blatant ripoff of" (said The Bangles' Vicki Peterson) the Beatles recordings. They later released Holiday in Bangleonia, a limited-edition CD with both a re-release of their 1983 recording and a new one for 2004. The Bangles revived the tradition in 2009 with an annual holiday podcast.
  • The Beach Boys made an entire album of Christmas songs fittingly titled The Beach Boys' Christmas Album with Christmas-themed originals on Side A and traditional holiday standards on Side B.
  • The Beatles sent a flexi-disc Christmas record to members of their fan club every year from 1963 to 1969. The records included Christmas songs, jokes, messages to Beatles fans, and general goofiness. In 1970, a compilation album, The Beatles' Christmas Album👁 Image
     was released.
  • Bobby "Boris" Pickett did a Christmas-oriented follow-up to his hit "The Monster Mash" called "Monsters' Holiday", where the monsters schemed to ruin Christmas by robbing Santa's sleigh, but end up having a change of heart after Santa gives them what they wanted for Christmas.
  • It may be unusual for a summer activity like drum corps to have Christmas-themed shows, but the Cavaliers (1991's "Cavalier Anthems Advent Collection") and the Cadets (2012's "12.25") pulled off such shows.
  • Kids Praise: This series actually has two of them: Psalty's Christmas Calamity and Psalty's Family Christmas Singalong.
  • Judy Pancoast wrote "Pickles", in which a goofy kid makes strange dishes for Santa that all involve pickles, such as pickle cookies.
  • One of the follow-ups to the Royal Guardsmen's song "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" was "Snoopy's Christmas", which had Snoopy and the Red Baron set aside their antagonism towards each other for the sake of the holiday season.
  • Songdrops:
    • "When Santa was a Boy" talks about how Santa had many Early Personality Signs as a boy.
    • In "Three Pairs of Long Johns On", Mrs. Claus reminds Santa to wear three pairs of long johns.
    • In "Santa's Solar Sleigh", Santa's brother tries to give him a new, high-tech, solar-powered sleigh... only for it to be useless, since Santa delivers at night.
    • "Skunkles the Christmas Skunk" features a skunk Saving Christmas by spraying the stuck reindeer to get them unstuck.
    • In "Every Glowing Candle", the singer and some unknown person are celebrating Christmas on a dark night and talking about how candles always provide light.
    • "Snowflake Kisses" is a love song about a couple celebrating Christmas in the snow.
    • In "All I Want for Christmas is to Spend All Of My Christmases with You", the narrator wants very badly to spend Christmas with his crush, but unfortunately the crush hates him.
    • In "This Christmas", the singer wishes everybody joy, peace, and love on Christmas.
    • In "Don't Talk About Trump This Holiday", the singer warns the listener against talking about Trump during Christmas dinner and starting an argument.
  • Lee Ann Womack released a Christmas album, The Season for Romance, in 2002.
    Podcasts 
  • Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe? has had two:
    • The first one, aptly titled The Dark Universe Holiday Special, features the cast planning to convene at the Frankenstein family's old manor (now a modern ski resort), with Nick and Jack running into various obstacles trying to get there while the others have to contend with The Krampus.
    • The second one features Hunter getting a job over the holidays guarding a children's restaurant, with the twist being that said restaurant ends up being Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria.
  • The Cool Kids Table game All I Want for Christmas is set on Christmas Eve. That being said, it was also their first pair of episodes and they were actually released in July.
  • The Kingmaker Histories has Chapter 26, entitled A Mantelope for Christmas.
  • Let's Learn Everything!: On the episode released closest to Christmas every year, the hosts partake in the HaLearnDays, in which they share mini topics with each other in the form of a gift exchange.
  • RiffTrax, a Spiritual Successor of Mystery Science Theater 3000, does at least one Christmas-related riffing every year, sometimes as a live movie theater simulcast.
    • 2006: Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (animated television special; Mike Nelson solo effort)
    • 2007: The Star Wars Holiday Special (feature-length television special), "A Visit to Santa" (short; revived in the 2009 live show)
    • 2008: "Christmas Toyshop" (short)
    • 2009: RiffTrax Live! Christmas Shorts-stravaganza
    • 2010: Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (film), "Santa Claus' Punch and Judy" (short)
    • 2011: Christmas with RiffTrax: The Magic Christmas Tree plus the short "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives"
    • 2012: Christmas with RiffTrax: Santa's Village of Madness (shorts compilation)
    • 2013: RiffTrax Live! Santa Claus Conquers the Martians plus the short "Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen"
    • 2014: RiffTrax Live! Santa Claus (1959); via the website, Fun in Balloon Land (film)
    • 2015: RiffTrax Live! Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (alternate cut repackaging a cheap adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk" instead of "Thumbelina") plus the shorts "Santa Claus' Story", "Custard the Dragon", and "Santa's Enchanted Village" (the last previously featured in the 2012 show); the website also offered up I Believe in Santa Claus (film) and "Have a Mary Jo [Pehl] Christmas and a Bridget [Nelson] New Year!" (half-hour special featuring a 16 mm condensed version of Scrooge (1951), short "The Little Lamb", and miscellaneous clips)
    • 2016: "RiffTrax Holiday Double Feature" reran the 2009 and 2013 live shows in theaters; online "The Second Annual Bridget and Mary Jo Christmas Special!" and "RiffTrax Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown!" each riffed upon a different pair of seasonally-themed shorts.
    • 2017: Beyond Christmas (film), Jack Frost (1997) (film), "Gifts from the Air" (short), "Santa Claus' Workshop" (short), "Spunky the Snowman" (short), "Christmas Customs Near and Far" (short)
    • 2018: The RiffTrax Yule Log (Clip Show drawn from previous Christmas episodes, the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone riffing, and the shorts listed below, plus exclusive riffed clips from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Die Hard 1, Love Actually, GoodFellas, It's a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), Reindeer Games, and five other Christmas Carol adaptations including the 1984 and 1999 ones), Santa's Summer House (film), "A Christmas Carol" (Coronet Films short), "A Song for Santa" (short), "Shoemaker and the Elves" (short), "Charlie's Christmas Secret" (short)
    • 2019: "Banks: The Money Movers" (Yet Another Christmas Carol short), "Festival of Fun Days" (short), "A Very Merry Riff-mas with Bridget Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl" (1974 Christmas Special Yes, Virginia There Is a Santa Claus plus other shorts and clips), Feeders 2: Slay Bells (film)
    • 2020: It's a Wonderful Life (Re-Cut without non-public domain material), Baby of the Bride (TV movie), "The Snowman" (short), "December Holidays" (short), "Alias St. Nick" (short)
    • 2021: "The Little King: Christmas Night" (short), He Sees You When You're Sleeping (TV movie), "Christmas Cracker" (short), Morozko (film), "Toyland" (short), Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa (TV special presented as an Scener / YouTube watch party). Also, the "cover" art for Dancin': It's On! depicts the movie's characters in the style of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
    • 2022: "The Monster's Christmas'' (TV movie), and the shorts "Silent Night: Story of the Christmas Carol", "Play in the Snow", "The Christmas Deer", "The Christmas Tree", "The First Christmas Tree", "In Winter", and "God's Christmas Gift"
    • 2023: The Christmas Martian (movie), Santa and the Three Bears (movie), "Koopa Klaus" (segment of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), and the shorts "A Good Tree", "A Present for Santa", "The Little Match Girl", and "The Christmas Spirit"
  • Unwell Podcast has the episode Hark, which has Dot Harper sundowning at Christmas while listening to old recordings of a previous Christmas. Like the Halloween Episode and Thanksgiving Episode in the previous season, Hark wasn't actually released on the holiday it's set on.
  • You're Dead To Me: So far, the podcast has explored Christmas in the Victorian Era, the Medieval Era, and very specifically, Christmas with Charles Dickens.
    Pro Wrestling 
  • WWE:
    • As far back as the early 1970s, when Vince McMahon was play-by-play announcer, the WWF’s syndicated programs featured pre-taped Christmas messages from the promotion’s top wrestlers, or sometimes just simply a message of peace and goodwill for Christmas. Said shows would air the last weekend before December 25.
    • WWF Tuesday Night Titans: Both Christmases the show was on the air, the last shows prior to December 25 featured holiday-themed segments. Over two episodes in December 1985, viewers saw Captain Lou Albano dressed as Santa Claus and hearing wishes from studio audience members; Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura and "Lord" Alfred Hayes talking about unusual Christmas gifts; and Roddy Piper as an Ebenezer Piper being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Day.
    • WWF Prime Time Wrestling always had the set decorated for Christmas in mid-to-late December, and Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan exchanging yuletide banter. The most famous PTW aired in 1989, when Bobby Heenan – dressed as Santa Claus – became openly hostile and declared that Santa wasn't real, all to get to Roddy Piper (who as part of a storyline was under strict orders to not physically attack Heenan for any reason or risk suspension); Piper finally had enough and beat the Santa-clad Heenan into bloody oblivion.
    • There was a Christmas edition of Monday Night Raw in 1997 with the logo wrapped inside of a wreath, and featured "Stone Cold" Steve Austin stunning a fake Santa Claus, as well as Shawn Michaels pretty much giving Triple H the European Title as a gift (disguised as a match where HBK laid down and pranked Sgt. Slaughter)
    • For many years, WWE Raw featured a military-themed episode – often titled "Holiday with the Troops" – to show support for the U.S. armed forces stationed in the Middle East. Matches frequently had holiday-themed gimmicks and the Divas/female wrestlers were often dressed in provocative "Santa's Helpers" outfits. These pre-taped programs aired either on Christmas Day or the Monday closest to December 25.
  • Starting in 2003, WWE has produced a Christmas episode of one of their main shows (either Raw or Smackdown), in the form of a Christmas-themed wrestling show for the troops in the Middle East.
  • The International Wrestling Association used to have a "Christmas in Puerto Rico" series of events in December.
  • NWA New York's X-Mas Chaos.
  • Pro Wrestling Guerilla's Astonishing Christmas.
  • An ongoing theme of SHINE end of year shows starting ar 23, where Mia Yim wore red and green, Leva Bates was red and green, Daffney was a reindeer.
    Puppet Shows 
  • Barney & Friends has had two one hour specials. The first was Barney's Night Before Christmas in 1999 and the second was 2002's Barney's Christmas Star.
  • The Chica Show: Dance of the Sugar Cluck Chica.
  • Glove and Boots has "The Glove and Boots Christmas Spectacular"👁 Image
    , in which Mario knocks Santa out (having mistaken him for a yeti), interrogates him on whether he's on the naughty list or not when he wakes up despite Fafa's protests, and they all get attacked by military elves.
    Fafa: Maybe I should sit on his lap and tell him what I want for Christmas is for him to not sue us.
  • Sesame Street has had a few Christmas specials during its run. The earliest was the prime time special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. The commercially-broadcast special A Special Sesame Street Christmas debuted that same year. In 1996, Elmo Saves Christmas debuted. Elmo's World: Happy Holidays! was released in 2002. 2007 had the commercial special Elmo's Christmas Countdown. And in 2016, there came Once Upon A Sesame Street Christmas, a story set in the 19th century with lots of identical ancestors.
    Radio 
  • This trope is Older Than Television, even discounting Literature above and only dealing with episodes of a audio or visual series, with the earliest traceable example dating back to an episode of a 1930 episode of a radio drama featuring a young👁 Image
    Betty White, though evidence suggests there might have been a Christmas episode the prior year, when an episode of this series is believed to have aired 23 December 1929👁 Image
    .
  • American Top 40: Casey Kasem hosted several over the course of his 39-year career helming AT40 (and various spinoffs and successor shows). The first such episode aired in 1971.
    • American Country Countdown followed AT40's lead, starting in 1989 with a six-hour special featuring interviews and songs from the top country artists of the day. The special was known as "Christmas In America" (featuring a song by that name, sung by Kenny Rogers). After longtime ACC host Bob Kingsley left ABC Radio Networks (the distributor of the show), two things happened: 1. Kingsley continued the show, under the same "Christmas In America" name, under his new show, Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40 which aired until 2018 (a special retrospective show aired in 2019, shortly after Kingsley's death); and 2. ACC successor host Kix Brooks continued the Christmas tradition as American Country Christmas.
  • The Burkiss Way had three episodes over its run that were broadcast around Christmas and could be considered Christmas episodes:
    • The second episode of series two, entitled "Lesson 8: Plan Christmas Schedules The Burkiss Way", which mocked the space-filling rubbish that gets shown on TV at Christmas;
    • The sixth episode of series three, entitled "Special Christmas Show", which starts with an announcement that it cannot be opened before Christmas;
    • And the final episode of series five, broadcast on the 26th of December but entitled "Eric Pode of Croydon's Easter Special". It contains nothing about Christmas, but does have a man being diagnosed with Terminal Hogmany.
  • Cabin Pressure had one on a plane, obviously, in the 2010 episode "Molokai". Featuring an impromptu seven-minute celebration on the flight deck, with turkey made from bits of a chicken sandwich and a green umbrella in lieu of a tree.
  • The First Nighter, which ran on NBC radio from 1929 to 1953, first broadcast a Christmas episode titled "Little Town of Bethlehem" in 1937. By popular demand, they performed the episode every year until their last Christmas episode in 1952. The 1945 installment can be heard here👁 Image
    .
  • Fit the Seventh of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978) was commissioned by the BBC as one of these, but ended up having absolutely nothing to do with Christmas as Douglas Adams simply couldn't think of an idea. (Seeing as it was still advertised as a Christmas special, this may well be a subversion.) It was, instead, used as a way of tying the first two phases together — and, as a result, which one it's actually attached to is rather vague. The LP and CD of the Secondary Phase opens with Fit the Seventh, clearing up the confusion.
  • I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue had two Christmas Formula-Breaking Parody Episodes; I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol and Humph in Wonderland, which somehow managed to work all the usual silly games into an almost coherent storyline. (Replacing the Caucus Race with Mornington Crescent was inspired.) There have also been several Christmas-themed editions of the regular show, including several editions where chairman Humphrey Lyttelton brought his own band to provide music, and an extended 45-minute special on Christmas Eve 2012 with Stephen Fry as the guest.
  • This was a continuation of the annual I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again panto, which ran slightly longer than ISIRTA itself.
  • It is also possible to count The second in a series of shorts that would become a series known as Main Street Sketches. The first episode was a Thanksgiving Special👁 Image
  • The Men from the Ministry had three, Series 1's "The Magic Carpet" (lost but fortunately re-recorded in Series 14 as "The Christmas Spirit"), a special episode "A Present For Norman" (that is completely lost) aired beetween the first two series and Series 3's "The Post Office Pantomine".
  • 2011 had The News Quiz Panto, in which Sandi Toksvig went on a magical quest to Radio 4 Land to find the missing pips. Representatives of nearly every show on R4 contributed, from the Gardener's Question Time panel as the magic beans, to the villain of the piece being Graham Seed, supposedly bitter about the death of his The Archers character, Nigel.
  • The episode od The Now Show closest to Christmas has a jingle-bells theme tune and a Christmas theme. In 2010, they did a topical-news pantomime.
    Tabletop Games 
  • Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space suggests the GM runs a scenario outside the normal campaign during the holiday season, wink wink. The game is obviously based of the adventures of a certain Time Lord...
  • Spirit of the Season is a Christmas and Hanukkah-themed supplement for Spirit of the Century, featuring pulp-adventure versions of Santa Claus, his reindeer (actually humans in this case), and a handful of Jewish allies as ready-made Player Characters.
    Theatre 
  • Tsukiuta Stage Act 7: Cyber-Dive Connection is An Ass-Kicking Christmas in sexy Cyber Goth costumes. The main characters, 12 world-hopping boy band members based on the months of the year, are asked to enter a digital world to save Santa - it's heavy on video game references, light on plot, and more of a playground for the series to experiment with combining technology and live theatre. They do sing Christmas songs, though.
    Theme Parks 
  • During the holidays, Disney Theme Parks are famous for going all-out with special seasonal entertainment, but year-round attractions getting Christmas-specific overlays include:
    • Both Disneyland in California and Tokyo Disneyland turn "The Haunted Mansion" into "Haunted Mansion Holiday", themed to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Since Nightmare also encompasses the Halloween holiday, this overlay opens in late September!
    • "It's a Small World" gets a Christmas makeover that, among other things, adds carols to the usual catchy soundtrack at the California, Paris, and Tokyo parks (and briefly in Hong Kong).
    • Starting in The '80s and lasting until the Turn of the Millennium at the U.S. parks, the Country Bear Jamboree became the Country Bears Christmas Special for the holiday season. This version still turns up at Tokyo Disneyland as Jingle Bell Jamboree.
    • The Jungle Cruise at both American parks becomes the Jingle Cruise starting in November, with a thin storyline involving a shipment of holiday decorations being lost in the jungle on the way to the base of operations added to the usual script — along with plenty of seasonal puns.
    • At Walt Disney World in Florida, after Halloween has passed the Magic Kingdom's central icon Cinderella Castle gets an overlay of lights that make it appear iced over at night. The stage show A Frozen Holiday Wish presents this as Queen Elsa of Arendelle's work.
    Video Games 
  • Amateur Surgeon: The first game had one in the form of a level pack titled Christmas Edition. When Alan Probe accidentally crashes against Santa Claus on a private jet, he has to treat him and several others in the North Pole to save Christmas.
  • The final episode of Season 2 of American McGee's Grimm featured Grimm doing his thing to A Christmas Carol.
  • Angry Birds Seasons has one in each season. There's "Season's Greedings" (2010), "Wreck the Halls" (2011), "Winter Wonderham" (2012), "Arctic Eggspedition" (2013), "On Finn Ice" (2014), "Ski or Squeal" (2015), and "Ragnahog" (2016).
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures has the level "Blizzard of Balls", a disturbing level with parts including battling with a snowman and a reindeer and then the Nerd exacting his revenge on Santa for the years of crappy games every Christmas by killing him and going on a downhill ski with his body.
  • Astro Bot (2024)'s post-launch "Winter Wonder" level is a full Christmas themed level revolving around finding and collecting a certain amount of golden gift boxes, some of them containing some Christmas themed outfits and accessories for Astro.
  • Azure Striker Gunvolt 3: BB's stage, Holy Night XIII, happens on Christmas eve, where a berserk BB laments that no one accepts his invitation to go on a date, causing him to lash out until Kirin and GV stops him.
  • Freezeezy Peak in Banjo-Kazooie where the bear and bird get to play Santa and decorate and "be the star" on the Christmas tree.
  • Bomberman: The fifth world of Super Bomberman 3, Winterland, is set in a Slippy-Slidey Ice World with Christmas trees and snowmen.
  • BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: In the epilogue, the area surrounding the eBuy Superstore gets a snowy makeover, coinciding with its annual holiday sale. The shops all sell unique Christmas-themed items, the locals spread festive cheer, and the sale is attacked by a Christmassy Cthulhu expy, which you have to fend off.
  • Chapter 3 of Bully is set around Christmas (with one mission actually being titled 'Christmas is Here'). The Updated Re-release includes a number of extra Christmas missions at the beginning of the chapter.
  • The "Pawliday Den" bonus level in Catlateral Damage is set in a room with a big Christmas tree, presents everywhere, and lots of Christmas decorations. Of course, you can knock down and destroy said decorations.
  • The game Clustertruck has a level named "Holiday World" but takes more influences from Christmas.
  • The DLC for Costume Quest took place in winter and during the monsters' "yeti festival". Yes, the kids were still dressed up for Halloween, why do you ask?
    • As an added bonus, if you play the game on Christmas Day, (or you know, just change the clock) you unlock an achievement.
  • The Darkside Detective: In December 2017, an update added a new chapter, "Buy Hard", in which McQueen and Dooley go last-minute Christmas shopping and end up having to save Santa Claus from The Krampus (and having his reindeer clamped by an unsympathetic traffic cop).
  • Devilish Christmas, an installment in the Devilish Hairdresser series, in which the Devilish Hairdresser becomes a Bad Santa to mess with the Angelic Hairdresser.
  • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has a unique code that made all the bonus levels Christmas-themed. After finding the Cheat menu, type in MERRY and suddenly the bonus levels will have Christmas music replacing the normal music, Christmas ornaments instead of stars, and presents instead of green bananas.
  • Mission twelve of Elite Beat Agents is set at Christmas. After eleven levels of rescuing cartoon caricatures from wacky, off-the-wall scenarios, "You're the Inspiration" gives us a little girl still waiting for her beloved, recently deceased father to come home for Christmas. Upon completion, the victory text reads "Merry Christmas" in festive red and green.
  • In Ensemble Stars!, Christmas or Starlight Festival is an annual event all idol groups are expected to participate in. However, the theming tends to be more around stars and snow than typical red and green festive flair or even Japanese-style Christmas is for couples styling, perhaps because the former would be kinda jarring for some units (such as the ultra Japanese Akatsuki) and the latter overlaps too much with Chocolate Festival (Valentine's Day) two months later.
  • Fall Guys Season 3 (Winter Knockout). This season appropriately enough is winter and Christmas themed with presents.
  • A minor example in Fallout 4. If the Sole Survivor happens to be in Diamond City on December 25th, then there will be a Christmas tree and Christmas lights set up. It's about as close to a Christmas Episode you can get in an open-world RPG.
  • Final Fantasy: In both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, they feature a yearly Seasonal Event Quest revolving around a festival known as the Starlight Celebration, essentially Vana'diel and Eorzea’s version of Christmas. Completing said quests will usually reward players with Christmas themed gear and accessories.
  • Folklore had a downloadable Christmas add-on with a seasonal side quest and costumes.
  • Friday Night Funkin': Week 5 takes place in a shopping mall with a big Christmas tree in the background, holiday-themed songs, and festive outfits for all the characters. The Father is even holding a Mall Santa at gunpoint.
  • Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko had a Christmas-based level.
  • Granblue Fantasy: Every year, new Christmas-themed characters are added to the gacha dressed in Santa clothes. The season is set to Winter and enemies are based on characters or concepts from several Christmas-related stories or tales.
  • Grow Ornament is this to the Grow games series as the goal is to decorate a Christmas tree.
  • Heroes of the Seasons: The game is a spin-off of Starmage's BlueSkies series and takes place in the year 242 AR of Vyen. Instead of focusing on the overall worldbuilding of Vyen, the game focuses on Utania Village's battle to protect their Christmas festivities from various Christmas-hating factions.
  • In the "Holiday Hoarders" mission of Hitman (2016), 47 has to assassinate two targets in Paris, France during a Christmas festival.
  • Jazz Jackrabbit has a special Christmas "demo", as well as a full Christmas-themed episode.
  • Lemmings had a Christmas-themed Mission-Pack Sequel named Xmas Lemmings.
  • Limbus Company: The 2023 event "Miracle In District 20" was released a few days after Christmas, and involves the Sinners getting tangled up with a bunch of evil gnomes who want to use the Sinners as Human Resources in their "presents". In the game's actual timeline the story does not take place during Christmas, something the characters note.
  • Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story:
    • The 2017 Christmas event, "Christmas at Mikazuki Villa", showed the main characters getting ready for Christmas while also introducing Holy Mami. There was also a special cutscene shown on Christmas Day itself.
    • 2018's event, "Alina is Comin' to Town", introduced Holy Alina and her escapades around town as Christmas Death Caribou.
    • 2019's event, "The Page I Write on this Holy Night" introduced a holiday-themed Duo Unit of Rika and Ren as they go around Kamihama restoring the city's Christmas spirit.
    • 2020's event, "Angels on the Road", introduced a delivery-themed Duo Unit of Tsuruno and Felicia as they ride on a moped powered by smiles across a land where it's Christmas Every Day, searching for the "End of the World."
  • Moshi Monsters: Every Christmas, the background would change and Christmas-related prizes would be given to the players.
  • My Child Lebensborn: The playable part of the winter includes Norwegian Christmas.
  • Kingdom Hearts II's visit to Halloween Town involves Sora and company going to Christmas Town. In the "Final Mix" and subsequent HD ports of the game, Sora, Donald, and Goofy even swap out their Halloween outfits for Christmas ones, though more gothic Tim Burton-styled ones at that.
  • Christmas Nights is a special "demo" of NiGHTS into Dreams… with unlockable material not found in the main game proper.
  • Open Sorcery has a DLC entitled Jingle BEL/S, set just before and during Christmas 2015 (a little over a year after the events of the original game). It functions as both an epilogue to the original game and (briefly) as a setup for Sea Plus Plus.
  • The third bonus level of the second Ouendan game has a guy sending a text message to his girlfriend on Christmas excusing his lateness, and the Anthropomorphic Personification of said text message has to reach its destination.
  • Both Overcooked! and its sequel, Overcooked! 2, have these via DLC. The first game has the "Festive Seasoning" DLC, which is set around Christmas and has you prepare Christmasy dishes like roast turkey and winter stew. The second game has the free "Seasonal Updates," which contains several new Christmas-themed levels, and has a wide variety of seasonal recipes, like hot cocoa and mince pie.
  • Since 2013, PAYDAY 2 has released a Christmas-themed heist for the holidays.
    • 2013's Christmas heist was GO Bank, a port of Counter-Strike: GO's Bank map. The only Christmasy elements are a Christmas tree in the lobby, a stereo playing Hoxton's Christmas album, and a light snow falling outside.
    • 2014's heist was White Xmas. Vlad's brother crashed a plane carrying a cocaine shipment - hidden inside wrapped Christmas presents - in the woods. The crew has to rescue him, then recover as much cocaine as they can.
    • 2015's heist was Santa's Workshop. Vlad has the crew hit a Christmas-themed cocaine distribution warehouse to muscle in on the operation. The goal is to protect the "elves" (cocaine packers) while they pack the "presents" (cocaine), then deliver them through a "chimney" (storm drain with a boat waiting below).
    • 2016's heist was Stealing Xmas, once again contracted by Vlad. Vlad's brother messed up again, first by sneaking a shipment of drugs into a pallet of goods that was shipped to a downtown mall, then by dressing up as Santa and getting drunk on-scene. The crew needs to find the right goods, gather them at the giant Christmas tree in the center, destroy the skylight, and airlift the tree off the scene.
    • 2017's heist was Brooklyn Bank, this time contracted by Locke. Because at this point the story began to take a serious turn, the crew now has to rob a bank for a particular item, with the only Christmas flairs being decorations and snow.
    • 2019 had a previous heist, Hoxton Breakout, receive a Christmas themed makeover, with snow covering the streets on Day 1, and the FBI headquarters decorated for the festive season.
  • Persona: The third, fourth, and fifth games have this. In 3, the cultural differences are even explained nicely to the International audiences. So yes, in Japan, Christmas Eve is usually spent with your Love Interest. On top of this, one of the DLC costume packs for 5 is a set of Christmas themed outfits for the party.👁 Image
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  • Pet Simulator 99: There were two.
    • In the first one (2023-24), players found gifts and combined them to make better gifts, which the best one being the one that contains a titanic.
    • In the second one (2024-25), players could still do that, along with giving huge pets for Santa Paws to give random players, and using items, huges, and titanics to boost odds of a present giving you something.
  • Pikmin:
    • Pikmin 2: One of the caves in the game is the Frontier Cavern, in which most of the treasures are composed of various Christmas decorations. Fittingly, the cave is located in the winter-themed Valley of Repose.
    • Pikmin 3: One of the "Gather Treasure" DLC levels includes a level themed after a Christmas party taking place in someone's house, with terrain composed of stacked present boxes.
  • Putt-Putt has a Tie-In Novel/Audio Adaptation known as Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas.
  • Resonance of Fate had a Christmas-themed chapter in which the trio deliver presents to children at the square. Leanne wore a Santa dress, while Zephyr and Vashyron dressed as anthropomorphic reindeer. The two guys would later repeat this in Chapter 25 of Project × Zone 2, when they wore the same reindeer outfits that they had in Resonance of Fate and scattered 10 gifts around the map before the map starts. In that map, the primary objective was to collect them in a certain amount of turns.
  • The Saints Row IV DLC "How the Saints Saved Christmas" is an Affectionate Parody of Christmas tropes, in which the Boss must save Santa Claus and learn the true meaning of the Holiday Spirit by going through various pastiches of various Christmas films/specials.
  • Sam & Max: Freelance Police: The Season Two premiere "Ice Station Santa", involves the duo investigating the North Pole to help Santa on Christmas time after he seemingly gets possessed by an evil spirit.
  • Saturday Morning RPG: Episode 4, "Ho Ho Hood", is set at Christmastime. The main plot involves Marty having to retrieve everyone's Christmas present after they were all stolen by Commander Hood.
  • Sonic Adventure received a free DLC on the Dreamcast that added snow and a Christmas tree to Station Square.
  • Star Trek Online has an annual winter event with various minigames and prizes, hosted by Q Junior. The event takes place in a pocket dimension populated with gingerbread people, evil snowmen, and a few Breen.
  • Super Sized Family has a Christmas version called "Holiday House", where some of the chores are replaced with Christmas-related tasks like wrapping gifts.
  • To the Moon has a bonus episode called "SigCorp - Holiday special", which takes place at the main characters' office during a Christmas party.
  • This👁 Image
    Touhou Project Fan Vid gives Flandre a chance to celebrate Christmas.
  • Level 20 of Viking Saga involves collecting scattered presents, taking care of Santa's reindeer and decorating a large tree, while the bonus level for earning three stars on levels 11-20 has you building snowmen.
  • A recent update for Wrestling MPire added the "Christmas Chaos" match where it is snowing in the outdoor arena and Christmas presents containing weapons are used as props. The player will wrestle in this match on Wrestling Career once December rolls around.
  • Ys: The Five Dragons of Altago: One of the in-game events involved the celebration of Christmas.
  • Many games also offer seasonal downloads, or have bonus content if you play near to Christmas time.
    Visual Novels 
  • In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the Ultimate Talent Development Plan mode has a mini-segment where the player participates in the academy's Christmas party.
  • Magical Warrior Diamond Heart: Episodes 13 and 14 are this. With episode 13 focused on Valerie delivering a gift to one of the love interests, and episode 14 taking place on Christmas Eve, focusing on Valerie and Diana spending time at home for the holiday and being the episode in which Luna makes her debut.
    Web Animation 
  • Algicosathlon Camp had Episode 12 of Season 1, where the final 10 contestants were required to do a Christmas-related art. Despite it being a "celebration" episode, normal procedures still happen, including elimination.
  • The Bedfellows short "The 12 Rapes of Christmas" consists of Fatigue singing a Twelve Days of Christmas parody listing presents Sheen gave to Fatigue as well as acts of abuse the former inflicted upon the latter.
  • Balena Productions:
  • Camp Camp has one titled “A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever”. The episode takes place in the summer like the rest of the series, but it suddenly starts snowing due to climate change, and the cast pretend that it's the holiday season at Nikki's behest.
  • Dayum: One video is “Types of People on Christmas Portrayed by Minecraft”, which includes things like “The Caroler” and “The Early Present Opener”.
  • The Shea Fontana iteration of DC Super Hero Girls had three Christmas-appropriate episodes.
    • "It's a Superful Life" concerned the main heroines deciding to do what they can to ensure everyone at Super Hero High enjoys the holidays. Particularly touching moments include Big Barda reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to a sick girl and the students bringing Vice Principal Grodd's parents to the school when he is unable to visit them for the holidays.
    • "Fortress of Solidarity" has Supergirl trying to deal with her biological parents being deceased and her legal guardians Jonathan and Martha Kent seemingly being unable to visit her during the school's setting up their Christmas tree.
    • "Super Gift Swap" has everyone trying to avoid a present Harley brought to the gift swap that makes a suspicious ticking sound. It turns out that the ticking isn't because it's a bomb, but because the present contains a wristwatch Harley stole from Batgirl's room.
  • Dorkly Originals:
  • DragonShortZ: Goten's birth happens on Christmas while Gohan is doing everything he can while Piccolo, Bulma, Vegeta, and Yamcha arrive to see him, though Chi-Chi tells the latter to Get Out! immediately.
  • Eddsworld: Edd, Matt, Tom and Tord (until 2008) had almost an Eddsworld Christmas Special or a Zanta Claws every year. Also the short "Xmas Day" and "Snowgre".
  • Father Tucker had a Christmas episode titled "Come Let Us Adore Him", where he takes the magical hat of a Frosty the Snowman Expy who unsuccessfully tried to beat him as punishment for all the children he molested and uses it to bring a sculpture of Baby Jesus to life. After molesting Baby Jesus, Father Tucker goes straight to Hell, but sniffs his thumb and still considers his eternal torment Worth It.
  • The Grossery Gang: The webseries has two christmas specials. One being the Grossery Gang Cartoon Christmas (released in December 13th, 2016) and the Christmas Episode (released in December 9th, 2017) which the latter is a parody of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! but with a few changes in the ending.
  • Happy Tree Friends had two, in which the characters sing Christmas songs.
  • Helluva Boss: "Sinsmas", a day upon which all Hellborn demons in Hell are encouraged to (healthily) act upon their birth sin (e.g. Wrath-born fight with each other and exchange barbed insults while Gluttony-born gorge on whole packages of food and drink.). It's shown to overlap with the Earth holiday season, and the episode's Meaningful Release Date might indicate that it takes place upon the Winter Solstice.
  • Homestar Runner has plenty, although for some odd reason Free Country, USA celebrates Decemberween instead of Christmas.
    • HSR's first Christmas cartoon, the 2000 short "A Holiday Greeting", had Homestar interrupting Strong Bad's fractured rendition of "O Holy Night" before it got too sacrilegious and wishing the viewers "Happy Holidays".
    • 2001 saw the release of "The Best Decemberween Ever". Homestar goes around looking for advice on finding the perfect gift for Strong Bad, and ends up giving him a DVD of Deep Impact... for the third year in a row, because Strong Bad liked it so much the first time Homestar got it for him.
    • 2002's "A Decemberween Pageant" has Homestar and friends starring in a play about the First Decemberween. It's a convoluted and poorly-acted tale involving two Kobe Bryants, a sailor named Archibald, a Santa-like character known as "Doctor Christmas", an angel, and the King of Town (though it's a bit ambiguous as to whether it's the KOT we know or a predecessor).
    • 2004's Decemberween In July featured a collection of Decemberween-themed shorts, including a Teen Girl Squad cartoon where the girls draw names for a gift exchange... out of the belly of a lion, a kids' book called "That Time Of Year" defaced by Strong Bad, a short in which Puppet Homestar fools around with a battery-operated "Santaman" toy, and the nonsensical Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Decemberween special "Cactus Coffee and the No Tell Motel".
    • Also from 2004 was "Homestar Presents: Presents", where Homestar forgets to do his holiday shopping until 10 PM on Decemberween night. He ends up digging through a box of Bubs old "Aught-Four" crap for his shopping..
    • The Strong Bad Email "what I want" has Strong Bad and Marzipan going over a list of terrible gift ideas.
    • "Decemberween Short Shorts", released in 2006, was a series of extra-short cartoons themed around Decemberween, including Strong Bad having a secret love of tube socks, a scene between ornament versions of the main characters, The Homestar Runner's unsanitary old-timey traditions, and Homestar singing a song to inspire Coach Z to be less creepy so people will want him around on Decemberween.
    • According to Strong Bad in 2007's "Happy Dethemberween", Bubs serves Santa duties as the enigmatic Dethemberween Thnikkaman.
      Strong Bad: He's the Dethemberween Thnikkaman
      And he'll make your dreams come true
      No, there ain't no beatin' that holiday feelin'
      When he says "shut up" to you!
      Bubs/Dethemberween Thnikkaman: Yeah, shut up, kid!
    • In 2008's A Death-Defying Decemberween, Homestar announces he's going to sled down the Steep Deep, not so much a hill as a straight drop, and Strong Bad catches him trying to bury a mattress at the base of the hill. Being Strong Bad, he removes the mattress, only for Homestar to make a perfect landing anyway: turns out the mattress was full of hammers, broken glass and candy canes sucked into points, and Homestar was trying to maim himself to keep from having to visit Marzipan's parents.
    • After a long hiatus, 2010 saw the release of "A Decemberween Mackerel", in which Marzipan and Homestar conspire to save an apparently-sickly Señor Cardgage by cramming him with holiday cheer.
    • 2017 saw the release of the first Christmas episode in seven years, "Dangeresque Puppet Squad: The Hot Jones Hijack". It's a crossover between Dangeresque and Cheat Commandos in which puppet versions of Dangeresque (played by Strong Bad) and Firebert (played by The Cheat) try to stop Stingy Relenque (played by Homestar), a "French-Canadian smuggler and Decemberween-themed bad guy" who's stolen all the Hot Jones in Brainblow City just before the Cheat Commandos' big Decemberween party.
    • For 2022, the site posted up an advent calender, with each day having a new piece of piano sheet music for the many songs made for the series over the years. The final day (December 24th) features Homestar doing a new cover of "Todaybor Day is Labour Day" focused on Decemberween, and gives Strong Bad a weird-looking frog from the sheet music as a Decemberween present.
  • Journey to the Quest has "Best Questmas Ever", which has the party celebrating the titular holiday, with Jackson and Rayne scrambling to gather gifts because they weren't actually planning to stay in town for the night while Pepper, Elliot, and Mara all set up decorations at the inn.
  • Making Fiends: The original web series had its Christmas episode consist of two songs by the main characters Charlotte and Vendetta. The "Nice" song by Charlotte has her sing about wanting to be a Christmas tree, while the "Naughty" song by Vendetta has her sing about the very bad things she'd do to Charlotte if she turned into a Christmas tree.
  • Misadventures of Apu: One video shows Apu having one of his many groin injuries while cleaning up after Christmas dinner.
  • The Most Popular Girls in School: The 38th episode concerned a Mall Santa who was in a relationship with Lunch Lady Belinda.
  • Muffin Films:
    • "Mini Muffin Holidays" has the mini-muffins return to bother the girl into eating stuff again, this time begging her to eat seasonal foods during the holidays.
    • "Twelve Muffins" consists of a parody of the song "I Saw Three Ships A Sailing" that describes the misadventures of 12 muffins during Christmas.
  • My Jungle Book, Your Year has "A Very Furi Christmas".
  • TheOdd1sOut has a video "Christmas Carols", where James discusses various Christmas songs, and talks about whether it hurt when Mary went into labour among other things.
  • Overly Sarcastic Productions, an Edutainment Show that specializes in history, folklore, and classic literature, has a few. First was the history of Hanukkah, reflecting the host's interfaith background, then later that year an overview of the classic Christmas iconography — evergreens, Santa Claus, caroling, et cetera. Most recently was a recap of A Christmas Carol for December 2018.
  • "Pimp Lando's Non-Denominational Holiday Special" in the Pimp Lando series, which is also a Hanukkah Episode, a Kwanzaa episode, and a Ramadan episode, though the episode really has little to do with any of these holidays.
  • The fifth Prostitute Mickey short revolves around this. The short had Mickey being mistaken for Ebenezer (the series' version of Scrooge McDuck) by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. The events turn out to only be a dream and Ebenezer returns to demand that Mickey let him piss on him again, but Goofy inadvertently saves Mickey and ends Ebenezer's vile ways by shooting and killing him for his wallet.
  • Rockman X5: Duel of Fates: The second Gaiden chapter takes place during Christmas Eve, one year after the Doppler Incident.
  • RWBY Chibi has a "Nondescript Holiday Spectacular", a clearly Christmas-themed holiday episode that features Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan spoofing How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
  • Subverted in Satina, whose Christmas episode (airing in February) revolved around Flat-Earth Atheist Dave explaining to his Anti-Anti-Christ daughter that he's Jewish, despite the fact that he's literally been to Hell. When she challenges him on this, he doubles down and forces her to watch Eight Crazy Nights with him, Horrifying the Horror.
  • Something About:
    • The "A Very Kirbo Christmas" videos, where Kirbo and friends celebrate Christmas together. It's much Lighter and Softer than the usual madcap animation and zany plotlines, and each time Kirbo gives thanks to God for all he has done.
    • In "A Very Kirbo Christmas", Kirbo decorates his house, gives presents to an orphanage, and volunteers at the soup kitchen, concluding with him exchanging presents and with Simon and Luigi.
    • "Another Very Kirbo Christmas: Christmas At Luigi's Mansion" has a large number of Cappies, in addition to Luigi and Kirbo, getting the mansion decorated for Christmas, with even some of the Boos and the ghost that possessed Professor E. Gadd in "Something About Luigi's Mansion" helping out. The episode also features guests flying in from all over the Something Series, ranging from Bill, Bogues, and BIRD UP!!! from the Monster Hunter videos to even more unlikely characters such as Castlevania's Dracula, Ganondorf, and SEPHIROTH! Finally, the episode ends with a magnificent spread made by an army of Chef Kawasakis and Kirbo saying grace before the big meal.
    • "A Very Kirbo Christmas: Christmas at Waddle Dee's" sees the Kir Bros and Bandana Dee pitch together to help a down-on-their-luck Waddle Dee family whose father was just laid off. After dinner, Elfilin and the Waddle Dee Town postal worker arrive to deliver a flyer with a job opportunity.
    • In "A Very Kirbo Christmas: The One That Almost Wasn't", Kirbo is sick and can't decorate or help around town as usual, so everyone in Cappy Town comes to help him out instead, decorating for him and helping him enjoy the festivities.
  • Some official Sonic the Hedgehog web animations explicitly take place during Christmas/Holiday season:
    • Sonic Mania Adventures: The sixth episode features Amy Rose returning a barely-functioning Metal Sonic as a holiday gift for Eggman after his defeat in Episode 5.
    • Chao in Space is shown to be a dream, where in the real-world, Sonic is celebrating Christmas in the Chao Garden, with Eggman dressed as Santa and looking to steal the presents that are present.
    • TailsTube: Episode 6 is explicably set during the Holidays, where Tails has gotten himself, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Omega, and Shadow together to do a gift exchange (though Shadow immediately takes off after being told it was a gift exchange). When Eggman crashes the show, he lets out some Christmas-themed puns before realizing no one else is here.
  • SNARLED: Snarled has two very eerie Christmas stories, "Krampus" and "Krampus Nacht", both about the consequences of tricking Krampus. Then there's two others, "The Christmas Present" and "Silent Night, Scary Night".
  • SPARKLE ON RAVEN has episode 3, "DrillGirl Saves Santa Claus!", where the girls all go to the beach for summer fun on Christmas Eve Eve, before learning that their favorite beach bar, Cooters, is due to close. Not wanting to lose out on their Christmas Crab Legs, they raise money and attempt to save the restaurant, to no avail. They eventually receive a Christmas miracle in the form of Chupachups the Christmas alien, but the owner wastes his wish on Internet security. Eventually, everyone comes together for one last round of Christmas Crab Legs, which saves the restaurant for another month, before it closes anyway. At the end of the episode, DrillGirl reveals that she saved Santa Claus off-screen.
  • Squid and Frog: "Buttery Holiday Special" has Squid and Frog sing about why it's not wise to use butter as skates while at the mall during the holidays.
  • Stupid Kids: Boldogat és még boldogabbat (Merry and even more) is a Twisted Christmas episode where people who sold their souls to Facebook turn into zombies because it crashed.
  • SuperThings has had a few Christmas-themed episodes pop up for the series, all featuring appearances from SantaThing. Surprisingly, most of these episodes end up as surprisingly important in the long run.
    • The episode "SantaZing Arrives" features the villains kidnapping SantaThing and his sled in a misguided attempt to cheer up Sponge Rock.
    • The episode "Villain Christmas" features the leaderless villains attempting to do enough good to receive at least something for Christmas. It also turns out that Professor K.'s thought to be destroyed invention lived on, giving the first reveal of Kid Fury.
    • The episode "Bath Force Saves Christmas" features SantaThing recruiting Bath Force to use his water abilities to help unmask the Super Spies and figure out which ones are heroes and which ones are villains, thus closing out that plot point right for the end of the season.
  • TOME has a mini-Christmas video with Kirbopher wearing a holiday, Nylocke respecting Hanukkah, and Rockoon claiming to be Kwanzaa.
  • Queer Duck:
    • "Homo for the Holidays", where Queer Duck and Openly Gator visit Queer Duck's family for the holidays.
    • "Santa Claus is Coming Out", where Queer Duck speculates that Santa Claus is gay before Santa reveals that he's actually bi.
  • The (two-minute) Christmas episode of Senpai Club has Kurokawa blackmailing Teacher-sensei into going on a Christmas date with her. It ends with Teacher-sensei running away after punching Kurokawa due to her kissing her.
  • Windows Vista Dies has "Christmas Special", where Vista celebrates his first Christmas in heaven with Vienna and XP. This includes building some "Snow Windows", inviting the other Windows versions in heaven over for a Christmas dinner, and then getting everyone together to watch some TV.
  • Many members in the YouTube Poop community often make Christmas-themed YTPs in December. The most noteworthy of them would be "Skellington's Revenge".
  • Rockman X5: Duel of Fates: The second gaiden chapter takes place during Christmas Eve one year after the Doppler Incident.
    Webcomics 
    Web Original 
  • The CBeebies and CBBC official websites change their backgrounds to look more festive every Christmas.
  • The Flying Cloud: "Episode 51: The Flying Cloud Christmas Special"
  • Neopets: Every year during December, an advent calendar is made available in the winter-themed land of Terror Mountain. The advent calendar gives out assorted prizes and plays a new animation each day; users who collect prizes from it every day of the month unlock an exclusive avatar for use on the boards.
  • Plonqmas: All these stories are set at Christmas time. Tales featuring Plonq also exist on non-holiday subjects.
  • Renegade Rhetoric had a post made in December 2015 where Cy-Kill described the events of "And to All a Good Knight", a Christmas Episode from the fictional second season to Challenge of the GoBots. The episode involved Cy-Kill disguising himself as a Mall Santa as part of a scheme to use trace amounts of sorium to manipulate humanity into constructing an anti-Guardian force field. In the end, the force field is rewired to repel Renegades instead, forcing the villains to retreat and find that their Thruster was paid a visit by St. Nick. Cop-Tur is happy to recieve a present by earning a spot on Santa's nice list by letting the Guardians Scooter and Good Knight go free, while Cy-Kill grumbles at getting a lump of coal.
  • TLF Travel Alerts: In a spoof of the early broadcast of Christmas themed commercials, they gave us an early release heartwarming advert of a boy befriending an escalator👁 Image
    . Which then devolved into a Twisted Christmas tale of ruination and delays.
  • A side story of Trinton Chronicles featured Christmas themes (although it is called Yule) and took place both in the past and present of the story. The current story takes place during the actual month of December and features decorations and the similar themes of Christmas.
  • The Whateley Universe did a whole series of Christmas stories, all for Christmas 2006 (when the stories take place). A couple of them even came out at Christmas time, one year or another.
    Web Videos 
    Real Life 
  • The Christmas Truces👁 Image
    of World Wars I and II: proof that this sort of thing actually happens real life. For many units the war literally went on pause so troops from both sides could venture out into No Man's Land. Some simply called a truce to bury their fallen comrades, while some units actually mingled, exchanged gifts, and sang carols together. There are even accounts of friendly games of football between opposing units. Unsurprisingly, just like many Christmas Specials, the fight was right back on the next day as if nothing had happened.

Alternative Title(s): Do They Know Its Christmas Time

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Kirbopher, Nylocke, and Rockoon talk about the winter holidays.

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0:44

Holiday Greetings

 0:45

Froggy Little C...

 0:41

Franklin's Chri...

 1:05

Doing the Santa

 1:42

Human Error

 2:25

Invasion of the...

 1:24

Christmas in (O...

 0:44

Sprouty Claus

 1:45

Reinforcement -...

 1:45

A Jolly J-Team ...

 2:04

The Cram School...

 0:33

Snowball Fight!

 1:07

The Toy Castle

 2:02

A Boonboomger C...

 1:59

"Sinmas"

 1:51

Rick Steves' Ch...

 2:30

Takoyaki Christmas

 1:24

A Very "Stellar...

 1:47

Starlight Celeb...

 1:40

Freezeezy Peak

 0:36

Funzo!

 0:38

Hugtto! Pretty ...

 1:29

Jerry & Gayle

 0:48

The Farmhouse

 1:30

Super Why!

 0:38

Grossology

 0:59

Tunip

 1:26

Nina's gift

 2:27

Zoey's Christmas

 1:14

It's christmas

 2:15

Pee Wee's Playh...

 1:57

Community Meani...

 1:35

Holidays in Box...

 1:08

"Santa Claws"

 0:52

Christmas at Au...

 1:39

Yes Minister