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These episodes gave fans a look at what the holiday season was like in the world of their favorite characters and often imparted some sage advice about the importance of kindness, gratitude, togetherness, and charity during the season of giving. Any fan of classic holiday TV would do well to add a few of them to their watch list this season.
7 Rugrats: “The Santa Experience”
Rugrats hung around long enough to cover pretty much all the major holidays, some of them more than once, and it’s also known for having episodes that celebrated Passover and Hanukkah, which set the show apart from pretty much all other children’s shows at the time. However, their original Christmas episode “The Santa Experience” is probably the best of them all.
Taking a page from all the best Christmas movies, the families all decide to celebrate the holidays together at a cabin in the mountains. While up there, Angelica engages in a cruel and greedy scheme that tricks Phil and Lil into a “Gift of the Magi” moment, all while Tommy and Chuckie attempt to secure the home from the terror of Santa Claus. It’s a lot of fun all around, with all the seasonal trappings anyone could ask for. And the last little twist is the twinkling star atop the tree.
6 Rocko’s Modern Life: “Rocko’s Modern Christmas!: Can’t Squeeze Cheer From A Cheese Log!”
Rocko’s feeling down about the lack of snow and Christmas cheer in O-Town, so he invites Heffer and Filburt over for a holiday gathering which soon turns into an all-out town-wide party. But when Mr. Bighead sees that the elves who’ve just moved in across the street are invited, he goes full Scrooge and sabotages the whole thing. Thankfully, Rocko and a new friend can’t have their Christmas cheer stolen so easily.
For a show full of innuendos, sneaky satire, crude humor, and multiple dark moments, Rocko’s Modern Life had plenty of heart. That heart was rarely more evident than in “Rocko’s Modern Christmas.” While the episode pokes plenty of fun at the rampant consumerism and ironic self-absorption that’s all too common in the season of giving, it still treads a path to the emotional core of Christmas in its own offbeat way.
5 Hey Arnold: “Arnold’s Christmas”
Everyone at the boarding house is in on Secret Santa for Christmas and Arnold has Mr. Hyunh. In his attempts to figure out what to get for his quiet and kindly neighbor, Arnold discovers that 20 years ago Mr. Hyunh had helped his infant daughter escape their home country of Vietnam to come to America so she could be safe from the Vietnam War. Mr. Hyunh had immigrated to Arnold’s city to find her, but never could. Upon hearing this, Arnold knows the one and only Christmas gift he can possibly give Mr. Hyunh.
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Out of all the original Nicktoons, Hey Arnold is the one that was the most willing to tell a sad tale and impart some ideas about morality. “Arnold’s Christmas” may be the finest example of how great creator Craig Bartlett and his team were at it. It really may be the best Hey Arnold episode, period.
4 Doug: “Doug’s Christmas Story”
Porkchop saves Beebe from falling through some thin ice while Doug and friends are playing hockey, but Beebe mistakes it for a vicious attack. Using her family’s power and influence, she runs an awful smear campaign on Doug’s best friend, having him locked up and put on trial. With both Christmas and Porkchop’s freedom on the line, Doug decides he’s got to do something.
A courtroom drama involving Porkchop and Beebe isn’t exactly what one might imagine for a Doug Christmas episode, and yet “Doug’s Christmas Story” still has plenty of holiday charm and heartwarming moments in it to be worthy of an annual rewatch. Hey, Miracle on 34th Street is one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time and it contains some courtroom drama, too.
3 Ren And Stimpy: “Son Of Stimpy”
Stimpy “gives birth” to a sentient fart named Stinky who then goes missing for many years. With no support from Ren at all, Stimpy goes out into the world to find his long-lost gas child. The search comes to an end on Christmas day when the two are reunited along with Ren in one of the most uncomfortably heartwarming holiday moments in cartoon history.
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Ren and Stimpy couldn’t possibly have done a straightforward Christmas episode about gratitude, charity, and togetherness. It just wasn’t in the show’s deeply weird and disturbing DNA. However, it still manages to capture the essence of the season in its own unusual way, even if the whole thing was one long fart joke.
2 SpongeBob Squarepants: “Christmas Who?”
Being that Bikini Bottom is beneath the sea, the characters in SpongeBob Squarepants don’t share the same traditions as those on dry land, which means there is no Christmas down there. However, when Sandy shares her holiday tradition from back home with SpongeBob, he falls in love and shares it all around town, which of course brings the Scrooge out of Squidward.
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SpongeBob is a character that was absolutely born to love the Christmas season. He’s friendly, giving, teeming with love and good cheer, endlessly optimistic, and loves a solid party. Squidward, on the other hand, is a character that was absolutely born to snarl “Humbug”, which makes the setup in this episode almost too perfect. It’s got the perfect balance of heart and humor that all great Christmas specials tend to have.
1 Invader Zim: “The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever”
Mr. Sludgey the robot snowman from two million years in the future tells a group of cyborg orphans the tale of the most horrible Christmas ever as they sit beside the fire on Christmas Eve. The most horrible Christmas ever, of course, involves Zim. In yet another attempt to take over the planet, he creates a Santa suit in order to trick humans into thinking he’s the Big Guy himself. It’s safe to say the power hungry alien doesn’t make for the best Santa Claus.
Anyone who has seen even a few short minutes of Invader Zim has to know that the show’s Christmas special was never going to be a true heartwarmer or a tearjerker, or normal in any way for that matter, but that doesn’t mean this holiday episode isn’t good. In fact, it’s great. Provided the viewer doesn’t mind their Christmas specials with a little bit of weird and creepy mixed in, of course.
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