History Main / DoTheyKnowItsChristmasTime

* "At the end of an all dogs Christmas Carol, and open-hearted car face shows up at the Christmas celebration the protagonists are hosting with gifts for the puppies (in addition to returning the presents he stole) and fills the tin can used to hold donations supporting Timmy the lame puppy's medical care with money. She tells the protagonists that his good behavior won't last, as he still has a business to run.

[[folder: Film -- Live Action]]
* Averted in ''{{Film/Babe}}'': a bunch of thieves steal half the sheep flock on Christmas Day.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* Probably the most dramatic example is the Christmas Truce during WWI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce

What happens when StatusQuoIsGod smashes into a ChristmasEpisode. Perhaps no one ever goes to church or mentions a deity the rest of the year, but every now and again, around Christmas, our heroes will be shown the TrueMeaningOfChristmas (it's never presents - well, [[SubvertedTrope not usually]]) and caring, and realize just how lucky they really are. They may even go to a Christmas church service, [[ChristianityIsCatholic probably midnight mass on Christmas Eve]]. At the very least, they attempt to be kinder and more charitable toward those around them, embrace the brotherhood of humanity, and so forth.

* Huey Freeman of ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'' is an inversion, as he is seen to become ''even more'' cynical and cold around the holidays due to knowledge of the origin of all of the secular traditions and how bastardized the holiday really is.

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'''s Christmas episode of the third season had Rachel, who is very vocally Jewish, greedily demanding Christmas gifts from her boyfriend and eventually learning the "true meaning of Christmas" after having a bible verse about Jesus read to her during a Christmas special the Glee club is shooting. Her Judaism is not mentioned until literally the last second of the episode, as the camera is pulling away and Rachel throws out a "Happy Hanukkah" that is essentially lost in the shuffle of the other noise going on.

* While it was played fairly straight in the rest of the episode, one plot-line of the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Comfort and Joy" involved an alien bar fight. That is how [[BloodKnight Hawkgirl]] celebrates her holidays.

* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'' had a Christmas episode which dealt with homelessness - Virgil is forced to constantly miss holiday celebrations over a Bang Baby with the power to cause snow storms. Following the advice of his preacher, he tries to see the Bang Baby as a person and realizes that she's just a scared, crazy, homeless girl who never meant to hurt anyone. It all follows up with Virgil, Richie, and their families attending a massive Christian/Jewish/Islamic celebration at the local church. Very touching, although the Hawkins family already was shown to put massive amounts of time and energy into community service and helping others, so yeah...

* On the first ChristmasEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', a mailman and an angry dog make peace on Christmas. At the end, when Timmy's ChristmasEveryDay wish has ended, they're happy to go back to being enemies. Subverted with Vicky, who's as rotten as ever.

** The novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' spoofs the everloving hell out of this one. Most notably, when Death announces that, as the stand-in Hogfather he can teach people "the real meaning of Hogswatch", his assistant Albert helpfully lists the more unpleasant aspects of pagan solstice ceremonies. Death instead resolves to teach people "the ''unreal'' meaning of Hogswatch".
** In the novel ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'', Small God's Eve, when the Archchancellor is elected, is the one day in the year when wizards are not actively trying to kill brother wizards.

* From the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', the story in which Bungie and Ultra-Man brow-beat the normally aloof Achilles, who's never really experienced a ''real'' Christmas himself, into dressing up as Santa Claus for a local orphanage and handing out presents. It ends with Achilles discovering a gift-wrapped present on his bunk in Guardians headquarters. We never find out who sent it, or what was in it, but it is implied that the gift came from his father.

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is "Do They Know It's Christmas?," a charity song by Band Aid. It is certifiably an EarWorm, but it really doesn't have to do much with the trope; the question is whether the poor and starving children in Ethiopia (which was having a famine at the time) knew about the joy and happiness that was their due on Christmas Day. Of course, while their hearts may have been in the right place the Western-centric overtones of this premise was not lost on younger listeners (For instance, while most Ethiopians are Christians, they don't celebrate Christmas the same way, and, being Orthodox, it falls on 7 January; to say nothing of the UnfortunateImplications of a line like "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you"), and so the song was parodied and its premise subverted by "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?," which is what happens when a bunch of (mostly Canadian) indie rockers get their hands on something like this. That said, the UnfortunateImplications were deliberate - the line was there to shock people into realizing that attitude, breaking out of it, and giving. [[AllAccordingToPlan By all accounts, it worked.]]

[[folder: Film]]
* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Part I, Harry and Hermione teleport to Godric's Hollow, Harry's birthplace, to find out more clues on their quest. When they arrive, snow is on the ground and "fairy lights" (as they are called in the UK) are in people's windows, and sounds of song and celebration are coming from various houses. Hermione turns to Harry and says, "I think it's Christmas Eve." (they had been traveling for months with no calendar or other time reference).

* In spite of no one ever mentioning deities or religion of any kind in the highly supernatural world of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the wizarding world still celebrates Christmas. Presumably this stems from the series being set in [[UrbanFantasy modern Britain]], as well as the author herself [[AuthorAppeal being a Christian]]. Or rather, that religion is considered a private matter in Britain, and so the characters would naturally refrain from using it to spiel off Aesops.
* Creator/CSLewis was a fairly inclusive fellow. While [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]'s creator Aslan is indisputably Jesus Christ as a huge talking lion, the world is also populated with various mythical figures. In later books, we would see Triton, Bacchus, and Silenus and their various nymph daughters tending to parts of the world. But in [[Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe the first book]], many was the child delighted to learn that [[strike:Santa Claus]] Father Christmas visited Narnia as well as Earth for Christmas. The Narnians certainly had no complaints.

[[folder:Radio]]
* Tune in to Top 40, adult contemporary, or sometimes even rock stations come December ([[ChristmasCreep or November]]), and it's not uncommon to hear vintage ChristmasSongs from artists (such as pre-1960s pop, jazz, country, MOR, and adult standards artists) who would be laughed off the air at those stations at any other time of the year. To wit: playing artists like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, the Carpenters, Leroy Anderson, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Burl Ives, Gene Autry, Andy Williams, the Ray Conniff Singers, etc. (or even "oldies" rock and roll acts like Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys) would get you fired and blacklisted from the industry if played on a hard/AOR rock station under normal circumstances. But their Christmas stuff tends to get a pass.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'''s Christmas episode of the third season had Rachel, who is very vocally Jewish, greedily demanding Christmas gifts from her boyfriend and eventually learning the "true meaning of Christmas" after having a bible verse about Jesus read to her during a Christmas special the Glee club is shooting. Her Judaism is not mentioned until literal last second of the episode as the camera is pulling away and Rachel throws out a "Happy Hanukkah" that is essentially lost in the shuffle of the other noise going on.

* On ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'', there's a DoubleSubversion. Boots asks Dora if Swiper would swipe on Christmas; Dora tells Boots not to let his guard down. She turns out to be right, but once Swiper is told that he just swiped a present meant for Santa Claus, [[SwiperNoSwiping he gives it back, and scampers off in peace]].

* ''Anime/{{Kamichu}}'' subverts this when the [[PatrioticFervor rather jingoistic and culturally supremacist]] {{Miko}} Matsuri would [[MisplacedNationalism rather it not be Christmas Time]].

* Subverted in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Comparative Religion". Shirley plans an overtly religious Christmas party for the group, but learns that the others are all non-Christian. In the end they share a decidedly secular, inclusive holiday together. [[AnAssKickingChristmas By attempting to beat the crap out of Star-Burns and his friends.]]

* ''Peter Pan Live'', unlike its source material, finds the Darling nursery decorated for Christmas, but the decorations aren't acknowledged. It's especially weird in this case, because, also unlike in the source material, there isn't a section of Neverland which represents the season of winter.

* Tune in to Top 40, adult contemporary, or sometimes even rock stations come December ([[ChristmasCreep or November]]), and it's not uncommon to hear vintage ChristmasSongs from artists (pre-1960s pop, MOR, and adult standards artists) that would be laughed off the air at those stations at any other time of the year. To wit: playing artists like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, the Carpenters, Leroy Anderson, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Burl Ives, Gene Autry, Andy Williams, the Ray Conniff Singers, etc. (or even "oldies" rock and roll acts like Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys) would get you fired and blacklisted from the industry if played on a hard/AOR rock station under normal circumstances. But their Christmas stuff tends to get a pass.

* ''Anime/{{Kamichu}}'' subverts this when the [[PatrioticFervor rather jingoistic and culturally supremacist]] {{Miko}} Matsuri would [[MisplacedNationalism rather it]] ''[[MisplacedNationalism not]]'' [[MisplacedNationalism be Christmas Time]].

* Music/TomLehrer mocked this trope with his song "A Christmas Carol":
-->On Christmas Day you can't get sore,
-->Your fellow man you must adore,
-->There's time to rob him all the more
-->The other three hundred and sixty-four.

* Surprisingly pops up on a Christmas episode of ''{{Animaniacs}}'', with Yakko, Wakko, and Dot (who, frankly, often come across as AmbiguouslyJewish) time-traveling to Bethlehem in the year 6 B.C. to visit the Baby Jesus - and ultimately perform a 1940s swing version of "The Little Drummer Boy." Very strange, since in the episode where Wakko temporarily "died," he found himself banished to [[TheNothingAfterDeath a very lonely, barren underworld]] unlike anything described in Christianity.

Compare and contrast with SantaClausmas, EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas, DidIMentionItsChristmas and TwistedChristmas. Averted hard by TheGrinch.

* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Part I, Harry and Hermione teleport to Godric's Hollow, Harry's birthplace, to find out more clues on their quest. When they arrive, snow is on the ground and "fairy lights" (as they are called in the UK) are in people windows, and sounds of song and celebration are coming from various houses. Hermione turns to Harry and says, "I think it's Christmas Eve." (They had been traveling for months with no calendar or other time reference.)

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' Hogswatch-time fic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5598298/17/Il-se-passait-au-nuit-du-P%C3%A8re-Porcher Il se Passait au nuit de Pere Porcher]]'', where a lot of Christmas conventions and clichés are gleefully sent up, the final chapter is called ''Do They know It's Hogswatchnight in Howondaland?'' The titular Band Aid song is spoofed in a Discworld context, through the agency of a character from "Rimwards Howondaland" who is asked this very question. She is from a farming family, and replies using the lyrics of the song...

** The novel "Sourcery," Small God's Eve, when the Archchancellor is elected, is the one day in the year when wizards are not actively trying to kill brother wizards.