History Recap / TheSimpsonsS1E1SimpsonsRoastingOnAnOpenFire

** Ned Flanders isn't the [[TheFundamentalist "everything-is-religious" extremist]] we imagine him being today. Of course he and his family are shown celebrating Christmas, but all their decorations are of ''secular'' Christmas characters (like Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). In the early episodes, Flanders was just a nice, church-going man who had a beautiful wife and well-behaved children (which made Homer jealous of him). Then came the, well, {{Flanderization}} of Flanders and the rest is history.

* SongParody: Bart's version of "Jingle Bells" includes ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''.

** Right after she comments that Bart "sings like an angel", he sings a Batman-themed version of "Jingle Bells".

** When talking about Christmas miracles, Bart mentions [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Tiny Tim]], [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]], and WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs. This is followed by Homer asking, [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure "Who's Tiny Tim?"]]

After going to the Springfield Elementary School Christmas pageant, Marge asks GirlyGirl Lisa and prankster Bart for their letters to Santa. Lisa wishes for a [[AllGirlsLikePonies pony]], while Bart instead wants a tattoo. When Marge, Lisa and Bart go shopping the next day, Bart slips away to the tattoo parlor and gets a tattoo that reads "mother". Counting on Homer's Christmas bonus, Marge spends the Christmas money getting the tattoo removed. However, at the Power Plant Mr. Burns announces that there will be no Christmas bonus for this year.

After going to the Springfield Elementary School Christmas pageant, Marge asks GirlyGirl Lisa and beautiful prankster Bart for their letters to Santa. Lisa wishes for a [[AllGirlsLikePonies pony]], while Bart instead wants a tattoo. When Marge, Lisa and Bart go shopping the next day, Bart slips away to the tattoo parlor and gets a tattoo that reads "mother". Counting on Homer's Christmas bonus, Marge spends the Christmas money getting the tattoo removed. However, at the Power Plant Mr. Burns announces that there will be no Christmas bonus for this year.

After going to the Springfield Elementary School Christmas pageant, Marge asks Lisa and Bart for their letters to Santa. Lisa wishes for a [[AllGirlsLikePonies pony]], while Bart instead wants a tattoo. When Marge, Lisa and Bart go shopping the next day, Bart slips away to the tattoo parlor and gets a tattoo that reads "mother". Counting on Homer's Christmas bonus, Marge spends the Christmas money getting the tattoo removed. However, at the Power Plant Mr. Burns announces that there will be no Christmas bonus for this year.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here it all began... [[Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow as an independent show, at least]].

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (production code 7G08), also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", was the first full-length episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' to be aired, and the only one to air in TheEighties, although it was originally produced as the eighth episode.

* DasherDancerPrancerAndNixon: The TropeNamer. When Homer is being tested on the reindeer roll call when in Santa school, he accidentally says "[[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Nixon]]" instead of Vixen and "Donna Dixon" instead of Donner and Blitzen.

* IUhYouToo: After hearing the whole story, Bart quite sincerely says that Homer must really love the family to put himself through all this. An embarrassed Homer suggests they not dwell on this mushy stuff and instead get back to the matter at hand.

* EternalRecurrence: Al Jean has said in I reviewed that if he had to end the series, he'd end it with the family driving to the Christmas show at the start of this episode. Having the Simpsons live in an endless loop as the show will be endlessly repeated on TV.

* OffModel: A background animation cell [[https://frinkiac.com/img/S01E01/1309631.jpg was put in upside down]] near the end.

* {{Jerkass}}: Bart, against his own mother's wishes (and ''illegally'', due to him lying about his age), gets a tattoo, necessitating a tattoo removal that drained all of Marge's savings. Then, he harasses Homer while he's working as a MallSanta (which he's doing so the family can have a nice Christmas, because they'd have no money otherwise).

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (production code 7G08), also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", was the first full-length episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' to be aired, although it was originally produced as the eighth episode.

* {{Jerkass}}: Bart, against his own mother's wishes (and ''illegally'', due to him lying about his age), gets a tattoo, necessitating a tattoo that drained all of Marge's savings. Then, he harasses Homer while he's working as a MallSanta ''so they can have a nice Christmas''.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: When Homer is told Santa’s Little Helper’s odds are 99:1, he sees only one of the implications: that 99 times his $13 bet would make a Merry Christmas for his family ($1,287 to be precise). However, this ignores the other implication: Santa’s Little Helper needs to ''win'' for Homer to get that payout, and with 99:1 odds against, such a win is highly unlikely.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: When Homer is told Santa’s Little Helper’s odds are 99:1, he sees only one of the implications: that 99 times his $13 bet would make a Merry Christmas for his family ($1,287 to be precise). However, this ignores the other implication: Santa’s Little Helper needs to ‘’win’’ for Homer to get that payout, and with 99:1 odds against, such a win is highly unlikely.

* CharacterizationClickMoment: Lisa's WiseBeyondTheirYears speech to Patty about how trashing Homer in front of her could have a negative influence on her development. It's the first big break from her characterization in the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, where she effectively functioned as a lesser Bart.