* AdaptationalDisplacement: People often mistake the film's extra songs as being written for the film when half of the film's plot was taken from the complete version of "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa".
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Did Santa really not know who Grandma was? Or [[spoiler:was all this just a BatmanGambit-scheme to get Cityville, and the world, to better appreciate him by setting himself up as a scapegoat for Cousin Mel?]]
** Grandma refusing to go with Austin Bucks' deal.
*** Was it simply because she didn't want to sell the property, or did she understand selling the business for one big lump sum (even if it was a few million dollars) wasn't a good idea in the long term? Given that the rest of her family (with the exception of her grandson, Jake) aren't exactly a bunch of brain surgeons, they would've probably squandered the cash. She's ensuring her family's longtime stability by making sure they have a place where they can be gainfully employed with a steady source of income.
*** Was it because she was trying to hold onto the one bit of Cityville that didn't belong to him? It was acknowledged that Austin Bucks pretty much owned the entire city except for her store, so was Grandma's refusal an attempt to ensure Cityville wasn't completely owned by some corporation?
** Was Martha at the beginning actually trying to leave with that gingerbread house without paying or telling anyone? All we're shown is Cousin Mel accusing her of shoplifting, and the fact she blithely says "No money, no merchandise" makes it possible Martha ''did'' inform Mel she has credit with the store and Mel, being who she is, refused to acknowledge it or check with anyone first.
* AmericansHateTingle: This special, much like the song which inspired it, is unpopular in Canada, to the point where it had only one airing on a Canadian channel[[note]]Creator/TheCW, its home network, is available in some Canadian cable packages so it can still be watched there[[/note]].
* AngstWhatAngst: The family, especially Grandpa of all people, take Grandma's disappearance rather nonchalantly. Jake seems to be the only one who has a vaguely appropriate reaction and wants to do something about it.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** Every musical sequence, although [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyqlwrEPr0M one]] has the excuse of Grandpa being a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}. The only song that truly has much connection to the story and is actually referred to is the title song.
** The [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial E.T.]] reference that lasts for all of ten seconds when Jake meets the elf in his room.
* CultClassic: Considered nowadays by most as a usual holiday watch when Christmas time rolls around despite its ''very'' oddball premise and being based on a song that was essentially BlackComedy. But the fact that its premise is so off-the-wall is why many like it due to just being so absurd but still pretty funny.
* DesignatedHero: Santa Claus. He really did commit a hit and run on Grandma, and then kidnapped her instead of taking her inside to her family, only leaving a note behind. While Cousin Mel is the villain of the film, she had next to nothing to do with Santa's negligence other then hiding said note from the Spankenheimer family.
* EnsembleDarkHorse: Cousin Mel's attorney, I.M. Slime, due to her LesYay with Mel and being part of the memetic song "Grandma's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa".
* {{Fanon}}:
** Many believe that Grandma's name is ''actually'' [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep "Grandma"]].
** Some believe that [[NoBloodTies Cousin Mel is not a Spankenheimer]], considering how everyone calls her "Cousin."
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
** It may have been random, but there's something oddly endearing about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTZ4Uky2arI Grandpa's song]], wherein his supposedly dead wife is being comforted by deceased celebrities in Heaven.
--->'''Grandpa:''' Grandma's spending Christmas with the super stars\\
Since that reindeer ran her down that fateful night\\
Grandma's hanging out with all those late great stars\\
For the heavenliest Christmas of her life!
** Jake's relationship with his grandmother is very sweet.
** When Santa Claus proves he's the real deal to Austin Bucks by reminding him what he wanted for Christmas when he was six, a Lieutenant Neutron action figure, which for a brief moment, Austin let out his inner child about how much he loved that character.
* IncestYayShipping: [[KissingCousins Jake and Mel]] has a small following.
* LesYay: It's almost impossible ''not'' to think Cousin Mel and I.M. Slime are a couple even if Mel expresses attraction to Austin Bucks.
* MemeticMutation:
** No pantalones.
** The entire "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa" song, really. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91Hm8Hqp0ys Watching it]] is easier than explaining it.
** "I'd rather sing!"[[note]]Grandpa's "[[ThatRemindsMeOfASong explanation]]" for suddenly [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment bursting out into song]] while Mel tries having him sign the papers to sell the Spankenheimer store.[[/note]]
** Calling Cousin Mel an evil, sexier version of [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Daphne Blake]].
* MoralEventHorizon: The fact that Cousin Mel was perfectly willing to poison innocent strangers just to get Grandma to sell the store put her over the line.
* NarmCharm: The voice acting is quite wooden at times and the animation is rather patchy. That's not even getting into the premise coming from novelty Christmas song. Despite all this, or [[SoBadItsGood perhaps because of it]], it's become a classic animated Christmas special.
* NightmareFuel: As undoubtedly cheesy as this movie is, it's still kind of unsettling to imagine seeing a beloved grandparent struck down and then disappear for over a year with no one willing to believe you when you tell them what happened.
* OlderThanTheyThink: In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgIwLeASnkw music video for the song]], Grandma also went missing after she disappeared outside the family home, and the scene cuts to the cops obtaining hoof marks and showing them to Santa (who's in handcuffs), implying her death. [[spoiler:[[DoubleSubversion This, too, turns out to be a]] DisneyDeath, as toward the end of the video, Grandma slides down the chimney to their surprise, alive and well, but also fazed, and delivers her line in the end of the final verse: "They should never give a license / To a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves."]]
* PopCulturalOsmosis: There's quite a lot of people who don't realize that Dr. Elmo has a lot of Christmas songs besides the one which spawned this special. Many of them, such as "Grandma's Killer Fruitcake", appear in the special, but some viewers mistakenly assume they are original to it.
* QuestionableCasting: Some reviewers complained about the fact that despite having Dr. Elmo narrate and voice Grandpa, they did not have him sing either the titular song he wrote or the song sung by Grandpa.
* SignatureScene: Two scenes always stand out to people who watch the special.
** The "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa" song number, due to how [[DisneyAcidSequence incredibly out-of-place]] it is compared to the rest of the special.
** The [[LawProcedural courthouse sequence]], due to how bizarrely intricate it is with legal procedures despite being made for a kid-oriented flick.
* SoBadItsGood: The voice acting sounds, at times, incredibly stilted, and several characters were given actors that aren't well-suited for the part; the jokes and puns are almost always groan-inducing; and the animation isn't anywhere near as fluid as it could have been. Even so, it's really hard to dislike this special, mostly ''because'' of issues with the production.
* SoOkayItsAverage: This special mainly gained its infamy through Cartoon Network going overboard with broadcasting it during the Christmas season. Otherwise, if it's not SoBadItsGood, most people will consider it a fairly average Christmas special.
* SpecialEffectFailure: In one scene in Austin Bucks' office, the man himself appears to be [[https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1443470-quality almost double the size of a normal human in one shot]].
* StrawmanHasAPoint:
** Cousin Mel is treated as heartless and materialistic for trying to stop a woman named Martha from walking out of Grandma's store without paying for merchandise. The problem is that not only did she not know Martha had a line of credit with Grandma and legitimately think she was a shoplifter, Martha was also trying to leave the store without telling anybody she was taking it, so nobody would've had any way of knowing she owed the store for it. Even if she could be trusted to pay the store back, not mandating that customers inform the store about what they're taking would only encourage theft, making Mel seem completely sensible.
** As [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yZC0hKO_qMs Phelan Porteous pointed out]], Mel also isn't necessarily wrong about how Santa should be arrested. At the very least, he should be taken in for questioning since he did basically abduct Grandma. That said, she ''did'' conceal the note Santa left behind explaining what happened and why he took Grandma, allowing everyone to worry about what happened to her for a year and prolonging her amnesia by accident.
* TheWoobie: Jake and Grandma.
** Jake, because his validation in believing in Santa Claus is immediately followed by Santa and his reindeer running down his grandmother. His family stops him from going out to help Grandma, and when they ''do'' let him out, she's gone. This is followed by a year of no one except his senile grandfather believing him about what actually happened, the police are no help, and it's ultimately down to Jake to carry on the search by himself because no one will help him.
** Grandma, of course, for not only getting run over by Santa, but spending the following year with a horrible case of amnesia to the degree that, not only can she not remember anything before the accident, she can't even form memories that last for long.
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