Note that in Japan, Christmas has roughly the same cultural significance as Valentine's Day does in the West — so Anime Christmas Episodes can have an additional romance theme to them. See
Christmas in Japan for details. Return to the main page
here.
- A Certain Magical Index: The Genesis Testament series is set in the leadup to the Christmas holidays, with Touma stuck in makeup schoolwork, while Mikoto being taken in by the atmosphere of the season.
- Anpanman: Annual Christmas episodes/specials have been produced for the TV series ever since 1988. The first one produced was episode 12 "Kieta Santa Claus".
- Aggretsuko: A Very Metal Christmas is heavily invested in the holiday's significance in Japan, with a lot of weight put on finding a date for Christmas Eve...plus Retsuko working on her Instagram game.
- Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi's Christmas Episode doubled as a Shout-Out to Ah! My Goddess.
- In episode 8 / Chapter 26 of Asteroid in Love, the Earth Sciences Club enjoys a hot pot and stargazes. The girls of the Newspaper club get in on this, too, dressing up in seasonal costumes.
- Azumanga Daioh had one of these. Complete with Chiyo-Dad as Santa; courtesy of Sakaki's imagination. The manga had two instances.
- The Big O episode "Daemonseed" takes place on "Heaven's Day", a day of gift-giving whose origins have been lost to the amnesiac residents of Paradigm City. At the end, Alex Rosewater says, "Tell me, Chief, do you know the real meaning behind Heaven's Day? It's the day God's son was born." Also, a Humongous Mecha fights a mutant Christmas tree. This could be a subtle subversion, as later revelations about Rosewater indicate he was probably talking about himself.
- The Chrono Crusade anime has an episode where Chrono, Rosette, and Azmaria celebrate Christmas with the rest of the Magdalene Order before they begin their journey to California to save Joshua. The manga follows a slightly different timeline and mentions Christmas, but doesn't have a traditional "episode" per se—the final battle actually takes place over Christmas Eve and ends at sunrise on Christmas Day.
- Crayon Shin-chan had an episode with 3 Christmas themed parts, the first being about a troupe of performers coming to Shin's kindergarten class to put on a play, the second about Shin helping his mother (and her firends) give away some gifts and the third about Shin's parents fretting over how they're going to get their son a Christmas present.
- Dai-Guard has one where the cast attempted to have a Christmas party, but threat of attack forced everyone to wait on standby. They simply move the party to Dai-Guard's hanger and invite the repair and ground crew to join them.
- The Death Note manga had a couple of four-panel cartoons with Light and Ryuk. "Since when do shinigami celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ?"
- Digimon Adventure 02 used the Christmas episode for a Relationship Upgrade.
- Doraemon has plenty of these.
- Doctor Slump has three of them, each with a Bad Santa of its own.
- While Eyeshield 21 is not essentially Christmas themed, the Deimon Devil Bats aspire to and eventually do go to the Christmas Bowl, the biggest game of the year played on Christmas.
- Dr. STONE: Senku uses their newly created lights to decorate a tree as snow starts to fall, Gen then realizes Senku figured it was Christmas, just as Santa flies over the sky.
- The first half of Episode 9 in Gabriel Dropout has the cast celebrate Christmas indoors.
- In later volumes of Happy Happy Clover, the main characters Clover and Mallow discover the story of Santa Claus. But their school teacher, named "Professor Hoot" takes the book away from them and doesn't allow them to read the rest of it. Since he told them that the whole Santa story was for "Grown-Ups". But Clover tells about Santa Clause to Kale's baby brothers, which he would later find out and start ripping the letters to shreds. Clover and her friends then decided to deliver their Christmas gifts to Kale's brothers much to their amusement on Christmas morning. Near the end of the story, Clover and her friends wake up and see presents laying around them home wondering if Santa actually did visit them on Christmas Eve.
- Hamtaro has several of them, the first involving the Ham-hams making sure that Boss has a good Christmas since "Santa never comes to field hamsters" and the second involving Hamtaro playing the part of Santa Claus and delivering presents to his friends, with a little help from Bijou. And it had (at least) three more that were never dubbed in English
- Hetalia: Axis Powers had a special with Finland dressing up as Santa and answering fan mail with his puppy Blood-Smeared Flower Egg. France then hijacks the special and runs around molesting other countries and forcing them to strip.
- There was also one where the Allies and Axis are visited by Finland as Santa, who gives them gifts, and one where Italy, Germany and Japan interview the other countries about their Christmas traditions. In the Webcomic, there's a strip where Britain and Germany call a truce on Christmas and play a game of soccer/football, based on a real-life event. There is an episode in the anime where America holds a Christmas party.
- And then came Hetalia Bloodbath 2010...
- How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?: In episode 10, the cast attends a Christmas party at the Silverman gym dressed in festive attire, such as Santa and Reindeer costumes.
- Episode 12 of I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying takes place on Christmas, but Kaoru and Hajime can't spend the day together due to Kaoru having to work late. So Hajime goes to a party with Kaoru's friends and their husbands. And since she has to work the next day, they can't spend any time together that night either, so it ends with Hajime reaching for a box of tissues.
- Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko: In the Christmas episode, Yoko reveals that she believes in Santa Claus, but Saki says she'd rather receive a gift from a boyfriend than Santa. It also doubles as a Green Episode since the girls visit a farm and are told that if they don't take care of the environment, Earth's oxygen levels will fall 3% by 2020.
- The penultimate chapter of I Married My Female Friend takes place on Christmas. Unfortunately for the main couple, Ruriko is a pastry chef, so Christmas is the busiest day of the year for her, which prevents her and her wife Kurumi from having any romantic plans. Nevertheless, Kurumi decides to treat Ruriko extra-nicely when she gets home exhausted, giving her tender loving care and stew for dinner.
- Episode 11 of Is the Order a Rabbit? starts with a Christmas Marketnote The premise is located in a Japanese town which looks more like a German one, and the main bulk of the plot has the girls and the side characters working at Rabbit House to serve customers during this time of year. Cocoa also secretly gives Chino a present while she's sleeping, but then falls asleep next to her, though Chino appreciates the thoughts behind the gift.
- The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA episode "White Christmas" has Tylor trying to make a Christmas Eve date with Yuriko, only to get sidetracked by a kid whose mother is stuck working late.
- Itsudatte My Santa!: the whole thing is a friggin' Christmas Episode!
- Jewelpet:
- Jewelpet (2009): Episode 38, in which Big Bad Dian decides to ruin Christmas for everyone using a brainwashed Io. At the end it turns out that Santa Claus is way cool.
- Jewelpet Twinkle☆: Episode 39 features Akari taking her love interest Yuuma on a tour of Jewel Land on Christmas Day.
- Jewelpet Sunshine: Episode 38. The first half is about the Jewelpets helping Sakuran do her job as Santa's helper. The second half is a messed up midnight mass, only with a Jerkass Crystal Dragon Jesus instead of plain ol' Jesus.
- Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!: Episode 38, in which Peridot is Santa's helper and instead of reindeer, Santa uses an ice turkey-phoenix thing to get around.
- Jewelpet Happiness: Episode 38, about the gang setting up their Cafe for Christmas, only to have an overeager Jewelpet screw things up. Nene and Mouri develop their romance as a bonus.
- Lady Jewelpet: Episode 38 shows Christmas as celebrated by Petit Ladies in the Royal Palace. Much romantic drama ensues between Momona, Cayenne and Elena.
- K-On! and its manga has one of these.
- The Christmas arc of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War had multiple shake-ups to the status quo. Most notably, Kaguya and Shirogane finally confess their feelings to each other and start dating.
- Kaitou Saint Tail. Interestingly, in the manga, the corresponding chapter had nothing to do with Christmas at all.
- Particularly baffling since the manga does have one or two Christmas chapters.
- Kamichu! has a Christmas episode. Pretty interesting, considering the show follows the daily life of a Shinto Goddess. Although keep in mind that episode had the show's resident Hot-Blooded Miko get offended
◊ about the foreign holiday and invent "Yurie's Year-End Thanksgiving Day" as a Shintoist alternative. - A bonus chapter in Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is set on a rather cold day, in which most members of Organization XIII decided to take a day off against Saïx's wishes.
- Kitsune no Yomeiri:
- Chapter 9 has Kyouka experience her first Christmas when she and Ousuke visit the Yamato household for a Christmas party where they dress up in Christmas costumes, eat a Christmas feast and take part in an obstacle course race. The episode also serves to introduce Aria Yamato, Tarou's younger sister.
- Chapter 21 sees Kyouka, Hinata, Kumi & Aria make a Christmas Cake so that Hinata can use it as bait in a trap for Santa.
- In Kimagure Orange Road the Christmas episode involved Kasuga time traveling three times in order to create a Christmas Eve meeting that didn't leave either Hikaru or Madoka furious at him, due to the Serious implications of a Christmas Eve Date.
- The Love Hina Christmas special focuses on Keitaro and Naru trying to meet up with each other while it is still Christmas Eve.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's:
- Episode 9 is called "Christmas Eve". It starts out like a Christmas episode up until Nanoha and Fate visit the hospital where Hayate's staying so she won't be alone on Christmas. Little do they know that Hayate's the Morality Pet of their enemies and the Mana battery for their Artifact of Doom. What follows is An Ass-Kicking Christmas that lasts for 3 episodes.
- Episode 11 is called "A Present For Christmas", although more than one present is given. Fate gets to meet Alicia, and The Book of Darkness gets a name (Reinforce).
- The first Megami Sound Stage takes place on Christmas Eve in A's, although strangely enough, it suggests that after Nanoha and Fate visited Hayate, they went to training without any further problems. In the sound stage, Nanoha and Fate discuss topics like believing in Santa and what they do to celebrate Christmas, in addition to their thoughts on the current situation.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, twice. There were actually three episodes that took place on Christmas, but one was plot-important and didn't focus on the holiday itself... although it did have a Christmas birth.
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid:
- Chapter 8 had Tohru decide to throw a Christmas party. Due to the anime rearranging the timeline, the party was changed into an excuse for Kobayashi to get out of the company cherry blossom viewing festival. The anime had its own Christmas episode later on when all the dragons performed a very loose adaptation of The Little Match Girl at a retirement home.
- Kanna's Daily Life had it's own Christmas chapter, where Kanna and Saikawa spend the day handing out cookies to people as good deeds so Santa will bring them presents. It ends with the cast having another Christmas party, though neither Kanna or Saikawa take part due to them having fallen asleep.
- My Hero Academia: The anime's fifth season has one appropriately titled "Have a Merry Christmas!" taking place on Christmas. Oddly though, the episode aired in June.
- There is also one in Ninja Nonsense, in which Kaede shows the Ninjas the true meaning of Christmas. Hilarity Ensues. (Honestly, that episode is one of the funniest of that series, hands down).
- Nisekoi had a story arc in the manga that ran from late 2012 to early 2013 that dealt with Raku attempting to get Chitoge's extremely busy mother to spend time with her daughter on Christmas.
- One Piece: The anime had a filler (which went on to become regular filler) of the cast in Feudal Japan with Luffy as a detective. The first episode had a Christmas ending with Chopper, who was vaguely busy all day, being one of Santa's reindeer. Chopper, the blue-nosed reindeer.
- The 28th episode of the PaRappa the Rapper anime has PaRappa work up the courage to ask Sunny Funny to dance with him at the Christmas party, then having to retrieve Sunny's heart when it gets stolen by a witch who hates Christmas due to never being invited to Christmas parties.
- Ping Pong: An unorthodox one, at best. The manga never added any scenes implying Christmas had passed. However, Yuasa and his team made sure Episode 6 changed that. The episode covers material that was in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the second volume. In addition, it plays out how the five prodigies spent Christmas following the first tournament.
- Pokémon: The Series has several episodes that are Christmas- or winter-themed, and the true Christmas one ended up being banned from TV for containing Jynx, perceived by one woman to be an offensive caricature (but not before it got released to video).
- Pretty Cure series tend to have a Christmas episode every year. Starting with HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, they began to be plot-heavy stories that go directly into the finale, whereas earlier ones tend to be something of a Breather Episode before that (such as the girls having to fight a giant snowman or Santa's sleigh).
- Ranma ½ has one with nearly all of the characters appearing in it, at least for a little bit.
- Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth: In Episode 39, the Hidden Leaf Village throws a big Christmas party with many shinobi competing for affections, then the Secret Santa turns into a survival battle.
- The Three Sisters Agency was started on Christmas in R.O.D the TV. The episode shows them sharing birthday cake with Nenene. Another features a particularly heartwarming episode that doubles as a Christmas episode and an Origins Episode for the Paper Sisters.
- Sailor Moon:
- School Rumble: Harima uses Tenma's present for Karasuma as transportation.
- Sgt. Frog had an episode where Keroro plots to take over the world at Christmas while everyone's guard is down, but everyone drops out one by one. Eventually he goes to help Kogoro by dressing up as Santa and giving away Christmas presents (so as to get onto Santa's good list and to get a present for Christmas).
- Sing "Yesterday" for Me: Episode 9 and part of 10 of the anime takes place on Christmas. This being Japan, the event is an opportunity to advance the romantic plot. Haru spends the evening at work in a special Christmas cosplay outfit. Rikuo spends the evening third-wheeling at a "party" with his college friend and his wife, and invited Shinako, though she declines to spend it with Rou. Shinako couches her Christmas gathering as continuing the tradition of spending the day with family (Rou), but he clearly understands the romantic subtext and passes over a party with his friends to try to make a move on Shinako. Shinako leaves early after rejecting Rou yet again and patronizingly telling him to study, and shows up unexpectedly at Rikuo's party. Rikuo uses this opportunity to give her a necklace, a romantic gesture that pushes them closer towards being a couple.
- Shugo Chara!: The show tends to move with the date upon the episode's creation and further release, and, therefore has several ones taking placed within winter: however only a portion (One where Su loses her way home, and upon being found via Amu and her other Chara, Amulet Clover is created for the first time, and one involving Amu strengthen her path with Lulu at her house within christmas, and some more, slightly less christmas focused ones around them.) are more than slight Christmas-related tryings.
- Shugo Chara Party also had a Shugo Chara Pucchi Pucchi 2-parter. The first was Yoru getting snow from Santa, the other is about a Christmas Cake.
- Chapter 28 of Skip and Loafer is set around Christmas. The characters go Christmas shopping, and some members of Class 1-3 go bowling to celebrate the end of term.
- Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle has several of these:
- In one chapter, Syalis writes a letter to Santa requesting a high-tech sleep pod and knits a giant stocking for it. Unfortunately for her, Demon Santa considers her the naughtiest person in the castle, so the stocking ends up filled with coal and potatoes. The subsequent chapter sees her attending the demons' Christmas party and attempting to rig the Bingo tournament because the sleep pod she wanted is the prize. She fails because she falls asleep during Demon Cleric's incredibly long speech.
- The next year, she manages to convince the demons to take her back home... so she can retrieve her winter wardrobe and take it back to the demon castle.
- The year after that, she ends up with another stocking full of coal and potatoes from Demon Santa, prompting the rest of the demons to try to cheer her up.
- The following year shows her accompanying Quilladillo to his family home and celebrating New Years there.
- Strawberry Marshmallow's episode revolves around the discovery that Matsuri still believes in Santa, and efforts to keep her from finding out otherwise, to the point of climbing a ladder to her bedroom to leave the latest Harry Potter book by her bed. In the anime, Nobue wonders afterwards what the point was of delaying the inevitable. (Also in the anime, Miu invents a story in which she asked for such far-out gifts when she was little that "Santa" gave up and wrote her a letter telling her that her parents would be taking over that duty, and to please go easy on them.)
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross both upholds and subverts the trope, as the protagonist and his ladylove use the holiday as an excuse to kiss over a Christmas cake, while there are scenes of the religious aspect — a priest and a (very obviously Christian) church are highlighted in one sequence, implying that people in the city were taking in Midnight Mass just before the Humongous Mecha attack launched by Kamujin.
- The Tamagotchi TV show had at least one Christmas episode every year during its run.
- Tokyo Godfathers, of course, for a unique Japanese Christmas story. It even opens with two of the main characters attending Mass and watching a Nativity scene, and there is a surprising number of allegories to the birth of Christ in itself —the most obvious being the Three Magi.
- Tokyo Mew Mew had a two-parter with a Mew Aqua time bomb on top of the giant city Christmas tree. It also inserted foreshadowing for an event in the Grand Finale that also happened in the manga, but there, went unexplained.
- Toradora! gets a lovely one where all the main school age characters end up alone and probably in tears because they've all been ignored, rejected or rejected someone they did like. Except for Yuusaku. Nobody who's willing to be in that costume could possibly be feeling down.
- Vandread has an entire episode, with the Captain trying to entice young maids with her Santa Suit, a Yule Log, Snow-making Machines, and, oh yeah, machines trying to destroy them hiding in a comet's tail that looks like a Christmas Tree.
- Wandering Son had one where Nitori and Takatsuki hang out with Yuki and her boyfriend.
- Yo-kai Watch: Subverted in one episode. It starts with Nate getting ready to see the Christmas lights with his crush Katie (and their two other friends), but a freak blackout quickly ruins Nate's plans. When he does go to see the lights with his friends, he misses it when he needs to chase off a yokai.
- The third episode of Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Hero Chapter takes place around Christmas. It ends with Fu's friends visiting her on Christmas Eve at the hospital after she got hit by a car a few days prior.
- In an early YuYu Hakusho manga chapter, Yusuke meets the spirit of a girl who fell ill and died while waiting for her boyfriend, Kenji to show up to meet her on Christmas Eve of the previous year, not knowing that she'd been stood up. When Kenji shows up to meet another girl on this Christmas Eve, she realizes that he never cared for her, and Yusuke takes her out for some fun, enabling her to happily pass on. Yusuke then takes revenge on Kenji by pretending to be one of his other girlfriends; when he tries guessing which one, his current girlfriend gets angry after realizing how unfaithful he is.
