As the holiday season approaches, Chuckie is dreading another forgettable Christmas. In order to liven things up, he mistakenly steals a great tree (to replace the lame one his dad has picked out). When he discovers that the whole community is after the thief, he hatches a plan to rectify the situation. Meanwhile, Kimi and Kira are stuck in Japan, while Tommy and Dil compose a comedic Hanukkah song.
Tropes:
- Accidental Theft: The plot jump-starts when Chuckie sees a perfectly good Christmas tree next to trash cans on the street and takes it thinking the family is getting rid of it.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: When Chuckie yells at the Mall Santa and steals one of his candy canes, Lil realizes she’s kind of into this new side of him.Lil: I’ve never seen you like this...it’s kind of attractive!
- The Anti-Grinch: The family’s new Christmas tree gets Chas so excited for the holiday that he decorates the house (and the stolen tree) to the nines, bakes a whole gingerbread town, and throws a party with Christmas Carolers as the entertainment. This leads Chuckie to not be able to bring himself to tell him it was stolen so it can be returned to its rightful owners because he doesn’t want to put an end to the one Christmas Chas is actually enjoying.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Chuckie finally gets the Christmas he’s always wanted, but it’s at the expense of an innocent family’s holiday being ruined.
- Bittersweet Ending: Chuckie returns the tree in the middle of the night at the cost of his own family's perfect Christmas, but he did at least finally get his father to appreciate the holiday enough to put in the effort for next year.
- Blatant Burglar: Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Dil all wear black clothes and Suspicious Ski Masks to re-steal the Christmas tree out of Chuckie’s house.
- Christmas Episode: Chuckie is determined to finally have the perfect Christmas, but he soon realizes he may have accidentally gone too far.
- Faking and Entering: Chuckie re-steals the Christmas tree out of his own home to give it back to the Hillicki family and convinces his dad that they’re another victim of the Christmas tree thief. Shortly afterwards though, the guilt causes him to come clean to Chas about the whole thing.
- Gasp!: All of his friends gasp in horror when Chuckie finally admits to being the Christmas tree thief.
- Enmity with an Object: Chuckie starts yelling at the giant Christmas tree in the mall, blaming it for getting him into his stolen tree predicament.
- Failure Montage: As a gift for his dad, Chuckie puts together a compilation of his family’s Christmas home videos, each one of which ends in disaster.Lil: It’s amazing. Twenty years of Finster Christmases on one convenient DVD, and each one more depressing than the next.
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: Chuckie has one in which the family he accidentally stole the tree from are having a miserable holiday and God talks to him in the form of the stolen Christmas tree, like the biblical story of God talking to Moses through a burning bush.
- How the Character Stole Christmas: Thinking all of his family’s Christmas failures are caused by having bad trees, Chuckie sees a beautiful one sitting by the side of the road. Thinking it was being thrown out, he takes it home to surprise his dad. It turns out the homeowners were just setting it there until they could bring it inside their house and Chuckie had accidentally stolen someone’s Christmas.
- Hurrying Home for the Holidays: Kimi and Kira are set to return home from Japan on Christmas Eve, but they keep getting rerouted to different countries and their luggage even gets lost. They eventually make it home just in time for Christmas by driving all the way from Mexico.
- Hyperventilation Bag: Chuckie can be seen breathing into a paper bag while telling Tommy he stole a Christmas tree. He blows into it so hard that it actually pops.
- It's All My Fault: Chuckie blames himself for Kimi and Kira not being able to get home for the holidays because he thinks he’s being smited for stealing the symbol of Christmas.
- Mall Santa: The stress of having ruined another family’s Christmas leads Chuckie to freak out on the Santa at the mall about the commercialism of the holiday.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Not knowing it was Chuckie who was the accidental thief, the rest of the group expresses their disgust at someone stealing a Christmas tree.Susie: What kind of person steals the symbol of love and human understanding? Sicko.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: As Tommy and Dil sing their latke-themed Hanukkah song.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: Appropriately, a reference to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
- Rage Breaking Point: After keeping her cool the entire time she and Kimi are stuck in different countries trying to get back home for the holidays and constantly reminding her daughter that getting angry doesn’t solve anything, Kira finally reaches her limit when a man in Mexico tries to take their cab.Kira: I’ve been through three states and two continents, I’ve been patient through four time zones, this cab is MINE!
- Spit Take: Chuckie does one Phil tells them about the Christmas tree theft that’s been reported in their neighborhood.
- There Was a Door: Chuckie tries to remind his friends that they could just use his front door on their Christmas re-stealing mission, but they seem determined to use the window to sneak in and sneak the tree out.
- True Meaning of Christmas: After spending most of the episode concerned about the materialistic aspects of Christmas, Chuckie finally realizes his dad is right in saying “Christmas begins and ends with family”.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: The guilt of finding out he accidentally stole the Hillicki family’s Christmas tree makes Chuckie run out of Betty’s cafe to throw up.
