With the power out at their home, the Belchers are forced to spend Christmas at Mr. Fischoeder's old hunting lodge.
Tropes:
- Big "NO!"/Skyward Scream: Linda when she realizes she can't carry the tree up to the car by herself.Linda: NOOOOOooooo! [hawk shrieks] Oh, shush!
- Call-Back: This isn't the first time we're shown Teddy is a good contractor but a bad electrician, and the Belchers are lucky his past repair work on the wiring never led to a fire like with Reggie's gazebo.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: There is very little reception at the Fischoeder lodge, so Bob can't call Linda while she's trying to bring back the Christmas tree.
- Crappy Holidays: The Belchers' power goes out due to faulty wiring, forcing them to spend Christmas at an old lodge full of creepy stuffed animals and a gross painting in the dining room. None of them have a particularly great time.
- As this is the first Christmas the kids are spending away from home, Louise worries that Santa doesn't know they're not at home and won't leave them any presents. Any attempts Bob and Linda make at reassuring her fall on deaf ears.
- Linda attempts to bring the Christmas tree in an attempt to maintain a festive mood, but it gets lost along the way, and she spends most of Christmas Eve trying to find it.
- Finally, Bob has to do food prep next to a gory painting that clearly unsettles him, and any attempts at covering it up go awry.
- Dangerous Clifftop Road: The road to Fischoeder's lodge is iced up, making it treacherous to drive on for the Belchers, especially at night. They make it safe and sound, except that they lost the Christmas tree on the way, to Linda's dismay.
- Gorn: In-Universe. The lodge has a huge painting in the living room that depicts three falcons eviscerating a rabbit. Bob tries to cover it up since it's right next to where he's doing all the food prep, but nothing holds. Eventually, the kids use wrapping paper to hide the rabbit, making it look like the falcons are opening Christmas presents. During the closing credits, the paper falls off.
- Island Help Message: The kids try to write a message to Santa in the lodge's front yard. They want to write "Belchers" with sticks, but there are only enough for "Bel". Louise tries to borrow some stuff from the inside to finish the message, eventually using skis found in a closet.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: On The Nightmare Before Christmas.
- Serious Business:
- Linda as usual treats the idea of having a Christmas tree as a sacred right and refuses to leave the apartment if they can't take their tree with them to the hunting lodge. She is naturally horrified when she realizes the tree fell off the car at some point. When She finally finds it Linda tries to drag it up a mountainside and almost contemplates the risk of freezing to death before admitting defeat.
- Louise spends the episode panicking about the idea of Santa missing them since they won't be home, and tries to figure out the best way to ensure they catch his attention.
- Shout-Out:
- The Store Next Door is The Towering Intern-o, tall temp workers.
- The kids joke that it's a good thing Bob can't lift an axe, because then he can't go "full Shining" on them.
- Gene describes a bedroom full of shotguns as "the Elmer Fudd suite."
- After the kids are only able to write "Bel" for their message to Santa, Gene hopes Santa doesn't mistake them for Bell Biv DeVoe or Mr. Belvedere, and Tina hopes Santa doesn't mistake them for Harry Belafonte.
- Stating the Simple Solution: When Linda bemoans the loss of the family's Christmas tree, Louise is quick to point out the many identical-looking trees near the lodge, claiming they could simply chop one down to use instead since they still have all their ornaments. Bob gets very close to actually following through on this before Linda gets cold feet and decides to go back for the original tree.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The usually unlucky Tina snags the biggest bedroom in the hunting lodge (and doesn't let anyone else know so they won't try to steal it).
- Verbal Backpedaling: When picking out bedrooms, Tina finds the main bedroom (complete with a painting of a horse on its wall). She asks if anyone else's rooms have a bed the size of their (the Belcher family's) kitchen, and when Bob and Linda yell back that the beds in their room are tiny, Tina immediately walks her question back then tells everyone to have a good night.
