Bushroot, annoyed with being screamed at while doing his shopping, decides to disrupt the year's joyful tidings.
This episode involves examples of the following tropes.
- Bad Santa: Bushroot dresses up as Santa while carrying out his scheme. Darkwing also dresses up as Santa (by accident), but only draws unwanted attention when an angry crowd mistakes him with Bushroot.
- Chekhov's Gun: Drake installed alarms in all the presents to go off if Gosalyn tries Present Peeking before Christmas morning. Later on when Bushroot starts ordering all the Christmas trees to steal the presents under them, it sets off the alarm and alerts Gosalyn and Honker to Bushroot's activities.
- Christmas Episode: The story takes place over a single Christmas Eve.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: This episode is one of the only times we get to see St. Canard during the winter season.
- Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: A double example.
- Bushroot complains that "everybody treats me like last year's fruitcake."
- Darkwing hears a guy yelling that someone stole his fruitcake. He wonders who would do that, and Launchpad responds, "I wish I knew. I can never get rid of the stuff."
- The Grinch: Bushroot. His motivation for being a Grinch, though, is that he has great difficulty doing his Christmas shopping and swears to make everyone else feel his pain.
- Hydrant Geyser: Weaponized by Darkwing to freeze Bushroot and his tree army.
- Mall Santa: Bushroot takes over for an actual mall Santa in order to upset people.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Pretty much said word for word. Darkwing says out loud that some sinister force is at work when Brushroot chimes in casually, saying he's not really sinister, just misunderstood. Being one of the more sympathetic villains on the show, he might have a point.
- Plot Hole: Just how did Launchpad and the kids know which houses to return all of the gifts to?
- Present Peeking: When Drake doesn't yield to her claims that she'll never make it till Christmas morning (tomorrow), Gosalyn sneaks downstairs in the middle of the night to get a look at her presents.
- Shout-Out:
- An irritated Bushroot says, "Bah, grubbug."
- The title is, of course, a pun on It's a Wonderful Life.
- After being beaten up by Christmas trees, Darkwing says, in a dazed voice, "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", referring a Spike Jones song of the same title.
- Tongue on the Flagpole: Darkwing kisses a fire hydrant and his lips get stuck to it.
- True Meaning of Christmas: Gosalyn learns that it's better to give than to receive when she gives her own gifts to the Muddlefoots.
- When Trees Attack: Bushroot brings Christmas trees to life to serve as his Mooks.
- "Where? Where?": A child screams, "Eek, a plant monster!" upon seeing Bushroot. Bushroot asks, "Where?"
