When various imaginary Santa Clauses are brought to Foster's, Mac begins to lose his faith in Santa's existence. Meanwhile, Bloo learns that Mr. Herriman is only giving one present to everyone, and in his typical Bloo fashion tries to make him hand out more presents.
This is notable for being the final episode directed by Mike Moon. Who was a co-developer for the show and directed the first two seasons (as well as the pilot movie) and two prior episodes in this season.
This episode contains examples of:
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption:Bloo: Ohhhhh right. I forgot all about...[Santa walks in through the front doors of Foster’s]Bloo and Mac: SANTA!!!
- Bait-and-Switch: Mac gets excited when he sees an underwear-shaped gift, thinking it’s the gift he asked Santa for, but it ends up being two toy guns.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Bloo is dissatisfied with Foster's custom of giving out only one present to each resident every Christmas. He tries to stage a (poorly done) "Christmas Carol" scenario for Mr. Herriman in order to scare him into giving more presents for Christmas. Unfortunately, Bloo (whilst disguised as a robot) words it in such a way that indicates little foresight on Bloo's part: "There shall be not one present." A couple scenes later, Bloo is sheepishly calling Mac over how his wish has come true: he doesn't have to worry about only getting one present tomorrow, because Herriman threw out all things Christmas in order to take the advice to heart! So Bloo (along with every resident at Foster's) won't even get the one present.
- Blatant Lies: When Wilt is hanging candy canes on the house’s Christmas tree, he runs out and asks Bloo where they all went. Bloo, who has his mouth full and has candy canes sticking out of his mouth, says “I don’t know”.
- Broken Pedestal: In the beginning, Bloo is shown to love Santa. But after Santa gives him coal instead of presents for being naughty, Bloo swears revenge on him.
- Bubble Pipe: This was one of Coco’s gifts from Santa, as she’s seen blowing on one at the end of the episode.
- Christmas Episode: Christmas is almost ruined for everyone at Foster’s when Mac starts doubting the existence of Santa and Herriman tries to cancel the holiday (due to being tricked by Bloo).
- Clothes for Christmas Cringe: Inverted. Mac actually wants underwear for Christmas, as asked for Santa to give him underwear to prove that he’s real, and is very disappointed when he gets toy guns instead. He’s ecstatic to learn that Santa had actually just delivered his underwear to Foster’s.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- When an imaginary Santa walks in, Mac and Bloo both think he’s the real one and ask him for presents. When another Santa walks in, followed by a big crowd of imaginary Santa’s, Bloo just asks them for presents, too, foolishly believing that they’re all somehow the real Santa.
- Bloo describes the plot of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as “It was about this old dude who was like all rich and this really poor family dressed up as ghosts and scared him into giving them a really big goose!”
- Company Cross References: One of Mac's Christmas presents is a book that appears to be titled “The Art of The Powerpuff Girls”.
- Cue the Falling Object: As Bloo is sitting in Foster’s empty foyer after causing Herriman to cancel Christmas, an ornament that was missed falls from the ceiling and shatters on the floor.
- Death Glare:
- Coco gives Mac one when he accidentally ruins her gig as the mall’s Santa, and Mac responds with an "Oh, Crap!" Smile.
- Later, after Frankie says that Wilt has disappeared and nobody has seen him since the afternoon, Mac glares at Bloo since it’s his fault Wilt is gone.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Not wanting to get only one present for Christmas, Bloo tries to scare Herriman with a very poor reenactment of A Christmas Carol, (even forgetting to do the Ghost of Christmas Past), and as the Ghost of Christmas Future, tells Herriman not to buy everyone one Christmas present a year. Unfortunately, Herriman misinterprets this as “Don't buy one Christmas present at all”, and proceeds to throw out all the presents and Christmas decorations.
- The Dreaded Toilet Duty: Frankie says she wants magical self-cleaning toilets from Santa.
- Everyone Is Christian at Christmas: Subverted. Moishe, a dreidel imaginary friend, keeps stopping by throughout the episode to remind Bloo that he’ll be getting eight gifts for Hanukkah compared to Bloo’s one lame Christmas gift.
- Exact Words: Bloo, as the Ghost of Christmas Future, tells Herriman not to give the imaginary friends “one single present”, implying that he wants him to give them much more. However, Herriman interprets this as that he shouldn’t give them any gifts at all and cancels Christmas altogether.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Bloo considers only getting one gift for Christmas a crime and wants to call in every crime-fighting organization and branch of the military to remedy the situation.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Mac is going on a rant about how illogical it was for him to have ever believed in Santa, Bloo slaps him across the face and yells at him to get a hold of himself.
- Give Me a Sign: Mac asks Santa to give him a sign he’s real by giving him a present on Christmas morning, even if it’s something lame like underwear. This then gives him the idea to specifically ask Santa for underwear, so he’ll know it’s from him.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Eduardo says “Es la navidad ser una de las mejores.” Luckily, Wilt acts as a Translator Buddy by agreeing, “This is gonna be the best Christmas ever!”
- Greed: When a mob of imaginary Santa’s moves in to Foster’s, Bloo tries to get as many presents from them as possible. He’s also outraged at the idea of only getting one or two presents for Christmas, and tries to trick Herriman into buying several presents for everyone.
- Hero-Worshipper: In the beginning, Mac and Bloo are both shown to revere Santa, and are thrilled when an imaginary Santa (who they mistake for the real one) comes to Foster’s. However, Bloo sees Santa in a different light after he gives him coal for Christmas.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Santa gives Bloo nothing but coal for Christmas, due to his naughty behavior the past year, and since Bloo got Herriman to throw out all the Christmas presents he bought, Bloo doesn’t get even one present.
- How Can Santa Deliver All Those Toys?: After Mac starts to think Santa isn’t real, he realizes how many things about Santa can’t be explained logically. Bloo then sets out to prove him wrong.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bloo’s response to Eduardo (who’s stuck in the chimney) when he asks Bloo to be quiet so he can sleep:Bloo: Look, Ed, stop being selfish. I’m only getting one stinkin’ present!
- Implausible Deniability: When Wilt asks Bloo where the rest of the candy canes went, Bloo says he doesn’t know…with a mouth filled with candy canes.
- Ironic Echo Cut: Right after Wilt says it’s going to be the best Christmas ever, Mr. Herriman can be heard in the distance yelling “This is going to be the worst Christmas ever!”
- Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: When Eduardo kisses Bloo on the top of his head while they’re both outside, Bloo’s face gets covered in slobber which turns into ice from the cold.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After spending the whole special acting rude, greedy, and ungrateful, and costing everyone their presents from Herriman (as well as getting Eduardo stuck in the chimney and getting Wilt stranded in a flying sleigh), Bloo gets rewarded with an unceremonious pile of coal for Christmas by Santa, and is the only friend in the house who doesn’t get even a single present.
- Mall Santa: Bloo takes Mac to the mall to visit Santa and ask him about the doubts he has about the existence of Santa Claus. It almost works to restore his belief, until he sees that Santa’s being played by Coco.
- Manchild: Apparently, the owner of the Mall thought that Coco was the real Santa when he hired her as a mall Santa. When her beard comes off, he cries along with all the little kids and angrily fires her.
- Moral Myopia: After getting coal from Santa, Bloo swears revenge on him, completely ignoring the fact that he got coal for acting like a rude, selfish brat all year.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Despite Coco clearly being a bird-like creature in a red suit and fake beard (and unable to say anything but her name), everyone at the mall believes she’s the real Santa Claus - that is, until Mac trips and accidentally rips off her fake beard.
- Pet the Dog: Although Bloo spends the episode acting like a greedy jerk, it could be seen as thoughtful that he tried to get Herriman to buy more presents for everyone at Foster’s instead of just telling Herriman to buy more presents for him alone.
- Pun-Based Title: A play on the phrase “a lost cause”.
- Robo Speak: Bloo speaks like this when he's playing the Ghost of Christmas Future, with plenty of “beeps” and “boops” included.
- Sanity Slippage: After Mac learns Santa might not be real, he starts muttering to himself “No Santa” while laying in a Troubled Fetal Position.
- Santa Claus: A bunch of Santas arrive at Foster’s because kids get so excited for the holiday that they imagine them, leading Mac to believe that there has never been a real Santa.
- Santa's Existence Clause: Despite Mac having lost his faith in Santa, Bloo is determined to still believe - mostly out of a selfish desire to get more than one measly Christmas gift from Herriman.
- Shout-Out:
- Instead of Jacob Marley, Bloo dresses up as Bob Marley to scare Mr. Herriman.
- When Terrence is shooting him with a ping pong ball gun, Mac says “Good grief.” He also walks by a red dog house covered with Christmas decorations and a spindly little Christmas tree.
- Skewed Priorities: While Mac is having an existential crisis, all Bloo cares about is the fact that the only presents he’ll get is the one singular gift from Herriman.
- Special Edition Title: The episode’s usual Title Sequence is missing from this episode and the Theme Tune is done in a jazzy Christmas-like style.
- Stuck in a Chimney: Bloo sends out all of his friends to try and prove to Mac that Santa exists. He makes Eduardo climb through the chimney, but he gets stuck and the firemen aren’t able to help him until after the holidays when they can get a specialist. However, that night, something (or someone) “really big and mushy” landed on him and pushed him free.
- Under the Mistletoe: Eduardo ties mistletoe to one of his horns and goes around wishing all his friends a “Merry Kiss-mas” and kissing them on the cheek.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Bloo is so concerned about him only getting one present, despite the fact Wilt reminds Bloo that Foster's doesn't have a lot of money.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Mac claims that last year, Santa gave Bloo a lot of presents, which implies that Bloo used to be nice (or at least less of a selfish brat).
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: Bloo makes a poor attempt to invoke this. He dresses up as three ghosts to scare Mr. Herriman: The ghost of Bob Marley, the Ghost of a Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Future, which he interprets as a robot. It doesn't work. In fact, it makes things worse.
