This is the third episode of the ninth season of Rugrats (1991).
The special opens on Christmas Eve at the Pickles' residence (presumably at least one year after "The Santa Experience"), where some Christmas Carolers are singing outside, much to the confusion of Tommy and his friends. Eventually, Angelica and her parents show up, having rented a limo; they and the other families are going to Christmasland, a Yuletide-themed park that Stu has designed, located in front of Charlotte's company headquarters. Angelica approaches the babies, who explain that they're trying to think of something special to do for Dil's first Christmas. Being the brat she is, Angelica says that presents are the only things that make Christmas special, and Santa Claus, who they're going to see at Christmasland tonight, gives out the best ones.
Later, the Rugrats' families all arrive at the Christmasland park. Angelica insists to the babies that she's going to see Santa first, believing that she's been good all year and deserves the best presents. She then further puts pressure on the babies by telling them that Dil will never get to celebrate Christmas again if he doesn't get anything good this year. As Angelica goes looking for Santa Claus, Stu shows the other parents the control room and the security cameras monitoring all the pavilions in the park, including an animatronic Nutcracker show and a life-size Nativity display with a petting zoo. Stu also reveals that each pavilion has its own snow-making machine. The parents then head off to the artificial 19th century pioneer cabin via train, except for Grandpa Lou, who stays behind to watch the kids (and naturally falls asleep almost immediately). Angelica spies one of the "elves", named Hermey, heading for the employee break room and figures that's where Santa is hiding. Making her cousins and their friends stay behind, the babies then devise a plan to make Dil's first Christmas great by waiting in Santa's chair to find the presents.
Meanwhile, the Rugrats' parents are all exploring and listening to the animatronic pioneers singing in the cabin. But unbeknownst to them, one of the rubber bands in the control panel Stu designed (obviously having not learned his lesson from the giant Reptar robot he built for Euro Reptar-land) slips loose, causing the snow-making machines outside the cabin to unleash a blizzard's worth of snow, trapping the adults inside. Angelica barges into the break room and meets the man hired to play Santa, rattling off her Christmas wish list to him. The Santa actor, who's pretty reluctant to listen to her demands, gives her a plush reindeer toy. This does not please Angelica, whose ungrateful attitude only irritates the Santa actor further. Eventually, the actor grows so sick of Angelica's obnoxiousness that he throws the hat off and quits the job before being chased away by a goat. The babies, seeing "Santa" quit, are devastated at this, with Tommy believing now his little brother has no chance of getting to celebrate Christmas again.
Back at the cabin, Charlotte turns off the singing animatronics and Lulu wonders where the Christmas spirit is. Charlotte said that she and the adults need to leave the cabin for her company's Christmas party. However, Betty, Didi, Drew, and the other adults find the door jammed and they were Snowed-In at the cabin just as Drew blames Stu for this. Outside, the babies are still upset because of "Santa" quitting and Kimi however then points out that when "Santa" left, he didn't take his bag of toys with him, so perhaps their Christmas presents are still around. Angelica, listening in on the babies' conversation, figures that Santa's workshop must be around here as well, and figures that she can get the toys she wants there. She then tricks the babies into believing that the North Pole is in the opposite direction they were about to go, before going to the workshop herself, bringing along her reindeer plush, whom she names "Prancy". Lou wakes up from his nap and notices the kids have gone missing, though when he sees a cup of hot cocoa that Tommy left behind for him, he assumes that Lulu came back to get the kids. Meanwhile, the adults fail to get the door open and fret over the fact that they may be stuck inside this cabin for days and are separated from their kids, while Charlotte complains that she's missing her company's Christmas party because of this. However, Lou's wife Lulu tells them that they should try to make the best of this situation, and they start decorating the cabin interior for a Christmas party of their own. The babies, in the meantime, do not get very far in trying to find Santa's workshop when Chuckie comes upon a giant walnut and they find themselves face-to-face with the giant animatronic Nutcracker.
In the second part, Angelica is walking when some people in a sleigh rode past her and one of them loses his snow hat in front of her so she just decides it’s hers now, even though that hat shouldn’t really fit her. Then she jumps into a group of carolers singing her rendition of ‘Joy to the World’ where she inserts herself as the "I Want" Song. Back with the babies, the babies back away from the animatronic Nutcracker as Chuckie thinks he doesn't look to happy to see them only to bump into the robotic Mouse King and his henchmice. Kimi charges into battle against the mice, with Chuckie trying to protect her, eventually knocking a jingly bell off of one of the mice in the process, while Dil grabs the tail on one of the mice and gets his stroller pulled by said mouse. During this, Phil and Lil grab a shoe and a ribbon from the dancing cardboard ballerina. As Lou for the time being goes to catch up with the others, he comes upon Hermey dealing with a line of impatient kids and their parents waiting to see Santa. Lou, seeing the problem, volunteers to play Santa for the kids himself. Eventually, the mice start firing cannonballs, so the babies use Dil's stroller to slide down the hill (which, from their perspective, looks a lot steeper than it actually is) out of the Nutcracker area while Angelica takes all the free cookies that some other carolers were giving out. As the others slide downhill, they briefly cross paths with Angelica again, and Dil snags a hat that she herself had gotten her hands on earlier.
The babies crash into a snowman after escaping the Nutcracker show. As they try to figure out if they're still going the right way, a goat comes up to them, having wandered out of the petting zoo in the Bethlehem section of the park. Kimi and the twins figure that this goat is lost, and they decide to bring him back to his home, thinking maybe he's a pet of Santa's. Angelica, meanwhile, reaches the building that appears to be Santa's workshop, but the door is locked ("I hope the toys work better than these doors!"). She then breaks down the door and, from her perspective, sees a fully-fledged toy workshop. One of the elves, Hermey (who now appears to be a real elf) appears before her and asks what she's doing here. Angelica says she's here to get the presents she's expecting and claims that she's been good all year. Hermey, however, checks the nice list and says her name isn't on it, saying she shouldn't have scared off the carolers, taken the cookies, or lied to her friends. Angelica then sees that Prancy has seemingly turned into a real talking reindeer, who is feeling really hurt by how much Angelica insulted him earlier. Hermey and Prancy then take part in a musical number, telling Angelica that she should "treat each day like Christmas". This finally puts the true Christmas spirit in Angelica, and she promises to change her ways. She then sees that Hermey has suddenly disappeared (indicating that the previous sequence was all in her mind), but she takes his lesson to heart.
Back with the adults, they are now enjoying the rustic charm of the cabin and having a nice Christmas together all doing various things like baking, making popcorn garland, decorating the tree and doing origami. After Lulu puts the angel on top of their tree, Didi appreciates their own fun when Chas accidentally sets his popcorn pan on fire, setting off the sprinkler system and soaks everyone and everything. With Lou, he takes up the Mall Santa role since the previous one quit, and pathetically dresses up for the job with nothing but his regular attire plus a Santa hat and a beard that is way too loose-fitting. While he admires a crying child, Lou has gotten word that six babies are riding a goat to the nativity scene so he gives the child to Hermey and rushes out on a horse-drawn sleigh to retrieve them.
The babies on the other hand bring the goat to the petting zoo to reunite him with his family, and notice that this place doesn't look like the North Pole. The babies then walk into the nearby Nativity display and notice the baby Jesus in the manger. Feeling sorry for the baby, the Rugrats each give him a gift - Chuckie, Kimi, and the twins all give him the respective things they picked up in the Nutcracker show, and Tommy and Dil give him the hat that Dil got from Angelica earlier. This display of affection causes the Jesus figure, who previously had a neutral expression, to now have a smile on his face. Lou then drives up to pick up the kids, as he thought they were with Lulu all along.
While the adults (now dressed in pioneer clothing) sing "Deck the Halls", Lou pulls up in front of the still snowed-in cabin, hearing Lulu playing the piano inside, and starts digging the snow away. As he does, the babies lament the fact that they never did find Santa's presents for them, but Chuckie says they had a good time trying to find Santa's workshop anyway, and he's learned that maybe that's the kind of thing that makes Christmas special. Angelica then shows up with a bag of gifts that she found inside "Santa's workshop" and presents them to the babies - a new snowsuit for Chuckie, a glockenspiel for Kimi, a new pair of shoes for Phil, and a magic princess wand for Lil. She also gives Prancy to Dil. Tommy doesn’t want to open his gift because he states that he already got one which is to have Dil's first Christmas ever and since Angelica doesn’t have a gift, Tommy decides to give it to her. However, Angelica rejects his gift and tells him to open it before Tommy finally does so to reveal a toy camera (perhaps Foreshadowing his future ambition for film-making in All Grown Up!). Afterward, Lou brings the kids inside to reunite with their parents, who have come to enjoy the time they spent together in the cabin (with Charlotte admitting that she hadn't really wanted to go to her company's party anyway). The special ends on Lou and Lulu singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as the families watch them and the camera pans up into the sky to show the real Santa Claus flying in his sleigh.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Christmasland's Santa Claus actor is voiced by Jim Belushi, who also played a Mall Santa in Jingle All the Way.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Hermie asks Angelica why she lied to Tommy about Dil never getting another Christmas if he doesn’t get to see Santa. And, of course, she doesn’t have a good answer.
- Blatant Lies: Angelica lies to the babies that if Dil doesn't visit Santa, he'll never get another Christmas.
- Christmas Episode: It’s Dil’s first Christmas and the babies want to make it extra special.
- Commercialized Christmas: The Pickles and their family and friends spend Christmas Eve at Mega Corp’s “Christmasland” theme park.
- Don't Look Down: When Chuckie’s being spun high up in the air while stuck on one of the mouse knight’s swords, Kimi tells him not to look down.Chuckie: Kinda hard not to when you’re not upside up!
- Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: Even Phil!Phil: Why would you mess up cake with green chewy things?
- Extra-Long Episode: This is a two-parter episode.
- Fantasy Sequence: The babies imagine that they’re caught in the middle of a battle between a giant nutcracker and an army of mouse knights, but in reality it’s just an animatronics show based on The Nutcracker.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: The episode takes this shift throughout the entire story, following Tommy and his friends, the adults, Angelica, and Lou all making their own efforts to have a good Christmas, giving equal time to each group up until the last scene when they all converge in the cabin.
- Gasp!: The babies all gasp when Santa tells Angelica she deserves a spanking.
- Heel–Face Turn: Angelica after Hermey teaches her a lesson about being good all year through song and he finds that she is not on the nice list.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Angelica when she’s singing her own "I Am Great!" Song to the tune of “Joy to the World”.Angelica: Joy to the world, that I have come!
- Hostile Animatronics: The babies confront a giant animatronic nutcracker and get attacked by the robotic mouse king and his mouse army.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Angelica says she’s been good all year so she’s sure to get lots of presents from Santa, right before she shoves past the babies and goes to look for cookies to steal.Phil: She must’ve been good all the times we wasn’t looking.
- Mall Santa: Angelica makes one quit, but luckily Lou stands in for him.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: When Angelica breaks into Santa’s workshop, she sees it filled with elves making toys and Prancy appears as a real, talking reindeer. Hermie sings her a song about treating every day like Christmas, making her realize she needs to change her bratty behavior. However when she blinks, the workshop is once again filled with animatronics and Prancy is back to being a toy. The only evidence that it may not have been her imagination is the elf hat on the floor in front of her and Prancy, who had originally been thrown across the room during her fall, now sitting next to a big bag of toys.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Two of these:
- Angelica goes to the park’s Santa to demand her gifts from him, only for him to give her a lame reindeer toy. She then goes on a rampage, terrorizing Santa to the point of making him quit. This scares the babies into thinking Christmas is canceled and sets off the events of their plot.
- Because of Stu’s shoddy paper-clip-and-rubber-band workmanship, his snow machine malfunctions and traps the adults in a cabin.
- Over The Top Christmas Decorations: Rather, Over-the-Top Hanukkah Decorations. Stu appears to have put a giant light-up driedel on top of the Pickles' house. Unsurprisingly considering it was made by Stu, it promptly falls over as the family drives away.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The episode ends with a pan up to a full moon as Santa flies by.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Lou dresses up as Santa, consisting of nothing but a Santa hat and a fake beard.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: When Kimi is fighting the mouse animatronics, Chuckie tells her she should be careful and play with toys her own size.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: A reference to Babes in Toyland.
- Running Gag: The babies keep smelling something and Phil, thinking they mean him, blames it on the fruit cake he ate at the beginning of the episode.
- Santa Ambiguity: At the end of the episode, Santa flies by in his sleigh with presents trailing behind him.
- Selfless Wish: All Tommy wanted as a gift was for Dil to have a good first Christmas.
- Senior Sleep-Cycle: Lou, as usual. He’s about to tell the babies about what Christmas was like when he was a kid, and immediately falls asleep. He eventually wakes to think that Lulu came and picked them up, leaving him a cup of cocoa like she promised.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Santa ends up quitting after Angelica argues with him. Later on, a few carolers run off from Angelica’s off key singing.
- Shout-Out: The head elf Hermie has the same name as the aspiring dentist elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
- Snowed-In: The adults get trapped and snowed in at the cabin, due to Stu's snow machine malfunctioning.
- Special Guest: James Belushi as the park’s Santa Claus and Paul Reubens as Hermey the elf.
- Splitting Pants: Chuckie finally gets free from the animatronic he’s caught on, but he rips the back of his snowsuit in the process which reveals his Reptar-print undies.
- Subbing for Santa: Grandpa Lou fills in as the Mall Santa after the park Santa quits his job. Subverted when the real Santa appears at the very end.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Throughout the episode, the babies collect different items that they grow to treasure. When they come across a Nativity scene, they notice that the baby Jesus is cold and alone on Christmas and give him all of their treasures to make him happy. At the end of the episode, Angelica (or possibly Santa) gives them all better versions of the things they gave away.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Santa, who only took this job as a favor, quits after getting sick of putting up with Angelica and throws his Santa hat to the ground.
- Telepathic Sprinklers: Chas was popping popcorn but he inadvertently sets it on fire, thus turning on the sprinklers and everyone got their clothing wet, thus they had to change to pioneered ones.
- True Meaning of Christmas: Everyone, babies and grown-ups alike, learn that Christmas isn’t about presents or materialistic things, but about spending time with the people you love.
- Waxing Lyrical: In the beginning of the episode, the babies think Dil is crying because of the carolers singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (the real reason shows that one of the pet dogs Spiffy took his gingerbread cookie) and Phil states that they won’t stop until they get some figgy pudding. Tommy plans to give the carolers pudding so they can leave and when asked if they don’t have any, he said that they’ll give them butterscotch pudding.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown what happened to Hermey after Lou gives a crying child to him as he goes to pick up the babies.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Angelica gets one for not being on the nice list for the year due to many other bad things she has done in the episode when she tries to talk to Hermey in Santa's workshop.
- When I Was Your Age...:Lou: You kids can keep all your high-tech holiday hoopla. In my day, all you needed for Christmas was Bing Crosby, a comfy chair, and a hot cup of cocoa.
