When Santa decides to quit, the Titans pitch in to save Christmas.
Tropes:
- Angry Guard Dog: At the first house he delivers presents to, Robin gets attacked by a very vicious, albeit small, dog.
- Animate Body Parts: Robin’s heart is shown with a face and hands as it struggles to continue beating due to all the weight Robin gained to become Santa.
- Brick Joke: When the Titans ask Santa how he got in the tower, he says it was Christmas magic while holding up a crowbar. Later, the Titans suggest that Robin just use some of Santa’s “Christmas magic” while holding up crowbars because he’s too fat to fit down the chimney.
- Call-Back: The reasons that Santa hates the Titans can be traced back to the events of "The True Meaning of Christmas" and "Halloween vs. Christmas".
- Chekhov's Gunman: Earlier in the episode, the Titans suggest that Sticky Joe should be Santa since Robin’s too skinny. Robin disagrees and throws Sticky Joe out of the Tower. Sticky Joe is later the one to save them from the real Santa as he comes flying in on a dumpster sleigh pulled by two possums and a rat.
- Chimney Entry: Subverted. Because the T Tower doesn’t have a chimney, Santa got in by breaking a window with a crowbar.
- Christmas Episode: After they foil his plans to take over every holiday, Santa decides to quit Christmas and the Titans are left to try to fill in for him.
- Company Cross References: Sticky Joe's favorite brand of canned beans appears to be Baked Banes. The label has a picture of Bane from The Dark Knight squeezing a bean and saying, "I will bake you!"
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Raven and Starfire have these after working nonstop making toys.Raven: The life of a Christmas elf is one of suffering.
- Faint in Shock: Cyborg faints when Robin breaks one of his legs while trying to squeeze into a chimney.
- Gross-Up Close-Up:
- On Robin’s sickly skinny body.
- On Raven and Starfire’s hands with broken fingers and splinters from making toys.
- On Robin’s jiggling, sweaty stomach after he gains weight.
- Hard-Work Montage: Combined with Beast Boy and Robin’s Training Montage, Cyborg builds the sleigh while Raven and Starfire build toys.
- Insult Backfire: Santa gave the Titans coal in order to show them how naughty they’ve been, but they end up loving the gift.
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: The Titans Speak in Unison, saying “Best! Christmas! Ever!” when they get coal from Santa. They do the same after getting baked beans from Sticky Joe.
- Medium-Shift Gag:
- The scenes of the Titans getting excited about coal are interspersed with real pictures of miners and other people holding coal. The same thing happens after they get beans from Sticky Joe.
- Robin’s face turns into that of a realistic baby when Starfire points out his lack of facial hair.
- Old-School Dogfight: Santa catches up to the Titans while they’re trying to save Christmas and attempts to shoot them out of the sky with the lasers being fired out of Rudolph’s red nose.
- Saving Christmas: Santa cancels Christmas because if he can’t have all the holidays, he doesn’t want any of them. This means the Titans have to fill in for him in order to ensure that Christmas still happens for the rest of the world.
- Shout-Out: Santa tells the Titans, “Merry Christmas, you garbage kids” similarly to the “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals” line from Home Alone.
- Subbing for Santa: The Titans fill in to deliver gifts for Santa after he quits. Cyborg builds the sleigh, Beast Boy is the reindeer, Raven and Starfire are the Christmas Elves, and Robin, of course, is Santa Claus.
- There Was a Door: To leave the T Tower, Santa breaks another hole in the window right next to the hole he had made to enter.
- Training Montage: Combined with the rest of the Titans’ Hard-Work Montage, Beast Boy trains by working out and Robin trains by stuffing himself with milk & cookies and forcing a beard to grow.
- True Meaning of Christmas: Played with. Raven asks if they’re going to save Christmas “by reminding the world that the holidays shouldn’t focus entirely on material goods”, but she’s quickly shut down.
- You Monster!: Cyborg’s response to Santa canceling Christmas.Cyborg: No presents on Christmas morning? You monster!
