"Santa Claws, I am Hawk Moth. They wrongly accused you of being a supervillain, so that's what you'll get to be from now on! In exchange, since I've been good enough all year round, I'm going to ask you for two gifts — Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous!"
— Hawk Moth
It's Christmas time in Paris! Marinette is enjoying her time in the bakery, but it's Adrien's first Christmas without his mom. His father's hands off approach to parenting leads Adrien to go out as Cat Noir, and unable to return home before his dad finds him missing. Unsure if he is lost or kidnapped, his class tries to find him, but Santa Claus finds him first. Ladybug thinks this is an Akuma Santa, and before she can properly apologize, Santa is Akumatized for real. Now Ladybug and Cat Noir must rush and stop Santa Claws from ruining Christmas for all of Paris.
Tropes:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When Santa introduces himself to Gabriel, the latter replies by claiming he's the Easter bunny.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Adrien is the only one who Santa Claws doesn't want to hurt because he gave him a present.
- Chekhov's Gun: The cardboard cutout of Ladybug from beginning of the episode is used to trick Santa Claws.
- Christmas Special: It's even its official name on Netflix.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Adrien. Like his other Day in the Limelight episode, "Simon Says", he uses Cataclysm to destroy the akumatised item.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Ladybug finds evidence of a missing Adrien and a Cataclysm-destroyed poster board nearby. Her conclusion is that Cat Noir protected Adrien from an Akumatized supervillain. The truth is that Adrien and Cat Noir are the same person.
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Both Alya and her father (the latter of whom is wearing a bright pink one) when searching for Adrien.
- Fartillery: The green cloud Santa Claws and his reindeer exude apparently smells, on account of Ladybug's reaction to it.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: You can see Otis spending Christmas with Alya's family at one point.
- Friendly Enemy: Marinette is not above wishing Merry Christmas to Sabrina. Her Christmas truce with Chloé isn't as honest, though.
- Gale-Force Sound: Marinette and Chloé angrily singing "Merry Christmas" to each other shakes the entire bakery.
- Genius Bonus: The poster of himself that Adrien destroys to use up his cataclysm is advertising a perfume called Imago, which is the entomological term for the final, adult stage of the life history of a winged insect, and as such is presumably the allusion to butterflies that it’s meant to evoke in universe. However it is also a term used in psychoanalysis to refer to an idealized image of a person, usually a parent, formed in childhood and persisting unconsciously into adulthood. Adrien has just stopped himself from cataclysming the Christmas tree because of a mental flash of the image of his mother. Conversely, he picks the doubtless familiar poster to cataclysm after looking around briefly and rejecting other options such as the bus shelter. We see the cataclysm discharge in close up as it strikes between the image of Adrien and the perfume bottle, which has a label which reads IMAGO GABRIEL. An unconscious acknowledgement by Adrien that his perception of his father is missing the whole picture?
- The butterfly theme-naming could be considered Foreshadowing of Hawk Moth's identity.
- The Grinch: Adrien for a brief moment but as noted under in Percussive Therapy, he can't bring himself to go through with it.
- Incoming Ham: Santa Claws makes his entrance with a hammy evil song and an exploding gift full of pests every time he enters a building.
- Kids Are Cruel: Two kids maliciously pelt Santa Claus with snow balls and their father has to force them to apologize.
- Lampshade Hanging: Ladybug's song begins with her basically poking fun on how bad she is at connecting the dots that Cat Noir and Adrien are the same person.
- Missing Child: Gabriel, who is aware that Adrien is depressed by his mother's absence, finds his son has disappeared from his room. Naturally, he panics and orders Nathalie and the Gorilla to find him at once.
- Musical Episode: With solos sung by both leads, Villain Song and more.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Once again, Ladybug is responsible for someone's akumatization.
- No Name Given: We never learn the Santa Claus' real name.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Much like in "The Bubbler", Adrien and Marinette aren't smiling when transforming into Cat Noir and Ladybug.
- Trying to destroy a Christmas tree out of spite for other people who have happy home lives is very un-Adrien-like behavior.
- Percussive Therapy: Cat Noir attempts it by destroying the Christmas Tree but the memory of his mother makes him stop at the last moment. Instead he uses up his Cataclysm on an advertising poster of himself.
- Pet the Dog: As one might expect from Christmas episode, numerous.
- Chloé is among many of Adrien's friends who were worried when he went missing.
- Gabriel tries to make up for his neglect and even allows Adrien's friends to join them for dinner, despite viewing them, especially Nino, as bad influences.
- Nathalie reminds Gabriel about Adrien and informs his friends about his return making the above possible.
- Rage Against the Reflection: After trying to destroy a Christmas tree, Adrien ends up attacking his own poster.
- Say My Name: Gabriel ends up screaming Adrien's name after seeing that he's gone.
- Special Edition Title: The opening is a totally redone Christmas version, complete with a different, Christmas-based song to the tune of the usual one.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Played with - Santa remembers that Adrien was nice to him and seems to be genuinely touched when the heroes offer him a gift, but he's not above tossing Cat Noir from his sled right after he saves him from that.
- Villain Song: "I Am Santa Claws", which naturally also doubles as an "I Am" Song.
- You Watch Too Much X: Santa accuses Ladybug of reading too many comic books when she explains she thought he was a supervillain.
