In this Christmas Episode, Richard runs over a homeless man that he and the kids believe is an amnesiac Santa Claus, but Nicole doesn't. While Richard scrambles to do good deeds so he won't be on the naughty list, Gumball, Darwin, and Anais try to get Santa's memory back, until Nicole tells them the truth.
Tropes:
- All Girls Like Ponies: What Anais asks Santa for when the kids are trying to jog his jolly memory.Anais: I want four ponies: one for the bedroom, one downstairs, one for the bathroom, and a spare one no one else is allowed to use.
- Art Shift: Santa's Reindeer and Sleigh are 2D while on the ground, but CGI while flying.
- Bag of Holding: Santa's bag will give out any gift you want when you stick your hand in. Unfortunately, it will be hard to remove the wrapping, even if it's the scissors for opening another present.
- Bowdlerization: Some international versions (including UK reruns) cut the part where Nicole tells Gumball, Darwin, and Anais that Santa isn't real after she tells the story of how she wrote letters to him, but never got a reply. The American version is one of the few international versions that has the scene uncut.
- Brutal Honesty: The hobo does not hesitate to call Anais spoiled for her gift requests or say that Darwin's wish for world peace is impractical.
- Christmas Episode: Christmas is endangered when the Wattersons hit Santa himself with their car.
- Coming in Hot: Santa's Plan B for the runaway sled is to have Richard and Gumball take parachutes out of his magic bag and jump out. They refuse because they don't want to ruin Christmas by destroying the sled, causing Santa to utter the trope name as they try to land on the street they can't even see until Anais, Darwin, and Nicole line it with Christmas lights.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Santa.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The Melancholy Musical Number for “Christmas Is Over” is done in black and white.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: It starts snowing at the end of the episode, right after Gumball announces that Christmas is back on.
- Dr. Jerk: When Richard gives mouth-to-mouth to a Bandage surgeon he tells that he's on a break and throws him off the bed while the other one dumps the homeless man on them.
- Easy Amnesia: The hobo's memories are lost from getting hit by the car and another hit on the head brings them back.
- Engineered Heroics: As part of his attempt to get back on the nice list, Richard spray paints the words “rap music” on a fence, pretends to discover it, and then covers it up with white paint. Unfortunately, the cops show up and assume, rightfully, that he was the vandal.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Nicole claims that, in addition to Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Bigfoot, and Switzerland aren't real.
- False Reassurance: Santa tries to guide Richard and Gumball as they steer his sleigh. While he has no idea what any of the instruments do, he tells them that if they can see those they're at least facing the right way.
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: When Gumball and Richard ask Santa how to stop the flying sleigh they’re careening through the sky in, Santa makes sure to first tell them to put their seat belts on. Richard ends up being too fat to buckle his.
- Foreshadowing:
- Right as "Santa" is hit, you can see the impact made his clothes change from red to brown.
- If you look closely you'll see Nicole's letters to Santa were addressed to the South Pole before it's pointed out at the end of the episode.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Right after Hobo Santa says he doesn’t think children should get whatever they want because it turns them into Spoiled Brats like Anais, she is then shown outside throwing a tantrum and kicking a decorative snowman.
- Innocence Lost: When Nicole tells the kids that Santa isn’t real, the light of childhood innocence is shown literally leaving their bodies.Gumball: I think all the innocence just left my body.
- Instant Soprano: Played with. When Gumball thinks he’s been Groin Attacked by a weather vane while dangling off of Santa’s sleigh, he lets out a high-frequency yell. However, when he realizes that it only caught his pants, his voice goes back to normal.Gumball: Oh, wait! I’m okay.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: In a sense. Nicole's disbelief in Santa is normal among adults, but her reason for this kind of falls flat given how she kept sending her letters to the South Pole. Plus, it turned out that she was completely wrong in the end.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The little girl who scams Gumball in "The Third" ends up in tears from Richard's "good deed".
- Luck-Based Search Technique: While trying to hide from the police, Richard falls over a fence and lands right in front of Santa’s reindeer and sleigh.
- Mall Santa: For his New Job as the Plot Demands of this episode, Larry is the mall’s Santa and gets kicked out of his post by Anais so Hobo Santa can be in familiar surroundings that will hopefully get him in the Christmas spirit.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: Richard mistakes Tony, who is in the hospital with his feet up in stirrups, to be a pregnant woman.
- Mistaken for Santa: Richard accidentally runs over a homeless man whom he and the kids believe is Santa. The man gets amnesia, so he can't tell them the truth. Richard then spends the episode trying desperately to get on the nice list while Nicole tries to tell everyone the truth. Subverted, since it turns out that the man really is Santa after all.
- One-Word Title: One of only two episodes without "The" at the start, the other being "Halloween".
- The Pig-Pen: Santa is this when he’s in his homeless and amnesiac state. His clothes are ripped, he’s covered in filth, and has flies buzzing around his head.
- "Pop!" Goes the Human: At the hospital, Richard accidentally makes Marvin's oxygen pump go on overdrive and inflate him, after which an offscreen pop can be heard.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: The kids do this to their mom to convince her to let the homeless amnesiac who they think is Santa stay in their house.
- Running Over the Plot: The episode opens with everyone in town in the holiday spirit... and then the Wattersons accidentally run over who is assumed to be a homeless man in a Santa suit.
- Santa Claus: An interesting version of the character, in that he doesn’t even know he’s Santa for most of the episode.
- Santa's Existence Clause: Despite her whole family believing, Nicole thinks Santa doesn’t exist because he never answered any of her letters. It turns out, she had accidentally sent them to the South Pole instead.
- Saving Christmas: The Wattersons manage to save it, but only from a disaster they almost caused. After running over Santa, they have to find a way to get his memory back in time for Christmas.Richard: I’m totally gonna save Christmas!
- Skewed Priorities: After hitting a homeless man dressed like Santa with his car, Richard is more concerned about being put on the naughty list than any possible injuries the man could be suffering from.
- Special Guest: BRIAN BLESSED as the hobo who turns out to be Santa.
- Unwanted Assistance: All of Richard’s “good Christmas deeds” that he does to try to get himself back on Santa’s nice list.
