In this episode, the last one written by Don Payne before his death from bone cancer in March of 2013, Springfield becomes a winter wonderland after a freak accident involving the nuclear plant and The Springfield Tire Fire, and out-of-towners flock to whatever state Springfield is in to experience a white Christmas, but the sudden tourism causes prices to skyrocket and drives Marge to turn the Simpson house into a bed-and-breakfast.
This episode contains examples of (YMMV tropes can be found here):
- Armor-Piercing Question: Bart asks Lisa if she gave the gifts she gave because she thought they'd like or to make herself feel better.
- Brick Joke: Homer's imagine spot about Jesus starting and running a hotel becomes this when the episode ends with a scene where Jesus charges people $1,000 per night in a manger.
- Burn Baby Burn: Bart burns the book he got from Lisa. He wants to get rid of in a dramatic gesture because she knew he wouldn't like such a gift.
- Call-Back: Lisa gives Bart a copy of Treasure Island, a book that Bart once tried to B.S. through while giving an oral book report.
- Chaos Architecture: Lampshaded. Marge notes that the house’s rec room seems to appear and disappear.
- Chariot Pulled by Cats:
- Crazy cat lady is seen in the intro driving a sleigh pulled by several of her cats.
- In the intro, Mr Burns is driving a sleigh drawn by his signature hounds. (Dogs are sometimes used to pull sleigh in real life, but it's Played for Laughs here as Mr Burns signature hounds are usually sent to chase away unwanted guests.)
- Marge and Maggie look like Christmas elves in the intro and they ride in a sleigh pulled by several greyhounds which is Santa's Little Helper breed.
- Homer's romantic carriage ride through the snow, advertised as a horse-drawn carriage, is actually Homer sitting in a small cart pulled by Snowball the cat and Santa's Little Helper the dog. He puts pictures of a mouse and a cat in front of them to power the cart by Animal Jingoism. There's no place for the tourists to sit and they are supposed to just watch him drive.
- Coordinated Clothes: One couple that stays at the Simpsons wear red-and-green checkered vests.
- Credits Gag: On top of the credits is a montage of out-of-state license plates.
- Everyone Has Standards: Krusty is aghast when he actually pays attention to the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon he's broadcasting to his young audience, admitting that he's never watched one sober before.
- "Good Luck" Gesture: Bart crosses his fingers on one hand and chants that he wants plastic vomit as he is opening his present from Lisa. She got him a book.
- Gift of the Magi Plot: One of the books Lisa shows Bart is Gift of the Magi. Bart assumes that it means that Maggie actually gave him the gift, but Lisa is passing it off as her own. Despite this lampshade, the plot before this is not an example.
- Human Snowball: Wiggum and Lou get themselves into one of these after the former tries to pick up a piece of candy.
- Ignored Expert: The plot is began by the impact of global warming eliminating any chance of snow for the Winter season. Homer states that it turns out every scientist was right.
- Imagine Spot: When Marge asks Homer what Jesus would do, Homer imagines Jesus going to Cornell to learn hotel management, becoming assistant manager at Holiday Inn, reading a book about becoming one's own boss, taking a loan to start his own small hotel and using a miracle to conjure food for guests.
- It's All About Me: Lisa got the family Christmas gifts they wouldn't like, just so she could boost her own ego and make her feel good about herself. Bart calls her out on this when she catches him burning the book she got him, because she knew he wouldn't like it.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While book burning is a horrible thing, Bart was right when he tells Lisa she should have gotten the family presents they themselves would have liked/wanted, rather than things Lisa got for them so she could feel good about herself. Lisa concedes Bart's point.
- Kids Driving Cars: As Springfield's business owners pull out all the stops to get more money from the tourists, Apu introduces "valet parking" to the Kwik-E-Mart with the octuplets as his valets. The results are as disastrous as you'd expect.
- Oh, Crap!: Krusty makes an attempt to try and block the Itchy and Scratchy short on his show, only to realize just how violent it actually because he never saw one sober and throws a pie at the camera to hide it. It backfires when the commercial bumper shows Itchy ripping out Scratchy's spine.
- Overly Long Name: Mayor Quimby keeps getting re-elected because the voters have a hard time remembering his Slavic adversary's long name.
- Paper Destruction of Anger: Bart burns the book Lisa got him. He's angry because she knew he wouldn't like it.
- Pre-emptive Declaration: When Martin Prince asks Comic Book Guy why a robot would need mittens in response to him dressing up his storefront for the Christmas tourists, Comic Book Guy asks him why a nerd would need aspirin and then hits him in the head with a rolled-up comic book.
- Self-Deprecation: According to Comic Book Guy, Bongo Comics are only good for swatting annoying kids.
- Shout-Out: The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon episode shown in this Simpsons episode is titled "It's a Wonderful Knife" and features Scratchy as Geroge Bailey after regaining the will to live. The background features a movie theater announcing "The Postman Always Brings Mice".
- Start My Own: Homer's imagine spot features Jesus being an assistant manager until he borrows money from a bank to start his own hotel.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Bart complains about the state of things "turning crappy", which Marge chastises him for saying. She then thinks this to herself once she pours open a bag of mini candy canes.
- Take That!: Marge delivers one to Christmas songs with more than one verse. She says the songs become confusing and religious from the second verse onwards.
- The Tag: After the credits start, two more scenes are shown. First, Marge uses the blender to drown out the sound of Christmas carols, and the second briefly continues Homer's Imagine Spot about baby Jesus. The rest of the credits then play out, with a Credits Gag on top of it.
- True Meaning of Christmas: Subverted. After Lisa finds Bart burning his book, he accuses her of getting a gift she would have wanted instead. Flanders shows up briefly, offering to explain the true meaning of Christmas. From off-screen, Homer shouts "Shut up, Flanders!", and Flanders goes away.
