When it comes to long-running television shows, there's always a checklist of episodes that pop up sooner or later. The most common of these is the Holiday Episode which airs around the end of the year. The most common of these are Christmas episodes, likely due to the holiday's marketability.

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Christmas episodes tend to focus on themes of kindness, generosity, and spending time with loved ones over materialism. The world of animation allows this to be exaggerated in many fun ways, be it through literal mountains of toys or extravagant outfits, all of which add to the emotional joy.

"Christmas Every Day!" — 'The Fairly Odd Parents'

Timmy, his mom and dad, and Vicky dressed for the holidays

When Timmy Turner has the best Christmas ever, he goes to sleep, wishing it could be Christmas every day. Sure enough, he wakes up to relive the day again and again. But as time passes, everyone gets burned out, and a coalition of holiday mascots decides to take down Santa Claus.

Many holiday specials include a plot of wishing for Christmas every day, but what makes this example from The Fairly Odd Parents work so well is its humor and how it expands its lore. There are some good running gags, including Timmy's dad obsessing over eggnog, and Santa's powers are revealed to come from Fairies, who lend it to him every year. The coalition of holidays is also good, led by a disgruntled Easter Bunny played by Robert Costanzo.

"Deck the Mall" — '6Teen'

Wyatt, Jude, Caitlin, Nikki, and Jen sitting on Jonesy's lap

It's Christmas Eve at the mall, and five of the six teenage protagonists are stressed. Caitlyn tries to help her friends by encouraging them to shop for Secret Santa gifts and hang out together. Despite her efforts, tension builds until the teens find themselves locked in the mall.

"Deck the Mall" captures all the frustration one feels around the holidays that aren't often shown in most specials. This includes everything from annoying traditions, demanding customers, and how one bad moment can spiral into an entire day of ruin. This builds up to a nice ending about being thankful for what truly matters.

"Christmas Who?" — 'SpongeBob Squarepants'

The folks of Bikini Bottom stayed up all night waiting for Santa Claus

After learning about Christmas from Sandy Cheeks, SpongeBob gets everyone in Bikini Bottom to write a letter to Santa Claus. However, Squidward refuses since he thinks the affair is silly and childish. Interspersed between this are live-action sections featuring Patchy the Pirate as he prepares his house for the holidays.

"Christmas Who?" combines all the strongest points of SpongeBob Squarepants during its golden era and what audiences want from a good Christmas episode. Amidst some festive jokes, there is a heartfelt story as SpongeBob tries to bring Christmas to Bikini Bottom. The ending also sees one of Squidward's most generous and selfless actions in the show's run.

"Xmas Story" — 'Futurama'

Robot Santa is preparing to shoot Fry and Leela

To help cheer up a homesick Fry, the Planet Express crew decide to celebrate Xmas. When this upsets Leela, who never had a good holiday experience due to being an orphan, Fry intends to cheer her up by getting her the best last-minute Christmas gift. He's warned to be back before sundown, or he'll be killed by an evil robot Santa Claus.

"Xmas Story" combines Futurama's clever writing and sometimes cynical take with a warm emotional core. As Fry risks his life to get Leela a gift to show how much she means to him, Bender leads a B-plot where he poses as a homeless robot to get free beer, then leads them on a robbing spree. John Goodman guest stars as the robot Santa, and his normally friendly voice genuinely comes across as intimidating.

"Holly Jolly Secrets" — 'Adventure Time

Fin and Jake sit around BMO as they watch Ice King's tapes

Finn and Jake come into possession of some tapes thrown away by their nemesis, the Ice King. Since they've got nothing better to do, they decide to watch the tapes and see what they contain. When Ice King learns of this, he does everything he can to stop them before they learn his terrible secret.

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While this two-part holiday is fun and disturbing, thanks to Ice King's video diaries, it jumps into tragedy with the ending. This was the first glimpse fans got into the Ice King's backstory, which shed new, tragic light on the character. Still, Finn and Jake choose to show compassion to their foe and show true holiday spirit.

"A Very Special Clone High Snowflake Day Special" — 'Clone High'

Principal Scudwort's Christmas card showing himself, Mr. B, and his tracking chip.

In this very special episode of Clone High, the clones are excited to celebrate Snowflake Day, their non-religion-specific holiday. To impress Cleopatra, Abraham Lincoln teams up with Gandhi to invent the perfect laborsaving device. Meanwhile, Joan of Arc isn't feeling the Snowflake Day Spirit and conspires to ruin Cleopatra's holiday party.

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This episode works as a beautiful spoof of your typical holiday special. It's stocked with violent running gags, jabs at the commercialism of holidays, and commentary on political correctness, all done with Clone High's unique humor. Finally, Mandy Moore stars as Joan's Snowflake Day Guide, with the jury being out on if it's her or some random homeless person who looks like her.

"Arnold's Christmas" — 'Hey Arnold'

The residents of the Boarding House celebrating Christmas

It's the holiday season at the boarding house, and Arnold has drawn Mr. Hyunh's name for his Secret Santa. When Arnold learns of Hyunh's missing daughter, Mai, he and his friend Gerald head to the city's archives to find her. Unfortunately, the archivist won't help them unless they help him with his last-minute Christmas shopping.

"Arnold's Christmas" is often cited as one of the best episodes of Hey Arnold for a good reason. At its core, it's a story about selflessness: Arnold doesn't want to reunite Hyunh and his daughter for praise but because he wants to help a friend. His act of generosity even inspires Helga, his bully/stalker, and results in one of the most beautiful endings in a children's cartoon.

"Christmas Flintstone" — 'The Flintstones'

Fred Flintstone dressed as Santa Claus with a child

To get money for Christmas gifts, Fred Flintstone gets a part-time job working for Macyrock's department store. After a bumpy start, he finds his niche playing Santa Claus and entertaining children. His performance catches the attention of the real Santa, who is sick and asks Fred to fill in for him this Christmas.

While The Flintstones would have several Christmas specials in its run, "Christmas Flintstone" is the best. This is all because of Fred: the joy he feels playing Santa Claus is felt throughout, and his dedication to making others feel merry truly shows the best of the holiday spirit. This is especially felt when he sings the song "Christmas is My Fav'rite Time of Year" and wishes the audience a Merry Christmas in French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Swedish.

"Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too" — 'The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'

Winnie the Pooh dressed as Santa Claus and Piglet dressed as a reindeer

Christopher Robbin helps his friends write a letter to Santa Claus containing their Christmas Wishes. However, they soon make some alterations to the letter to ask for bigger and brighter things. Pooh is determined to play Santa and deliver all of his friend's requests when the letter is blown south instead of north.

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The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is one of the most mature and emotional shows in Disney's catalog, and this episode is a textbook example of why. The scene near the end of Pooh trying one last time to deliver the letter to Santa, even if it means missing Christmas Day, is heartbreaking, thanks in no small part to Jim Cumming's giving a truly iconic performance. For this, the episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Entertainment.

"A Pinky and the Brain Christmas" — 'Pinky and the Brain'

The Brain is left speechless after reading Pinky's Christmas List

In his latest quest for world domination, the Brain has invented a doll that will allow him to mind-control people. To mass produce and distribute it, he and Pinky disguise themselves as elves to infiltrate the North Pole. However, all Pinky can think about is giving his Christmas List to Santa Claus, much to Brain's frustration.

While the episode contains the usual amount of witty jokes, you'd expect from Pinky and the Brain, the climax when Brain reads Pinky's letter is when this special truly becomes a classic. Allegedly, Rob Paulsen and Maurice Lamarche were brought to tears when it came time to record it. It shows the true depth of the mouse-duos friendship and won them the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Entertainment.

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