by 
Updated on November 26, 2022
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I thought I’d look at how various characters I’ve written about have “saved Christmas.” It seems to be mandatory for cartoon characters to save said holiday. For some reason, it’s more “endangered” than every other holiday. So, let’s look at how our heroes and heroines have saved the 25th of December.
Doc McStuffins
Doc has her own Christmas special, “A Very McStuffins Christmas.” There, she visits Santa’s workshop to fix a broken Christmas present and save Christmas for its recipient.
Go, Diego, Go!
In “Diego Saves Christmas,” Santa’s sleigh is stuck under a snow hill. Diego’s required to find a very strong llama to help pull St. Nick free.
Handy Manny
In the episode “Flicker Saves Christmas,” a fierce snowstorm forces Santa to land in Sheetrock Hills. Manny and the tools help Santa make his deliveries and save the holiday.
Cyberchase
Cyberspace either doesn’t have Christmas or it’s only a minor holiday at best—Hacker mentions something being “lit up like a Christmas tree” in one episode.
However, it does have an analogue, “Starlight Night,” basically Christmas and New Year’s combined. Jackie, Inez, and Matt save Starlight Night in two episodes.
Dora the Explorer
Not to be outdone by her cousin Diego, Dora saves two holidays from ruin.
In “Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure,” Dora tries to get Swiper off Santa’s naughty list. A trip to the future reveals that if Swiper doesn’t get off the list, he’ll turn bitter and much more villainous. The future, angry Swiper ruined future Christmases by stealing enough stuff to make the Grinch look like an amateur.
Then in “Dora Saves Three Kings Day,” Dora saves the holiday of, well, Three Kings Day (also known as Epiphany).
Ron Stoppable
Ron tries in the episode “A Very Possible Christmas” to save the world single-handedly from Drakken. A day off from heroics was meant to be Ron’s “gift” to Kim.
Things didn’t go as planned for Ron or Drakken, thanks to their bumbling natures. The Possible family end up uniting at Christmas to find, and save, Ron.
The Real Ghostbusters
The episode “Xmas Marks the Spot” sees the Ghostbusters accidentally endanger Christmas when they somehow go back in time and trap the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Returning to the present, they find the holiday’s ruined thanks to Ebenezer Scrooge never reforming. They’re forced to go back in time to set things straight before it’s too late.
Peg + Cat
“Peg + Cat” aired a Christmas episode in 2014. The episode sees Santa both behind on his toy production and stuck on how to deliver all the toys, which require 100 different sleighs. Unfortunately, Santa, the elves, and the reindeer are accidentally sent into space in Peg’s rocket.
Peg and Cat’s solution, with help from Ramone, is to round up the show’s entire cast (down to the most miscellaneous of characters) to each take a sleigh to deliver toys; each character uses a jet pack to fly. Oddly, Ramone is the one character who doesn’t actually deliver toys—he’s busy fixing the Earth’s ozone layer. However, Albert Einstein, another supporting character, does help. (Einstein also appears in his own episode centered around Hanukkah.)
Jimmy Neutron
The show’s Christmas episode “Holly Jolly Jimmy” sees Jimmy try to prove Santa doesn’t exist, taking Carl and Sheen to the North Pole. Jimmy’s forced to try to save the holiday after he messes things up by scrambling Santa’s molecules.
Libby and Cindy also accompany Jimmy and company to Santa’s workshop, though the girls end up receiving the short end of the stick by the episode’s end.
