Christmas

"Christmas" is the fifteenth episode of Season 2 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the fifty-first overall.

Synopsis
The Wattersons run over Santa Claus and must save Christmas.

Plot
It's Christmas Eve, and all the citizens of Elmore are in a festive mood. Many characters wish the viewers a merry Christmas, including the Wattersons, who are driving home in their car. Their high spirits are abruptly brought down, however, when they crash into someone. This "someone" turns out to be a filthy bum that looks strikingly similar to Santa Claus, at least in Richard's opinion.

They rush the stranger to the hospital, with Richard voicing his worry about being on the naughty list this year. He decides to make up for by running around the hospital doing several of what he considers good deeds, but are really him making a huge mess. Richard, being completely unqualified for even the simplest first aid procedures, causes much more harm than good. After blowing up a senior citizen, the doctor finally gives Richard his diagnosis of the situation: the bum is obviously not Santa, has no ID, has lost his memories, and must be taken care of by the man who ran him over. Nicole fiercely objects to having a filthy homeless man in her house on Christmas Eve, but the kids, who believe this man to be Santa, beg their mother to reconsider. She relents, and allows the stranger to come home with her.

Back at the house, Richard ushers Santa in, attempting to make up for running him over. Nicole follows Santa closely, sweeping the trail of grime he leaves behind and covering the chair before he sits down. At the same time, Richard surrenders everything he owns to Santa, giving him his house, his children, and even his wife. At the mention of the latter, Nicole tells her husband to go somewhere else for a while. She then rushes to the bathroom to start a bath for the bum, telling the kids to burn anything he touched with his filthy hands. The kids, still believing this to be the real Santa, try to help him to get his memories back.

They take him to a mall. Anais kicks the fake Santa (Larry) off his chair, and puts the man in his place. The kids figure that this would be a familiar surrounding and would help get his memories back. Anais asks for several extravagant things. The man calls her spoiled, causing her to storm out and start hitting stuff. Darwin asks for world peace, but the man replies that such a thing would be impractical. That makes Darwin very angry, causing him to join Anais in smashing stuff. Gumball asks if he can sit on the man's lap, to which Santa curtly denies, causing Gumball to join the other two. Finally, the man asks for a cookie, and is loudly denied his request by the other three. Now all four of them are ravaging the mall.

The scene cuts to the four of them in the Wattersons' car, angrily avoiding each other's gaze while Nicole drives home. Gumball breaks the silence by trying to bring the group together again. Everyone starts apologizing, and then they hug. Nicole is annoyed by this; she scolds the kids for apologizing to the homeless man instead of apologizing for causing thousands of dollars worth of damage at the mall. She sighs, wishing for a normal family with a normal husband that didn't run around like a maniac for the sake of a fat, fictional man. As she drives away, Richard runs out into the street and attempts to wash the next car to pass. The driver, who turns out to be Principal Brown, stops abruptly, and the tree that was tied to the roof of his car flies off. It hits Rosie's reindeer decoration and erupts into flames, causing her to cry. Richard wishes her a merry Christmas.

Later on, the three kids try to push the bum up the chimney. Nicole then decides to tell her kids the truth. She drains out their Christmas spirit as soon as she tells the truth about Santa. She tells them the story about when she was a little girl and always sent Santa a letter for only one thing she wanted, but over time she kept sending letters and never got her gift and just stopped believing. When she finishes, she turns around and sees that Anais, Darwin, Gumball and Santa are gone. She goes outside and yells that she's sorry. The Watterson kids sing a sad song about Christmas being cancelled.

Meanwhile, Richard is in a neighborhood putting graffiti on a fence and pretending to find it and clean it up, but a police light and siren go off, scaring him. He jumps the fence and finds Santa's sleigh and a reindeer. He believes he can save Christmas and gets on the sleigh, trying to make the reindeer fly. When it does not, Richard smacks its butt and it shoots off. Below the sleigh, the homeless man, Gumball, Darwin, and Anais stop in front of the Wattersons' house and Gumball asks if the man wanted to come in for a cookie. He declines, thinking he had already been too much of a burden. As he is thanking the kids for believing him to be someone special, he is knocked out by a present. The kids look up at their dad, but look back at the homeless man when they realize he was actually Santa.

Santa asks them if it was still Christmas Eve, and when Gumball tells him it was, Santa thinks it was not too late as long as he had his sleigh. At that moment, the sleigh comes down and nearly hits him, but he, Darwin, and Anais duck. Gumball does not, however, and gets stuck to the bottom of the sleigh. Nicole is in the park looking for her kids to apologize when she sees the sleigh. She quickly runs after it. Richard pulls him to the top of the sleigh. Santa tells them to asks the sack for walkie-talkies so he could tell them how to land. After a little trouble, they get the walkie-talkies and throw one to Santa, who tells them to fly with their guts. The two nearly crash, so Santa tells them to asks for some parachutes and jump, but Richard and Gumball refuse because of what that would mean for Christmas.

Anais and Darwin begin collecting Christmas lights. Anais tells Richard and Gumball not to worry and tries to plug up them up, but they're too short. Nicole takes the plugs and forces them together, causing Richard and Gumball to see a runway for the sleigh to land. They are excited, but the lights flicker off and they panic. Nicole tells them not to worry because they were Christmas lights. The lights begin flickering on and off. The sleigh lands and Santa praises Blitzer. He then tells Nicole that he been looking for her and explains the situation: that all of the letters she had sent had been addressed to the South Pole as opposed to the North Pole where he lived. He had been in the neighborhood making sure he had her correct address when they ran him over. Richard apologizes, but Santa tells him not to worry because he would be on the nice list forever for the landing. Richard is pleased and tells Santa he owed him $800 for the hospital bill. Santa ignores him and gives Nicole her present: small plush toys similar to her family.

Santa thanks the kids for believing in him and begins to leave, but Richard stops him and smacks Blitzer's behind again. Some families leave their homes because of the noise and Gumball tells them that Christmas is back on, and they cheer, ending the episode.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Anais
 * Nicole
 * Richard
 * Santa (debut)

Supporting Characters

 * Blitzer (debut)

Minor Characters

 * Hector
 * Banana Joe
 * Tobias
 * Masami
 * Idaho
 * Penny
 * Miss Simian
 * Carrie
 * Marvin
 * Bandage Doctor
 * Principal Brown
 * Rosie
 * Larry
 * Karen
 * Siciliana
 * Quattro
 * Mr. Robinson
 * Mrs. Robinson
 * Carmen
 * Patrick
 * Mrs. Fitzgerald
 * Polly
 * Leslie
 * Martin (debut)
 * Felicity (debut)
 * Billy (debut)
 * Harold
 * Jackie
 * Banana Bob
 * The Sun (card)
 * Banana Barbara
 * Oval Family (debut)
 * Nurse (debut)

Trivia

 * This episode aired in the UK a day before in the US.
 * Brian Blessed guest stars as Santa Claus, making him the first guest voice on the show.
 * This was the last episode to air in 2012.
 * At the beginning of the episode, the Wattersons along with a few other characters break the 4th wall by saying "Merry Christmas" to the viewer.
 * The promo was first seen on CN Philippines as part of the CN Naughty or Nice Christmas Party event promo.
 * It is possible to see Santa's clothes changing from red to brown in the split second the car hits him, hinting at his true identity.
 * When Nicole was mentioning things that didn't exist, she mentioned Switzerland, which is a real country.
 * A rerun of this episode aired on Cartoon Planet's a hundred and fifteenth episode on December 19, 2013.

Continuity

 * This is the second episode to not have "The" in the title, the first episode being "Halloween."
 * Coincidentally, both of these episodes are holiday specials.
 * The picture of the bulldog staring at the sun from "The Poltergeist" reappears as a card next to Marvin in the hospital.
 * This is the second time we see Hector's entire body; the first time was in "The Colossus." The third is in "The Finale."
 * This is the third time Richard wears footwear, and the second time Nicole wears footwear.

Cultural References

 * Gumball's outfit in the episode highly resembles that of South Park's Eric Cartman, consisting of a blue and yellow hat and red coat.
 * The song Christmas is Cancelled is sung to the tune of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Mvt. 2 .

Goofs/Errors

 * When we see Nicole's letters, the destination and return address are in opposite places.
 * When the Wattersons are in their car, Gumball was sitting at the left side of the car, but when the Wattersons hit Santa, Gumball is clearly visible from a right side view of the car.
 * Santa's mouth disappears in one frame when it cuts to Gumball, Anais, and Darwin begging Nicole to keep him at their house.
 * When Richard failed to land on his street, the area is in reverse. The Robinsons' house is on the left side next to the Wattersons' house instead of being on the right.
 * In "The Date," Mrs. Fitzgerald is taller than her daughter, but in this episode, Penny is noticeably taller.
 * Blitzer is spelled "Blitzen" in the captions.
 * The episode was mistakenly rated TV-PG in a 2015 rerun.
 * In the beginning scene where various residents of Elmore are greeting the viewer merry Christmas, Idaho is seen abnormally large.

Other titles
Español (Spanish): Navidad (Christmas)

Français (French): Noël (Christmas)

Italiano (Italian): Salviamo il natale (Save Christmas)

Magyar (Hungarian): Karácsony (Christmas)

Português (Portuguese): O Natal (Christmas)