Rugrats: Babies in Toyland

    I don't want to talk about the special this post is named after. Rather, I want to talk about something related to it.
    The idea that if Santa doesn't fly, then Christmas is canceled.
    This has popped up in nearly every cartoon special (made by Nickelodeon). Santa can't fly, and it is up to the heroes to save Christmas.
    First of all, think of the moral of the Grinch: Christmas doesn't come from a store. Christmas happens without the gifts. So why does Santa not delivering gifts ruin Christmas?
    Secondly, this tends to come up in specials where people don't believe in Santa, and when they suddenly learn he exists and he can't fly, they decide Christmas will end. It seemed to be going just fine without them knowing of old Claus's existence, so why does learning about him suddenly make him =Christmas.
     Thirdly... While I don't really agree with the Peanuts when they say Christmas is about the religion (Jesus was born much earlier in the year, the holiday was really only created to assimilate the pagans, it has evolved to be something different and is celebrated by people in other countries where it has no religious subtext... take your pick) they do have a point when they say it isn't all about commercialism.

     This brings me to this post's name... Rugrats: Babies in Toyland. I hate the execution, but the plot does have some improvements upon the formula of Santa no fly = dead Christmas. First of all, it features extremely young children, so not getting presents can be cataclysmic for them, and they whole heartedly believe in Santa, to the point where a Santa's helper is Santa Claus to them. It still features the canceled Christmas thing, but it works a different way... because of Angelica (I don't expect anyone to not know the name of the annoying little girl.) convincing the heroes that if Dil (younger brother of Tommy, under a year old, first Christmas) doesn't get a good present, he will never experience Christmas again.
     I hate to point out to the creators of the special, that Tommy's family is Christian and Jewish, and the show has had specials for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Passover, meaning that even if a temporal anomaly forced Dil to be completely unaware of Christmas for the rest of his life, he'd still have the 50 or so Jewish holidays (That's the number right? I'm mostly just basing this off of how many times John Stewart takes his job off in a year).
     But, this makes logical sense to the babies. To them, Santa quitting can cancel Christmas. However, this doesn't make the special good.


     Just to reiterate the point for anyone in the future who writes a Christmas special: SANTA CLAUS NOT FLYING IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. DON'T DEFAULT TO "SAVING CHRISTMAS."

     The only instances where Santa not flying being a crisis is an okay plot, is where everyone knows Santa exists and is the only reason for the holiday, or if it is set in Japan. The children there only get gifts if they believe in Santa. No Santa = No gifts for children in Japan. If you want to have the Santa/cancel Christmas plot line, don't say it is to save Christmas for the world. Just Japanese children.



This has been Fixer Sue. Next time, something we all dread on the network for cartoons around this time of year... and it involves copious amounts of fruitcake.