Every SpongeBob SquarePants Christmas Episode, Ranked

The Christmas special is a time-honored tradition amongst TV series. It's a great way to see how everyone's favorite dysfunctional families and friend groups respond to the stresses of the holiday season. Who knows? Maybe even Santa Claus himself will swing by. Even though "SpongeBob SquarePants" takes place under the ocean, the show has still found time to show how SpongeBob and friends get festive.

Given the fact "SpongeBob SquarePants" has hundreds of episodes, it might be surprising how few Christmas specials there are. Of course, we're only looking at specifically Christmas-themed installments, as opposed to anything that has a general winter vibe to it, so sadly, the excellent "Snowball Effect" episode from season 3 won't be found here. 

Instead, you'll find multiple tales of SpongeBob trying to help Santa Claus, Plankton trying to corrupt Christmas to meet his own nefarious ends, and, of course, a lot of singing. As you search for something to watch this holiday season with your family, don't overlook the best "SpongeBob SquarePants" Christmas episodes, which we've ranked below.

The longer a show goes on, the more it tends to decline in quality. It's inevitable, as best showcased by "The Simpsons," where even modern writers know they can't compete with the golden era. "SpongeBob SquarePants" has been around since 1999 and is still cranking out new episodes, so it's understandable the crew would be running on fumes in recent years. Still, that's no excusing outright laziness, as shown in "Twas the Night Before Spongemas," which aired in 2022. 

It's a clip show where you get to watch scenes from far better "SpongeBob SquarePants" Christmas episodes, and it utilizes a storybook framing device to go from one scene to the next. It's odd because TV shows don't really do clip shows anymore. It's a relic from a bygone era where a standard TV season had 22 episodes to fill out, TV shows weren't available to watch at home unless they had reruns, and the writing crew needed to save on expenses. Obviously, we really don't need clip shows anymore in the streaming era when you can log onto Paramount+ and watch any "SpongeBob" episode you want with a few clicks of a button. 

If there's any "SpongeBob" Christmas episode to skip, it's this one. It just makes you want to watch the better holiday specials in question.

Yes, for some baffling reason, "SpongeBob SquarePants" has not one but two Christmas clip shows. "A Very Patchy Holiday Livestream" sees SpongeBob's number one fan, Patchy the Pirate, do a livestream to bemoan how he can't be with his favorite undersea critter, SpongeBob, this holiday season. Once more, we're treated to a barrage of clips from other Christmas episodes, which again, you can readily watch in their entirety on other platforms. 

The only reason this ranks marginally higher than "Twas the Night Before Spongemas" is due to the framing device being a little more active. Patchy mostly exists to set up each clip, but he does interact with the comments. If you look closely enough, you'll spot some fun "SpongeBob" Easter eggs among those. For example, at one point Patchy's baking cookies, and a comment comes through reading, "CHOCOLATEEEE!" You'll recognize that from season 3's "Chocolate With Nuts," one of the best "SpongeBob SquarePants" episodes ever. 

"A Very Patchy Holiday Livestream" has at least a little effort put into it. But again, you might as well just watch all of the "SpongeBob" Christmas episodes referenced here instead.

We're finally into actual Christmas episodes, except "Plankton's Old Chum" doesn't have a ton to do with the holiday. Instead, it centers around the made-up Chum Day, as Plankton wants to dispose of all of his old chum, but his usual hiding spots are all filled up. He convinces SpongeBob that there's this holiday called Chum Day, where fish give one another chum, so SpongeBob happily hides the chum (read: various guts and viscera) around Bikini Bottom. Once chum overtakes the city, everyone is understandably angry until SpongeBob fills them with Christmas Chum Day pride, and they all reluctantly celebrate.

It's Christmas adjacent but probably not going to fill you with much seasonal spirit. As far as the episode itself, it gets pretty gross with all the chum gags. Plankton sticks a hose in SpongeBob at one point, causing chum to spray out of all his pores, which is a sentence I hated writing as much as you hated reading it. Although the "gristletoe" (mistletoe except it's a toe attached to chum) is a pretty good gag. 

The best line in the episode is when two fish talk about how the chum tastes bad, with the woman saying, "But the holiday spirit is keeping us in denial." Intentional or not, it's good commentary on how we're all willing to overlook the bizarre traditions of any holiday because that's what's dictated of us. I still refuse to believe anyone would eat fruitcake otherwise. 

We'll get to better "SpongeBob SquarePants" Christmas episodes in a bit, but at a certain point, it really does feel like the show felt it had done everything it could do with the "Christmas special." "Goons on the Moon" only becomes marginally about Christmas toward the end. Up until that point, Sandy Cheeks takes SpongeBob, Pearl, and Squidina to the moon with Squidward accidentally coming along for the ride. 

There are some decent gags, like Squidward trying to find his way around the moon and poking his head through various holes, at one point breaking the fourth wall and emerging from a "SpongeBob" worker's computer screen. When SpongeBob and friends get stranded after pulling the moon out of its orbit, they seek help from Santa Claus, who was on the dark side of the moon, but in the process, they wind up destroying the celestial object. Fortunately, Santa squirts SpongeBob with a water gun, and SpongeBob becomes a temporary moon until Santa can bring a new one for Christmas.

As far as a late-stage "SpongeBob" episode goes, it's pretty good. Lewis Black does a great job voicing Santa, and I love how they try to sail the moon back into its proper place, only to realize there's no wind in space. It's utter chaos and a clear sign that "SpongeBob" is really reaching for ideas when they have to literally destroy the moon. It doesn't read as a great Christmas special, but if you happened upon it randomly, you'd probably be somewhat entertained. If you really want a so-bad-it's-good "Santa in space" adventure, check out "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" from the '60s. 

A modern animated series can garner a lot of goodwill by utilizing stop motion animation for a Christmas special, which makes it a delight to see in season 14's "Sandy's Country Christmas." Sandy's eclectic family visits for the holidays, and she shows off a new concoction: a potion that can make a Christmas tree grow exponentially. The problem is two of her kin use too much, causing the tree to grow wildly, and Santa crashes into it, which means there will be no festivities in Bikini Bottom. 

There's a Christmas class somewhere in "Sandy's Country Christmas." You have the theme of family right there with Sandy's folks who play a role in ruining Christmas as it were. But there's been no shortage of Christmas specials about how gifts aren't supposed to be the reason for the season. Sandy, SpongeBob, and Sandy's family put it upon themselves to deliver Santa's presents themselves, which really shouldn't be necessary. It could've been a more impactful finale if Sandy turned her back on her family at some point only to come around and realize your family is what matters most this time of year. It could've even copied "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," with everyone in town coming to the same realization that none of them need gifts, and they just need to be there for one another. 

Still, you can't toss this episode out entirely because the stop motion truly is beautiful. And it has fun with the new medium, like a moment where a SpongeBob puppet spins around with fireworks. Some neat visuals help salvage a story that could've used a bit more tinkering. 

SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton get to go on a "Family Guy"-style "Road To" episode with season 13's "SpongeBob's Road to Christmas." SpongeBob wants to give Santa a present for a change, but he doesn't see it on Christmas Day. SpongeBob only realizes the oversight in July the following year, so he rounds up the troops to travel to the North Pole to deliver the gift in person. By the way, Plankton only tags along so that he can hack into Santa's computer to put himself on the nice list.

It's a fun change of pace, as they initially wind up at a Christmas-themed theme park before arriving at the North Pole. Once there, the elves and reindeer aren't exactly accommodating. The elves are psychotic, and the reindeer are basically gym bros. It's a fun way to get SpongeBob out of his comfort zone, and the show changes some things up. Normally, the surface world would appear in live-action in "SpongeBob SquarePants," but this time, everything is animated, including a quick appearance from Patchy the Pirate.

"SpongeBob's Road to Christmas" is just the right mix of sweet and silly. There's no subversion where the show's trying to say, "Hey, actually, materialism is awesome!" Despite being newer, it feels like a nice throwback to the cartoon holiday specials of years' past. 

An easy way to win over my bitter millennial heart is to have a Christmas special done in stop motion, with "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" being the stronger of the two within "SpongeBob SquarePants." The stop motion style if reminiscent of how Rankin/Bass would make their Christmas specials (and one underrated Halloween special). 

The Annie Award-winning episode sees Plankton realizing he'll never convince Santa he's nice, so he laces fruitcake with a new element, jerktonium, that turns anyone who eats it into a jerk so that he'll look good by comparison and finally get the Krabby Patty secret formula. The only problem is that jerktonium doesn't work on SpongeBob since he's too nice, so it's up to him to help get everyone in Bikini Bottom back to normal. 

There are plenty of little touches that really make this episode work. John Goodman voices Santa Claus, who has to contend with an evil robot SpongeBob that Plankton built. And there's the catchy tune "Don't Be a Jerk (It's Christmas)." With lyrics like "Santa brought nearly every gift on your list / Why whine about the one that he missed?" It's a good lesson for both kids and adults to keep in mind this time of year as the stresses of the holiday season can turn practically anyone into a jerk. 

It took "SpongeBob SquarePants" nearly a decade to offer fans another holiday special, but it was a welcome return to form. But there's just no beating the original...

The case for many TV show Christmas specials is that the first one tends to be the platonic ideal of what it should be given the central premise. Everything else is riffing on that idea or dealing with characters who have become too flanderized for the themes to have much of an impact. "Christmas Who?" is the best "SpongeBob SquarePants" Christmas episode, as it's both hilarious and heart-warming. 

Naturally, no one in Bikini Bottom has heard of Christmas until Sandy (from the surface world) teaches SpongeBob about it, and everyone (minus Squidward) gets excited for Santa's imminent arrival. Sadly, Santa skips over the town, and Squidward proves he's not such a grump after all by pretending to be Santa and giving everyone in Bikini Bottom, including SpongeBob, the Christmas they deserve. 

The whole 22-minute episode has that zany energy that made "SpongeBob SquarePants" such a phenomenon early in its run. There are a ton of great gags, like a donkey getting superimposed on Squidward when he's making fun of SpongeBob (ask your parents if you don't know what that means). And the "Very First Christmas" song is instantly memorable while having a ton of great visuals running throughout it.

"Christmas Who?" is basically "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for millennials. Squidward is a bit of a pill, which we've come to expect from him, but upon learning that SpongeBob got him a present so that he wouldn't feel left out, his goodwill toward his fellow fish enhances. There's an actual character arc for him, so while SpongeBob and Patrick bring the jokes, Squidward gets out of his comfort zone to bring the heart. Nothing else can top it.