Best Portrayals of Santa Claus in Cartoon Network Christmas Specials

Santas reaction to Princess Morbucks bad mouthing him is exactly how Santa form the Teen Titans Go Christmas episode should have reacted after the Titans wrecked havoc in the North Pole and blew up his workshop and killed his workers by putting all five of them on the permanent naughty list.

"LIST, SCHMIST! I don't need no stinkin' list tellin' me who's naughty and who's nice! " These are the words of the beginning of the greatest Humiliation Conga given by Santa in history to one of the biggest spoiled brats in animation. In 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas, it follows The Powerpuff Girls having to save Christmas when Princess Morbucks sabotages Santa's nice and naughty lists and switches them in order to make everyone naughty and her be the only nice person on Santa's nice list so she can get her wish of becoming a Powerpuff Girl. While Santa Claus doesn't have a major role until near the climax of the special, when he does manage to do so, the results are quite epic. When The Powerpuff Girls and Morbucks try to argue over why they're at Santa's workshop and Santa Claus is confused at the situation, things take a turn when Santa realizes that The Powerpuff Girls are supposed to be nice and not naughty. Which then leads to Morbucks apparently deciding to ...more

I don't need no stinkin list telling me who's naughty and who's nice.

It's Christmas season in Elmore, but it seems the spirit of the season is at risk when Richard and the Wattersons run over a supposedly fat homeless man and the former and the kids believe him to be Santa Claus and that they've just ruined Christmas! The entire Christmas special has Gumball and his family try to snap the fat man out of his amnesia in the hopes that Santa Claus will come back and recover his memories. Unfortunately, nothing works and Nicole breaks the harsh truth to the kids that Santa Claus isn't real based on when she sent letters to him when she was a kid and never got anything back. This sends Gumball and his siblings on a downward spiral as they proclaim to everyone in Elmore that Christmas is ruined. Thankfully, a Christmas miracle occurs when the fat man is bumped into again and is miraculously revealed to REALLY be Santa Claus this whole time! As Santa along with the assistance of Gumball and his family try to spread the holiday cheer around Elmore again, they ...more

And now we have a Santa Claus... that's voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. You know, the same guy who voices Digit from Cyberchase. Anyways, this is one of the more unique spins on Santa Claus in Cartoon Network Christmas specials, as Santa Claus has been turned into a vampire and it's up to Billy, Mandy, and Grim to save Christmas. Back to Santa himself, the first jump scare involving him jumping out of a coffin while screaming in anger and swiping his claws all over the place truly took me by surprise the first time I saw this special. Thankfully, he's shown to be more comical as he's either shown getting tired easily from swiping his claws and even was able to gain sanity temporarily before Mandy screwed up her chance to redeem Santa. Where Mandy couldn't save Santa and she, Grim, and a new character named Baron von Ghoulish who's accused of turning Santa into a vampire eventually find out that Santa's wife, Mrs. Claus is a vampire and the true perpetrator of the incident since she got ...more

Yay! Mac and Bloo get to see Santa Claus at Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends! But, wait! What's this? Another Santa Claus?! What's the meaning of this? Long story short, what Mac and Bloo saw were actually just two of several imaginary Santa Clauses that kids imagine every year when Christmas comes around. While it's fun seeing all the unique and differentiating designs for each Santa, they unfortunately don't play much of a role in the special's main story. But, they do impact Mac heavily as he's led to believe that Santa isn't real and is quite bummed out about it. While Bloo is up to no good and eventually ends up ruining Christmas when he accidentally convinces Mr. Herriman into throwing away all the Christmas decorations and giving NO presents for any imaginary friend (Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! You just had to ruin everyone's Christmas for your own selfish needs, Bloo! ), Mac wants to find proof that Santa's real. It even got to the point where he wished that Santa would ...more

I don't think any Santa is as badass as the Santa from Codename: Kids Next Door. I mean, what Santa can literally pry open a metallic door with his two bare hands, be the only one capable of using the Reindeer System without getting corrupted, and literally own a squad of X-Men in the form of elite Christmas icons? In this Christmas special, Santa Claus is tied up when the Delightful Children from Down the Lane want all the presents in the world to themselves and no other kid since they're tired of being considered naughty and given tons of coal every Christmas. Meanwhile, Santa Claus's Elfa Strike Team led by an elf named Wintergreen are led into chasing down Sector V when the sector is framed for stealing the sleigh bells meant to control the Reindeer system. However, things take a turn when they realize they've been misled and they fight their way through Edna Jucation and the Faculty 4. It's then that they see the DCFDTL COMPLETELY laden in Grinch-green skin and in pain since they ...more

Who says Santa Claus has to be fat and smell like gingerbread? Well, definitely not this incarnation of Santa. Speaking from my perspective, this Santa and the one from Kids Next Door are probably the best examples of Badass Santa characters in Cartoon Network Christmas specials. In this incarnation, Santa Claus asks Mordecai and Rigby to help him destroy an evil magical present created by one of his elves named Quillgin that's said to grant the wishes of any person, but apparently corrupts anyone exposed to it. While Mordecai and Rigby and friends are able to carry out this quest even amidst hard challenges and obstacles as they seek to drop it into the underground lava pits of their rival park, Quillgin stops them in their tracks. When all seems lost, Santa Claus comes to the rescue with an invisibility cloak and a hoverboard. Not to mention... BUM BUM BA-BUM BUM! Santa's got a six-pack! But despite Santa's interference, Quillgin is still bent on wishing for the end of Christmas ...more

Technically, Johnny Bravo's Santa Claus first appeared in Twas the Night, but since I remember A Johnny Bravo Christmas more, I chose to go with that incarnation. Either way, they're the same Santa. To start off, Santa first appeared in Twas the Night when he's mistaken for a burglar by Johnny and is beaten up. Thus, Johnny has to do Santa's job of delivering presents to all the good people in the world. At the end of the episode, Santa leaves him a gift... of a pair of boxing gloves as an indication of Santa planning for a rematch against Johnny for beating him up in this episode, tying into A Johnny Bravo Christmas. As you'd expect, Santa manages to get payback on Johnny by beating him with a boxing glove. Regardless, Santa is still nice enough to be willing to help Johnny deliver presents to him and his mom Bunny. Unfortunately, it seems Santa can't be able to do that since all the gifts are packed up and ready to go. Thankfully, an elf informs him that two kids were exposed as ...more

This Santa... is one of the more grotesque ones. Is it even Santa? Either way, Knish Krinkle is Chowder's equivalent of Santa Claus much like how Knishmas is the Chowder equivalent of Christmas. Here, Knish Krinkle is a giant worm-like being who visits Marzipan City every Knishmas in order to taste everyone's Schmingerbread houses. Basically, if he likes the Schmingerbread house, he gives you presents! If he doesn't, well, he just goes on a rampage and destroys the Schmingerbread house and everything in the house's residence. Unfortunately, the latter has been the case for Mung Daal every Knishmas. Since Chowder desperately wants an Electric Broccoli trimmer for Knishmas, Mung Daal is willing to sacrifice his pride and confidence by going to his rival Endive to get a Schmingerbread house from her just so he can make Chowder happy. Chowder manages to see this and he decides that he has to eat the Schmingerbread house and not let Knish Krinkle near it since he'd rather have Mung Daal be ...more

This one's for you, all you Camp Lazlo fans and Joe Murray enthusiasts. In this incarnation, Santa Claus is probably the only human character to ever appear on Camp Lazlo (in a show where everyone is an anthropomorphic animal). One day, Camp Kidney is taking a trip to Mount Whitehead to see a meteor shower. However, their trip is stopped short when their bus blows a tire due to apparently running over some Christmas lights. Everyone then goes to play in the snow while Lazlo, Raj, and Clam stumble upon more Christmas-themed objects, leading them and everyone to actually stumble upon Santa's workshop! Camp Kidney is having a great time exploring Santa's workshop, and Santa Claus shows them all the toys that all the elves built early so he can have a vacation in the tropics until he goes to work on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately... remember that meteor shower they were supposed to see? Apparently, one of the meteors crashes into Santa's workshop and destroys all the toys. Since Santa is so ...more