The Santa Experience

"The Santa Experience" is the 27th episode of Rugrats, and also the show's first Christmas episode.
==Synopsis==
The episode opens at a department store in the city, where Angelica goes to see the store's Santa and tells him what she wants for Christmas, the most important item on her list this year being a Deluxe Cynthia Beach House. When he expresses some doubt that he can bring her all that stuff, she figures out she isn't talking to the real Santa and furiously tears off his beard to expose him as a phony. To shut her up on the matter, the manager presents her with a big box of toys. Meanwhile, Chuckie is explaining to Tommy that he greatly fears the Christmas season because he thinks Santa Claus is scary. Tommy finds that idea ridiculous and offers to catch Santa when he shows up on Christmas Eve so he can show Chuckie that he is not scary.
Angelica's father Drew is upset over the fact that she seems to have lost her faith in Santa, and Chuckie's dad, Chas, who always had rather disappointing Christmases in his youth, doesn't want Chuckie to suffer the same disappointment. The grown-ups decide to rent a cabin in the mountains and spend Christmas there. Chas then decides that he'll dress up as Santa for the kids, but Drew thinks they should just hire a professional to do that.
Angelica, meanwhile, is disappointed that the department store's gift box does not contain anything she wants. When Phil tells her that he's trying to find a good gift for Lil, she offers to give him a box of crayons she found in there for Lil's coloring book, but she makes him hand over his Reptar doll in exchange. Then, when Lil expresses to her that she needs a gift for Phil, she gives her a Reptar space helmet in exchange for her coloring book. Angelica at first finds delight in the fact that their gifts for each other are useless due to her now having Phil's Reptar doll and Lil's coloring book. But when Grandpa tells the kids a story about Santa and how he punishes bad kids with coal, she begins to worry about the consequences of her plan. She tries to reason to herself that there is no way Santa knows of what she did, but she then has a nightmare about him leaving boxes of coal under her Christmas tree and realizes she has to trade Phil and Lil's presents back before her nightmare can become reality.
Later, after the families arrive at the mountain cabin on Christmas Eve, Tommy and Chuckie start making plans for their Santa traps with all the different entryways in the cabin, except for the chimney, ironically. Angelica tries to talk with Phil and Lil long enough to return the things she took from them, but fails at every turn. Later that night, after the other kids have gone to bed, she tries calling a holiday help hotline to ask Santa if she's on his good list or bad list, though she ends up calling the wrong number and the man on the other line says she's on the bad list, much to her dismay.
Chas, dressed as Santa, goes up on the roof to come down the chimney, just as Tommy's dad, Stu, accidentally triggers one of Tommy and Chuckie's traps, waking the kids up. When they get out of bed and find that it was only Stu who triggered the trap, they suddenly see Chas come down the chimney and are scared by his appearance until he removes his fake beard and hat. The kids are all relieved by this, especially Angelica, who thinks she doesn't have to worry about Santa punishing her anymore, but then, suddenly, a more professional-looking Santa Claus appears at the door. He hands out presents to all the kids, including Angelica, who is relieved when she finds that her gift is the Deluxe Cynthia Beach House that she wanted, with Santa explaining to her that her trying her best to return Phil and Lil's things was just as nice as actually doing a good deed. After he leaves, Phil and Lil exchange their gifts for each other, after which Angelica finally succeeds in giving back his Reptar doll and her coloring book, while Chuckie tells Tommy that he doesn't find Santa scary anymore. Chas thanks Drew for hiring the professional Santa, but when Drew calls the man he hired, he finds out he got stuck in traffic and decided to just stay home instead, thus revealing that they were, in fact, visited by the real Santa Claus. The special ends on Angelica and Didi finding a small lump of coal in place of a toy car in the Deluxe Cynthia Beach House's attached garage. Santa flies over the mountain cabin and wishes the viewers, "Merry Christmas".
==Notes==
* This episode is the first on-screen appearance of Charlotte Pickles, Angelica's mother.
* Outside of annual airings on Nickelodeon, NickToons, and TeenNick, this episode also ran as a one-shot special in syndication on certain affiliates in the 1990s and had a special airing on CBS on December 1, 2001.
==Video releases==
;VHS
* Rugrats: The Santa Experience
;DVD
* Rugrats: Holiday Celebration
* Nick Picks: Holiday
* Rugrats: Season 2
* Rugrats: The Complete Series
;iTunes
* Rugrats: Season 2
* Jolly Saint Nick
* Nickelodeon Holly Jolly Holiday Specials
==External links==
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Category:Christmas productions