"The True Meaning of Christmas" is the nineteenth episode of the third season of Teen Titans Go!, and the one-hundred-twenty-third overall episode of the series.
Fed up from never getting presents from Santa, the Titans head to the North Pole to take themselves off the Naughty List, by "any means necessary".
Plot
The episode begins with Robin's alarm clock going off at 8:00 AM, and all the Titans run to the living room, expecting presents under the Christmas tree. In the past two years (soon to be three), they have gone without presents, and today, they find themselves receiving no presents again, so the Titans get suspicious. Robin says there is only one reason why they weren't getting presents...they were on the Naughty List! They journey into the North Pole, sneak into Santa's workshop and disperse. Raven and Starfire ask a gingerbread man where the naughty list is, but after a while, they start devouring everything in his house. Meanwhile, Beast Boy visits Santa's reindeer and ends up upsetting Rudolph with insults, as he drives away in Santa's sleigh.
Over in the toy factory, Cyborg gets in with the elves and asks where the naughty list is, but the noise makes the leader elf angry. The leader elf asks what was happening, and Cyborg blames another elf, who is then carried away by Jingle and Jangle, as Cyborg gets away.
Meanwhile, Robin investigates in Santa's office, standing over Santa's Naughty List, attempting to erase the Titans' name from the list. Surprisingly, it doesn't erase as he expected, so he tries rubbing out the Titans' name first, uses white out and then a mini bomb, but eventually gives up from the failures. He is then interrupted by Santa's dog, which intentionally barks to get Santa's attention. Santa comes over and scolds Robin for his actions, but the other Titans eventually arrive to complain about how they didn't get their wish for presents for the past three years. Santa states that presents are not the true meaning of Christmas, resulting in the Titans blowing up his toy factory. Forced against his will, Santa quickly confesses that the true meaning of Christmas is presents, and ends up taking the Titans in his sleigh, who help him give all nice and naughty people presents.
This episode premiered the day before the one-year anniversary of "The Best Robin" and the two-year anniversary of "Second Christmas" (both aired on December 4 one year apart).
This was the last episode to premiere in 2015.
This is the first time that the Titans meet Santa.
Strangely, the Titans don't get coal for being on the Naughty List.
Robin is particularly distressed to find Slade's name on the naughty list. This is most likely because he and the other Titans thought Slade had been vanquished once and for all in a prior episode, The Return of Slade. Apparently, as in the original series, Slade isn't easily destroyed.
References
The Gingerbread Man bares some similarities to Gingy from the Dreamworks Shrek films.
Errors
This episode shows that, for three years straight, the Titans have not received any gifts from Santa, which disregards the continuity from "Second Christmas".
In that episode, the Titans receive gifts in the beginning montage. Since Santa starts giving presents to anyone whether they've been good or bad at the end of the episode, it's possible that "Second Christmas" actually takes place after this episode.
On the third year of Christmas, when the Titans are discussing how to get Santa to arrive, viewers can see that on the computer screen there is an document that says "Terra's Drive". That can't be the case, since Terra took out her drive in the episode "Be Mine".
Running Gags
The Titans not receiving presents from Santa.
The Titans yelling and being mean to each other, hence naughty.
Starfire and Raven eating the Gingerbread Man, his gumdrops, and his house.
Transcript
The transcript for "The True Meaning of Christmas" can be found here.
Gallery
The image gallery for The True Meaning of Christmas may be viewed here.