History Film / ElmoSavesChristmas

* RunningGag: As per Sesame Street custom, Grover sells Christmas trees to Mr. Johnson with hilarious results.
* SavingChristmas: DoubleSubverted; Santa claims that Elmo saved Christmas by rescuing him from the chimney, but MayaAngelou assures Zoe and Telly that it's only the beginning of the story. [[spoiler: Elmo has to save Christmas after his second wish, "Christmas every day," makes things hard for the citizens of the Street.]]

* HurryingHomeForTheHolidays: Subverted; Snuffy goes to Cincinnati to visit his grandmother for Christmas, but promises Big Bird that he will come back to Sesame Street the day after Christmas. When Elmo wishes for it to be ChristmasEveryDay, this results in Snuffy being stuck in Cincinnati and can't return to Sesame Street, which makes Big Bird upset. At the end of the special, after Elmo goes back in time and stops himself from taking the magical snowglobe that granted his wish in the first place, Snuffy reveals to Big Bird that his grandmother decided to visit him for Christmas this year.

** Big Bird can't see Snuffy because Snuffy went away for Christmas. He leaves a message on Snuffy's answering machine, and writes letters that can't be posted because there's no mail on Christmas. He gradually becomes more and more depressed over being unable to see Snuffy and it's pretty heartbreaking.

** 14 Karat Soul are the Christmas carolers in the spring.

** Bob normally loves singing, but in the BadFuture he hoarsely says that he and the carolers have lost their voices from doing their holiday job every day.

** More universally, "too much of a good thing makes it become a bad thing".

* BigShutUp: Maria gives Oscar a polite one ("Quiet, Oscar!") after the latter encourages Elmo [[spoiler:to use his third wish on rollerblades instead of undoing the second wish]].

** Elmo happily tells Gordon and Carlo, one 1990s Sesame Street cast member, about seeing Santa and receiving the magic snowglobe. They don't seem to believe him. Subverted when Elmo confesses about his second wish in the BadFuture; Maria believes him and tells Elmo to wish for Christmas to happen once a year.

** Some further [[AdaptationDeviation adaptation deviations]] include Elmo receiving the magical snow globe right away, seemingly without being given the choice of the pink bear (which still makes a cameo); multiple Moo-Bunnies appearing in Santa's workshop shortly after Elmo's second wish, in contrast to the exhausted elves producing just one by mistake following several months of Christmas every day; and the all-human carolers being replaced with a chorus of Muppets, plus one human.

* DespairEventHorizon: Sesame Street has fallen into sad ruin after a full year of Christmas celebration. The only character not in despair, obviously, is Oscar. Gina still has a little Christmas spirit left, but it may be a bit of StepfordSmiler on her part, even then, it's clearly fading away.

* IWantSong: "All I Want For Christmas is You" is a song that Big Bird sings when he misses Snuffy, who has been celebrating Christmas with his grandmother in Cincinnati for at least six months, and in this song, Big Bird expresses how he'd much rather have Snuffy come back to play with him than all the new toys he got Christmas after Christmas.

** Heck, the ''Sesame Street'' theme itself is given a darker instrumental treatment at one point in the special, being worked into the melancholy score for the future where Christmas takes place every day and all the shops on the street have been shut down.

** Big Bird writes letters to Snuffy every day that it is Christmas. He lampshades that no one picks up the mail on Christmas, so Snuffy will never get his letters.