As Rafiki and Makini go over the various traditions and celebrations that go on in the Pridelands, Makini is confused by the relatively new holiday of "Christmas", so Rafiki tells the story of how Timon and Pumbaa brought Christmas to the Pridelands.
This episode contains examples of:
- Breather Episode: The episode takes a breather from the new serialized format, as it's more slice-of-life and lighthearted.
- Christmas Episode: Notably the very first time it is celebrated in The Lion King universe, though to be fair, its a blatant parody of the holiday.
- Framing Device: The episode is told in flashback by Rafiki to Makini as he tells her about the various holidays celebrated in the Pride Lands.
- Gossip Evolution: Presumably due to the third-hand way they've heard about it, some of the details of Christmas are corrupted, such as the notion that gifts are delivered by a man called "Dandy Claus" and he has to be summoned by singing and performing a carol called "The Tweleve Ways of Christmas".
- Hand Wave: How do a bunch of African animals know about a human holiday like Christmas? Well, Timon and Pumbaa heard about it from a someone who heard about it from someone else who reportedly heard about it from a flying reindeer and after celebrating it personally for a few years the tradition eventually caught on with the rest of the Pridelands.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The gossip evolution chain as described implies the story of Christmas may or may not have literally been brought from one of Santa's reindeer visiting Africa.
- Misplaced Vegetation: A star fruit, which Bunga tops on the tree; star fruits are not native to mainland Africa. Ivy and Mistletoe do grow in Northern Africa, but it is entailed that the characters live in the southern portion of the continent.
- Parody Episode: The entire episode blatantly parodies the Christmas holiday.
- Special Edition Title: The theme song does not play before the episode starts. Instead, the title pops up on a festive green backdrop after a prologue between Rafiki and Makini, and instead of Mufasa reading the show’s title while Kion reads the episode’s title, Kion reads both titles.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Christmas in the Pridelands is heralded by a star shining so bright it can even be seen during the middle of the day. Despite this somewhat fantastic annual occurrence, there is no indication that there were any traditions associated with it before they began celebrating Christmas.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The episode is a flashback to the Pride Lands' first Christmas.
