For references to the story the special is adapted from, see this page.
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- Nickmas: The "Holiday Party" short contains several references to the special.
Comic Strips
- Bizarro: Rudolph and his friends visit the Island of Fitbit Toys.
- FoxTrot:
- Paige dreams about visiting the land of animated Christmas TV specials, with Rudolph and Hermey among the characters she meets.
- Jason once made a TV special that was a crossover between this special and The Lord of the Rings.
- He also dresses like Hermey at the end of a storyline where Paige got a zit on her nose and compared herself to Rudolph.
- Off the Mark:
- CollegeHumor created a stopmotion sketch called "Rudolph the Regular Reindeer", which shows what would happen if Rudolph had a regular nose instead of his blinking red one. In the sketch, when Mrs. Donner gives birth to Rudolph, the doctor has Rudolph's red nose replaced with a regular black one. At the end of the sketch, Sam the Snowman sings a modified version of Rudolph's song, where the reindeer at first praised Rudolph for being just like them, but later berated him for not being able to help guide them through the fog. Notably Santa Claus who tells him "Rudolph, you can't help! Christmas is ruined!" before running off to cry due to his inability to deliver presents on Christmas Eve.
- The Fairly OddParents!: One of the shows the Timmys and fairies visit in "Channel Chasers" is a parody of this special, albeit with a Frosty the Snowman reference as well.
- Kim Possible: Two references in "A Very Possible Christmas":
- Snowman Hank is an Expy of Sam the Snowman.
- This exchange after Ron and Drakken land in the North Pole:
Ron: Land ho!Drakken: No kidding. - MAD: "FROST" is a crossover between this special and Toy Story.
- Robot Chicken:
- In a sketch from "President Evil", the Spotted Elephant and A Dolly For Sue make cameo appearances as two of the little girl's toys when the little girl's father destroys her doll for saying she hates him for making her go to bed when she doesn't want to.
- Rudolph appears in "A Very Dragon Ball Z Christmas", where he battles a mutant Mrs. Claus by shooting lasers from his nose.
- A sketch from "A Robot Chicken Christmas" is a parody of Unsolved Mysteries, where Santa is revealed to be a drug dealer who got murdered. Hermey and Blitzen give their sides of the story.
- A sketch from "Robot Chicken's Half-Assed Christmas Special" has Hermey leaving Santa's workshop to become a dentist, then a baker, then a millionaire. He fails at all of his endeavors, forcing him to return and beg Santa for his old job. Santa allows Hermey to return to his job making toys before having him executed for leaving it before.
- A sketch from "Snoopy Camino Lindo in: Quick and Dirty Squirrel Shot" features a parody of "The Island of Misfit Toys" called The Island of Recalled Toys. Such inhabitants include the pregnant Midge doll, the Buzz Lightyear cup with a suggestively placed straw, the Rad Repeatin' Tarzan doll, and an Elmo doll with Tourettes syndrome.
- Rugrats (1991): The elf foreman Angelica meets in "Babies in Toyland" is named Hermey.
- The Simpsons: In "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", Homer watches "The Year Santa Got Lost", where a few Misfit Toys listen to the eponymous story.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In "It's A Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special", during the opening rehearsal, Buster and Babs sled by a parody of Sam the Snowman. Also in the special, Plucky's sketch, "Plucky the Red-Beaked Reinduck" gets rewritten as ''Urkel the Red-Nosed Reindude".
- VeggieTales: In the last scene of "The VeggieTales Christmas Spectacular", Bob and Larry realize the network executives missed "The Toy That Saved Christmas" after Pa Grape implies that they watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer instead.Pa Grape: They said they especially liked the part where that funny little elf pulled all the teeth out of the... out of the what?... the abdominal snowman so Rudolph and his friends could get back home.
