It's a SpongeBob Christmas!

In Bikini Bottom, the holiday season has everyone in high spirits except Plankton, who has grown tired of receiving coal from Santa year after year. He resolves that this Christmas he will finally get what he has always wanted — the secret Krabby Patty formula — but not by behaving well. Instead, he plans to turn the whole town bad, so that compared with everyone else he will look good, and his name will end up on the nice list. The special follows SpongeBob and his friends as Plankton's scheme spreads through Bikini Bottom and threatens to undo the Christmas spirit there.

The film is a stop-motion holiday special produced by United Plankton Pictures, Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Screen Novelties. It was directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh, whose directing credits also include Monster Safari (2007) and, later, SpongeBob and Sandy's Country Christmas (2024), alongside Luke Brookshier and Marc Ceccarelli. The screenplay is by Mr. Lawrence, Brookshier and Ceccarelli. The voice cast features Tom Kenny as SpongeBob, Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick, Rodger Bumpass as Squidward, Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy and Mr. Lawrence as Plankton.

Released in October 2012 and running 23 minutes, the special has found a steady audience: on IMDb it holds a 7.2 rating from over a thousand votes, and on TMDB a 7.1 from roughly 260 votes, indicating that viewers rate it consistently and favourably years after its release.