All the Easter Eggs in the New ‘Simpsons’ Christmas Special

It’s been 35 years to the day since The Simpsons dropped their Christmas special/inadvertent series premiere “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” To mark the occasion, the long-running show just dropped a brand new holiday special on Disney+: The Simpsons: O C’Mon All Ye Faithful. 

The extra-long episode finds Homer believing that he’s the real Santa Claus after being hypnotized by Derren Brown into becoming a better gift-giver, which would be a nice change of pace for the U.K. mentalist who’s most famous in America for trying to convince innocent strangers to leap to their deaths.

In addition to the airdate, the show features a number of callbacks to the classic holiday story that kicked off the series. Most obviously, both stories involve Homer playing the role of Santa Claus. In O C’Mon All Ye Faithful he actually takes it upon himself to deliver presents to the town, while in “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” he works a mall Santa job in order to pay for the family’s presents after his Christmas bonus falls through. 

The final moments of the episode overtly pay homage to the original special by ending with a freeze frame that turns into a “Merry Christmas from The Simpsons” Christmas card.

As writer Carolyn Omine and showrunner Matt Selman told Cracked’s Brian Van Hooker, the new special is full of nods to the first episode. In addition to the ending, the Simpsons’ newest Christmas tree contains a birdhouse at the top, referencing Homer’s stolen tree from “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”

Selman also pointed out that the special contains a number of other Easter eggs Christmas eggs from some of the show’s past holiday episodes. A lot of them seem to be in the scene in which Homer attempts to go Christmas shopping. There’s a brief shot of a Bonestorm T-shirt (the video game from “Marge Be Not Proud”) as well as the Gnome in Your Home (and Mrs. Gnome in Your Home) doll.

As you may recall, the Elf on the Shelf parody creeped Maggie out in Season 10’s “The Nightmare After Krustmas.”

There’s also a display of Funzo dolls, from Season 11’s “The Grift of the Magi” and a shelf containing Malibu Stacy Pony Beach Party set, which was the present Lisa wanted Santa to bring her in “Kill Gil, Volumes I & II.”

And it’s hard to miss the Personalized Talking Astrolobe that Homer buys instead of a Christmas tree in “‘Tis the Fifteenth Season.” 

The special contains numerous references to Costington’s department store as well, which has factored into a number of episodes, but perhaps most notably, they once hired Homer to play Santa Claus in their Thanksgiving parade. 

All of these allusions could indicate that O C’mon All Ye Faithful represents the apotheosis of Simpsons holiday specials. Either that or we’ll keep getting Simpsons holiday content for another 35 years.