The Fright Before Christmas

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"The Fright Before Christmas" *Danny Phantom episode*
The Fright Before Christmas title card "Ho-Ho-Horror!"
Season	2
Number	30
Prod. code	-
Airdate	December 6, 2005
Special Guest(s)	Will Arnett as The Ghost Writer
Writer(s)	Marty Isenberg, Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress
Directors	Wincat Alcala, Butch Hartman, Kevin Petrilak
Ghost Appearances	Ghostwriter (1st)
Abbreviation	FBC

Previous episode The Ultimate Enemy
Next episode Secret Weapons

"The Fright Before Christmas" is the thirtieth episode of the TV-series Danny Phantom. Danny hates the holiday season, being something of a real scrooge, but will he change his mind once he receives a lesson on Christmas spirit from the Ghostwriter?

[edit] Episode Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Danny does not enjoy the Christmas holidays.

Snow falls in Amity Park as Christmas approaches. Everyone is Christmas-shopping at Amity Park Mall, including the trio. While Sam is in a chipper mood, Danny is anything but. When she questions his scrooge-like personality, Tucker tells her about "the fight" in which, every Christmas, Maddie and Jack argue over the existence of Santa Claus, something currently happening now as Maddie tells nearby children visiting the mall that Santa does not exist while Jack states otherwise.

Frustrated, Danny flies to the Ghost Zone, destroying Christmas items to reduce stress. At the same time, the GhostWriter has completed his Christmas poem "The Fright Before Christmas". Danny accidentally destroys the poem, but doesn't feel so bad due to his hatred of the holidays. Enraged at his behavior, GhostWriter writes a new book, "The Fright Before Christmas 2", starring Danny, and blasts him back to Amity Park where he's now stuck in a rhyming induced Christmas story where anything GhostWriter writes comes true until Danny's lesson is learned.

Wanting to know why Danny hates Christmas so much, Sam's question is answered when Tucker relates the story that every single Christmas, Danny's parents' argument over the existence of Santa usually ends with Danny getting the short end of the stick, leading to traumatic childhood memories. The GhostWriter then turns all the reindeer into ghosts, leaving Danny to fight them off, destroying most of the mall in the process and causing everyone to blame him. At home, it's not any better as his parents still argue, causing him to finally explode and leave the house. As he turns ghost and begrudgingly flies away though, presents float and trail behind him from the neighboring homes, angering everyone further, including his family and friends.

To further cause trouble, the Ghost Writer brings all the toys to life. They all join together to form into a giant nutcracker toy. Danny blows it to pieces, but also destroys all the toys, which upsets everyone once again. GhostWriter adds further insult to injury by bringing all the Christmas trees to life and turning them into monsters as well, surrounding Danny. As he handles the monsters, the news reports of the mutant trees cause Jack to put up the Ghost Shield and Maddie to stop squabbling with her husband long enough to go out and save her son. Danny destroys the trees with his Ghostly Wail before turning human in time for his mother to come and claim him, both returning home.

He enters the Ghost Zone to confront GhostWriter at his home afterwards, but he types it so that Danny ends up in another place, one holding his ghostly foes. However, instead of a battle, the ghosts hold an "annual truce" where they do not fight on Christmas, instead befriending others for one Christmas day, something the GhostWriter didn't expect (thinking the truce still didn't hold up). When Danny explains that GhostWriter broke the truce, all the ghosts set out to attack him. The GhostWriter, however, quickly writes away the truce, causing all the ghosts to battle one another as he writes all that is happening. Danny then takes an orange to Walker's face, but since nothing rhymes with "orange", the writing spell wears off for the time and the ghosts commence attack on GhostWriter. Danny destroys his Quantum Keyboard and GhostWriter is arrested by Walker and his cops, but Danny's still stuck in the poem, the story cannot end until the lesson is learned.

Danny's enemies help Danny, Tucker, and Sam to restore Christmas.

Danny sadly leaves the Ghost Zone, without saying a word, and returns to the now depressing human world. He sits down, ashamed and in sorrow - when his friends come to comfort him. There, he expresses his guilt over ruining Christmas, his speech causing all the presents to be fixed. Wanting to make things right, Danny and his friends, as well as his ghostly foes, all help return the gifts, Christmas trees, and other holiday items back to their rightful homes, restoring Christmas once and for all.

Danny bids the ghosts a fond farewell afterwards and leaves for his own house where he apologizes for acting in spite, seeing the family celebrates Christmas their own way. Then all his ghostly enemies fly off via sleigh pulled by the ghost reindeer to which Jack and Maddie give chase, the latter finally believing in Santa Claus. The story ends with GhostWriter in jail, now finished with his new book (and teased by Walker by being given an orange).

[edit] Allusions

When the writer brings the toys to life, "Space Wars" toys march which all look like Star Wars wookies, R2-D2s and stormtroopers.

Ghostwriter's appearance is very similar to Mort Rainey from the movie Secret Window.

The title is a play on both the seasonal poem The Night Before Christmas as well as the animated Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas.

[edit] Trivia

Like the book The Night Before Christmas, the episode is almost entirely in rhyme.

At the end, as the ghosts help Danny, Spectra is seen in both of her forms: her original ghost form (as seen in My Brother's Keeper) and her modified form (as seen in Doctor's Disorders). Incidentally, Technus is seen in both his normal and 2.0 form as well.

When all of Danny's enemies are on the sleigh, the kid seen during the middle of this episode is in with them.

It is revealed that Sam and her Manson family are Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah, as shown by the menorah sign in front of her house and the dreidel (one of the toys that form a monster nutcracker).