Original air date: 12/17/1997

Kyle's mother protests against her son being in the Nativity play which leads to the town abolishing anything that could be considered offensive during the holiday season.

Meanwhile, Kyle, facing loneliness as a Jew around Christmas, seeks comfort from his friend Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.

This episode contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Gerald and Sheila are incredibly dismissive of Kyle and his beliefs in Mr. Hankey and allow his friends to throw him into a mental asylum. Can you blame them, though, considering he claimed to be friends with a talking piece of poo?
• Artistic License – Religion: Sheila complains about Kyle playing Joseph of Arimathea in the Christmas pageant because he's Jewish. The Joseph who was Jesus' mortal father was Joseph of Nazareth, not Joseph of Arimathea, and both of them were Jewish.
• Big "OMG!": Sheila when Kyle says Ike's on fire. Mr. Mackey also says this before he calls Kyle a "sick little monkey" when he sees what Kyle believes is Mr. Hankey in his mug.
  Mr. Mackey: Ugh!!! Oh, my God, you sick little monkey!
• Big "WHAT?!": Sheila lets a few fly when Gerald tells Kyle that "your mother is going to have clean up the mess" that Mr. Hankey caused in the bathroom.
• Blatant Lies: Cartman at the end claims to have always believed in Mr. Hankey.
• Christmas Episode: As you might have guessed from the summary, this episode takes place around Christmas and is the first official Christmas episode of the franchise (not counting the shorts).
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Chef encourages the other kids to believe in Mr. Hankey at the beginning of the fourth act. This causes Mr. Hankey to appear to them normal, not as an ordinary lump of poo.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Kyle near the end of his "Lonely Jew on Christmas" song.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Pip is seen with parents and a supposed sister (the red-haired girl), and his father even has a line in the ending song. In "Summer Sucks," it's revealed that Pip is an orphan who has to stay in summer school, as he has no parents.
• Ear Worm: Despite the profanity and inflammatory nature of the song, everyone just can't help but clap along to Cartman's "Kyle's Mom is a Stupid Bitch" song.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Cartman is so disgusted by Mr. Hankey, he can't bring himself to stick around with the others, and for good reason too.
  Cartman: Okay, that does it. Screw you guys, I'm going home. Talking Poo is where I draw the line.
• Forgotten Birthday: Played for Laughs in a mid-credits scene with Jesus alone in his studio, having a One-Person Birthday Party. Also overlaps with Perennially Overshadowed Birthday.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Kenny when he makes it through the episode without being killed.
• Hypocrite: After complaining about the pageant's insensitivity to other religions, Shelia suggests replacing the Christian theme with The Dreidel Song. Apparently it's more tolerant to have Jewish only themes in the play.
• I Am Big Boned: Cartman, as usual. "I'm not fat, I'm festively plump."
• I Ate WHAT?!: The baby was implied to have eaten the poop in the faux ad.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • After all the townspeople complain about how horrible the politically correct Christmas pageant is, Mr. Garrison rightfully points out that it was their various complaints that made it this way.
  • Kyle is not pleased at all by Cartman calling his mom a bitch (and singing a song about it), but considering the holidays are being turned upside-down and everyone's fun is being ruined because of her complaints, who's going to say he's wrong?
• Jump Scare: Gerald yelling "KYLE!" follows a brief period of silence when he discovers Mr. Hankey's stains in the bathroom.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the end of the episode, the other boys look at Kenny and remark that something feels off and incomplete. Kenny becomes increasingly nervous at the thought of dying yet again while the music becomes more ominous as if to signify another death is imminent. Thankfully, the episode ends before Kenny could die again and the boy starts cheering when "THE END" pops up on the screen.
• Mistaken for Insane: Kyle tries to show the titular poo to everybody in town, but all they see is Kyle playing with shit. Mr. Mackey diagnoses him as a "clinically depressed fecalphiliac on Prozac" and sends him to a mental institution.
• Mood Whiplash: In the Mr. Hankey toy set ad. As the kids dress Mr. Hankey up, the ad briefly takes a dark turn.
  Daughter: I wish Daddy was still alive.
• Moral Guardians: Once again, Sheila.
  Sheila: It isn't being sensitive to the Jewish community.
  Mr. Garrison: You ARE the Jewish community.
• Musical Episode: In addition to being a Christmas Episode.
• Never My Fault: After the pageant is ruined by their nitpicking, the various culture groups of South Park all blame each other.
  Sheila Broflovski: What the hell is this? This is horrible!
  Priest Maxi: This is the most god awful piece of crap I've ever seen.
  Mr Garrison: Hey, you're the ones who made it this way.
  Priest Maxi: Yes, because the Jews said it couldn't be Christian.
  Gerald Broflovski: It wasn't our idea to take out Santa Claus.
  Tree Protestor: All you bastards ruined Christmas!
  Crowd Member: Damn treehugger!
  *Fight between culture groups breaks out*
• One-Person Birthday Party: The credits are interrupted partway by Jesus singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.
• Parody Commercial: In the middle of the religious groups' brawl, a parody commercial appears offering a Mr. Hankey toy which consists of various Mr. Potato Head-like plug-ins that the kids could use to "dress up" a home-made Mr. Hankey. Of course, you get a home-made Mr. Hankey by fishing it out of the toilet.
• Political Overcorrectness: Mercilessly lampooned. Every subculture in town protests to get things removed from the Christmas, such as Christmas lights for epileptics and for some reason, mistletoe. The end result leads to a bland pageant with kids dancing in grey leotards (to music by Phillip Glass) which no one enjoys, leading to a violent, and very discriminate war.
• Real After All: Mr. Hankey's existence is eventually proved, but only after Kyle was put in a mental hospital for believing he was real in the first place.
• Rousing Speech: Mr. Hankey encourages the crowd to stop brawling and celebrate the festive holiday.
• Rule of Three: Kenny avoiding death; the first where he pulls out electric cords without being electrocuted by water, the second where he managed to get the star down without falling off the ladder, and surviving for real with the episode finally ending after an ominous build up.
• Running Gag: Craig being forced to sit outside Mr. Mackey's office.
• Sarcastic Confession: Gerald and Sheila don't notice Ike playing with the family's menorah until Kyle tells them in a fit of anger.
• Screaming Birth: The original Christmas pageant had Mary (played by Wendy) in the Nativity scene groaning loudly as she gives birth to Jesus.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Cartman's reaction when Mr. Hankey comes to life in front of him and his friends.
  Cartman: Okay, that does it. Screw you guys, I'm going home. Talking poo is where I draw the line.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are numerous references to A Charlie Brown Christmas.
  • "Oh my God! You sick little monkey!", though it's unknown whether it actually is a reference to that show, given Trey's dislike of it.
• Skewed Priorities: Kyle's mom is more upset over Kyle being cast as Joseph than over the actual on-screen depiction of Jesus' birth. With an eight-year-old girl playing the role of Mary, no less.
• Slow Clap: Gerald ends up leading one.
• Staggered Zoom: The camera zooms up to Mr. Mackey's face this way when he asks Kyle if anyone made him mad enough to kill.
• Take That!: The episode satirizes the "War on Christmas" and people wanting to tone down the religious elements so the holidays can cater to every religious group.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Defied. The episode threatened it a few times by placing Kenny in peril, but he survives to the end of the episode, with a huge lampshade hung on this fact. It is the first episode that he survives, as well as the only episode of Season 1 he survives.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Oh, my God! They DIDN'T kill Kenny!
• True Meaning of Christmas: The town descends into Political Overcorrectness over what symbols can be used for Christmas without offending anyone (non-Christians don't want religious stuff, Christians don't want Santa, environmentalists don't want Christmas trees, etc.), wrecking the whole holiday. Eventually Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo appears and tells everybody to stop focusing on what's wrong with Christmas and pay attention to what's right about it, like giving and baking cookies. Though, for added effect, the credits are interrupted with a brief cutaway to Jesus, singing a sad "Happy Birthday" to himself.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Kyle's Mom is a Stupid Bitch (in D Minor)"
• What the Hell, Hero?: After the town complains about the lackluster pageant, Mr. Garrison is quick to point out they made it that way in the first place, leading them to all blame each other for escalating things.
• You Monster!: Mr. Mackey calls Kyle a "sick little monkey" when he sees what Kyle believes is Mr. Hankey in his mug.