Lincoln's Perfect Christmas

Lincoln’s Perfect Christmas is an hour-long Lincoln Loud special that first aired on November 23, 2017. It has since been released on home videos.

Summary
While the residents of Royal Woods get ready for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and even "McBride Day," they want their holiday celebrations to be perfect—but just what does that mean?

Plot
The special opens with scenes of citizens of Royal Woods busy preparing for Christmas, while Pachelbel's Canon is played in the background on piano. Lincoln then sings the first of many of the special's musical numbers, "Perfect Christmas," in which he lays out his list of the things he wants in the upcoming Christmas:

A large amount of snow

An amazing dinner-turkey and the whole works

A spectacular Christmas tree--most importantly, one without tinsel

Everyone will love the presents he gets for them.

However, matters don't always work out quite as Lincoln wanted it to. As the special progresses, a number of other storylines are revealed: Lana wants a new toy called "Tina the Talking Tabby," for Christmas, but "Santa Claus" (Rita Loud) is unable to find it at the mall while shopping for presents with Lincoln. So, on Christmas morning, Lana gets a toy duck called Quackers and throws a big temper tantrum. However, she changes her mind and eventually takes a liking to the duck.

Uncle Ben is going on a trip to Florida, but his car just so happens to break down in Royal Woods on the way there. So for the meantime, he and his dog, Max, are staying at the Reads' for Christmas. Eventually on Christmas Day, the car is fixed.

The timing of Leni’s family's celebration of Hanukkah conflicts with that of Luna’s "holiday extravaganza," causing her to miss the party. When Luna states that Hanukkah isn't as important as Christmas, Leni feels offended because she is Jewish, and yells "Well it is to me!" and stops speaking to her and calling her. Eventually, she and Luna make up after Leni shows her how important Hanukkah can be; all because her family is Jewish.

And ever since Clyde’s parents got divorced, Christmas has been a difficult time for him and his mother. She wakes him up early on the days before Christmas and makes him pancakes, thinking that it's Christmas Day. Then he has to explain to her that it isn't Christmas yet. While Lincoln, Clyde, and their friends are at the party, they suggest he create his own holiday, McBride Day. Clyde is unsure, but he agrees to give it a try.

Every Christmas, Rusty volunteers at a homeless shelter with his Dad, and this year, he's trying to bake something special to bring. However, he's forgetting some things in every recipe, like not removing the shells of the pecans when he makes pecan pie, unpeeling the bananas when he makes banana bread, and adding sugar when he makes brownies. As soon as Luna’s party is over, Lincoln walks into the living room.

Meanwhile, Liam’s family is celebrating Kwanzaa.

Zach’s family is revealed to be Swedish and they celebrate Saint Lucia Day.

In the end, things don't work out quite as everybody may have hoped they would, but it seems to be for the better (assuming Lincoln can ever get Lana to stop her new toy "Quackers" from singing "Quick, quack, quaddy-quack") as Lincoln wishes the audience a happy holiday.

Major

 * Lincoln Loud
 * Lana Loud
 * Rita Loud
 * Lynn Loud
 * Clyde McBride
 * Zoe McBride
 * Ben

Minor

 * Agnes Johnson
 * Rusty Spokes
 * Zach Gurdle
 * Luna Gerber
 * Leni Silverstone
 * Max
 * Charles
 * Lily Loud
 * Liam Powers
 * Sean Gerber
 * Phil Silverstone
 * Gloria Gerber
 * Winston and Skippy Fieldman

Cameo

 * Hayley Silverstone
 * Alexia Silverstone
 * Archie
 * Ronnie Anne Santiago
 * Molly Pappas
 * Sid Chang
 * Mrs. Teen
 * Zach's grandmother
 * Zach's grandfather
 * Btends
 * Chandler
 * Stella Zhau

Songs

 * 1) Perfect Christmas (by Lincoln & his family)
 * 2) Boogie Woogie Christmas (Rock and roll song by The Squabs)
 * 3) What's the Use of Presents? (by Luna, with Lincoln on soundtrack version)
 * 4) McBride Day (by Clyde)
 * 5) Sankta Lucia (by Zach and the Gurdle family)
 * 6) Perfect Christmas [Reprise] (by Lincoln)

Trivia

 * Two versions were aired on Nick: an uncut version aired during prime time on the original Thanksgiving Day airing and an edited version aired during a pledge drive.
 * This special aired right after Season 5's conclusion.
 * This is the last time Grant Palmer voices Lincoln, whose voice had changed due to puberty, and who would be replaced by Collin Dean beginning in the next episode.
 * This is also the last time that Richard Horvitz voices Skippy.
 * After Lana walks in on Lincoln and laughs, stock audio by Tara Strong is used.
 * Liam and his family are shown preparing to celebrate Kwanzaa. In reality, as Liam mentions in the ice cream shop in said scene, Kwanzaa does not start until December 26, the day after Christmas Day.
 * There is a stocking with the name "Sully" hanging in Luna's house. This is the first time Sully, Luna's older brother, is acknowledged in the TV show.
 * Even though both the televised and home video versions are almost identical, there are some slight differences:
 * In the beginning before the title card, the animation on the smoke from the Loud's chimney is going slow. However, in the home video release, it's going fast.
 * After Uncle Ben's video, Lincoln and Lana laughed immediately right after. In the home video release, they didn't laugh until a few seconds after.
 * Lana's excited chat about seeing Santa to Mr. Loud is synced incorrectly for earlier Home Video releases.
 * In the televised version during the "McBride Day" song, a vintage "tires screeching" sound effect is added when Clyde and Zoe's rocket skids to a halt in front of the Royal Woods Mall. Some versions the space ship opening the audio is slightly delayed. At the end of the song, the word "baby" is cut from Clyde's lyrics in newer versions of the special.
 * During "What's the Use of Presents?" a fade effect is missing in the home video release. Also, Luna's singing in both versions are slightly different.
 * In the end credits on the home video release, the song lyrics are delayed.

Episode connections

 * Rita's glass bird also breaks in "Bleep." She brings up the glass bird again in "Lincoln and Los Vecinos."

Cultural references

 * Zoe states that she and Clyde are going to watch It's a Wonderful Life. This is a famous Christmas film starring Jimmy Stewart.
 * The game that Luna plays during "What's the Use of Presents?" is a parody of Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.
 * When Luna is shocked about the differences between Hannukkah and Christmas, the phrase "How rude!" is reference to Stephanie Tanner (portrayed by Jodie Sweetin) from Full House.

Errors

 * During the scene where Mrs. Johnson eats one of Rusty's brownies, we see in the background a black boy on the other side of Mrs. Johnson in her normal wear, but seconds later we see her in a red vest talking to Liam, but when Mrs. Johnson asks him if he put sugar in the brownies, the boy is white and is wearing a green shirt.
 * When Leni groans, her mouth doesn't move.
 * In Lincoln's fantasy when his mom opens the gift, she pulls the top off, but when Lincoln opens the gift to see if it is okay, he pulls the ribbon off to open it.
 * When Lincoln was imagining his family in the stable, Grandpa Albert offered his roasted camel to Lincoln. Camel is not considered kosher in Judaism, so they wouldn't have eaten it (although Lincoln probably doesn't understand that).

Home video
The special has been released on DVD, as well as on VHS prior to the format's demise in the late 2010's. VHS copies are no longer in production. The original DVD and VHS releases were made available on September 12, 2017. A DVD re-release carrying the Nickelodeon logo was released on October 9, 2017. This release includes printable coloring pages and activities on DVD-ROM, two "A Word from Chris Savino" segments, and the usual promos for Nickelodeon programming of this era. Closed-captioning and descriptive-video features are available on this release. The special may be viewed via the Amazon Video service and is currently free to stream for those with Amazon Prime.