Miraculous: Santa Claws, on TF1 (France) / Netflix (USA)
Christmas Specials Wiki; IMDb; TV Tropes; Wikia
Streaming sites: Disney+

This is a special Christmas episode of the TV series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. It's also known as "A Christmas Special", but I'm going with the title it has on Disney+. It originally aired in December 2016, a few months after the end of season one, and almost a year before the start of season two. Wikipedia lists it as the first episode of season two, while Disney+ has it listed as the final episode of that season (due to its production code). However, it actually takes place late in the time frame of season one, between episodes 23 and 24. While it first aired on Netflix in the U.S. (not long after its premiere in France), I didn't see it until December 2024, on Disney+. I wasn't quite sure whether I should just list it as a special episode on my Christmas episodes page, or consider it a proper special, and give it its own page. Obviously, I've decided to do the latter, largely because it didn't truly air as a part of either season one or two. Also, it was originally planned as a 40 minute episode, but it ended up having the regular 22-minute runtime. Also, it's a musical. My rating of the special is lower than my rating of the series, not because I like it less than any other episode, but because I don't find individual episodes as memorable as the series as a whole.

Everyone is enjoying Christmas except Adrien, because it's his first year without his mother, and he thinks his father doesn't want to spend time with him. So he goes out as Cat Noir with the intention of ruining Christmas, but at the last moment changes his mind, and turns back to Adrien. Then he meets a Santa Claus, and invites him to spend Christmas with him. Meanwhile, all his friends are out searching for him, including Marinette, as Ladybug. When she sees him with Santa, she believes Santa has been akumatized, so she tries to fight him. After she realizes her mistake, Hawk Moth akumatizes him for real, so she and Cat Noir must fight him to save Christmas for everyone.

On the whole, I'd say it's a pretty standard episodic plot, but the Christmas theming is actually pretty good. The songs, at least in the English dub, are... okay, I guess. But not great. (I have no idea how they sounded in French.) They're really not much more than dialogue that happens to be sung instead of spoken, even if there is some attempt to rhyme, a bit. Anyway, I enjoyed the episode overall.