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Amongst many a Power Rangers fan, Christmas was not only the most wonderful time of year but more importantly, a time to add to your collection of Power Rangers merchandise. If you were lucky the toys for the upcoming season would have trickled into your local toy store, letting you get your first look at the newest team of Rangers.
Christmas also brought Power Rangers Christmas specials! Which means we got to see what our favorite heroes wanted for Christmas, Christmas themed monsters, and an oddly intense point of Power Rangers canon that might make Santa the most powerful character ever. Below are all the Power Rangers Christmas episodes, ranked from the worst to the best.
Honorable Mention: Power Rangers SPD
“Walls”
While not a Christmas or holiday episode, it needs to be mentioned as one of the few times any other holiday traditions are brought up in the series. When Red Ranger Jack and Green Ranger Bridge are given new bikes, Jack exclaims that Christmas came early. Bridge helpfully clears up,
“I’m Jewish, but I suppose you could say Hanukkah came early.”
This makes Bridge the franchise’s only canonical Jewish Power Ranger, which is something the series needs more of. We also need more references to other holiday celebrations!
13. Power Rangers Megaforce
“The Robo Knight Before Christmas”
When Power Rangers moved to Nickelodeon with Samurai in 2011 up through the first season of Dino Fury in 2021, the franchise would almost always do Halloween and Christmas episodes that were largely clip shows. The problem with doing a Christmas episode clip show is that a large chunk of the story isn’t even about Christmas! So these clip shows rarely make for great episodes so we’ve got to judge these by their holiday framing segments.
And well, here we have Robo Knight accidentally shipped, along with donated gifts, to Africa where he shares stories of the Rangers’ exploits. It’s uncomfortable that a specific town or even country in Africa is not mentioned, simply that Robo Knight has been shipped to “Africa.” What, did the people of Harwood County donate gifts to the entire country? Plus the fact the concept of Christmas needs to be explained by Robo Knight to the people there is… Not great.
12. Special VHS Release: Alpha’s Magical Christmas
Sometimes, when I lie awake at night, I think about Alpha’s Magical Christmas. I ponder over Alpha’s kidnapping of children. I shudder at the memory of Alpha leading them into a white light. I’m denied the release of sleep as I ask myself, “Was Alpha leading those kids to the afterlife? Or simply sacrificing their souls to the then soon to be introduced Tigerzord?” (Thanks to Jeremy Simpson for introducing this thought into my head.)
Perhaps every single time the Tigerzord charges into battle, it is not the sound of a magical mecha tiger being controlled by a man who in no way got a real degree in paleontology. Those roars are the children, desperate for escape. Trapped in a cycle of endless Christmas carols that come out as roars of never ending death. All is not calm. All is not bright.
I’ll never know and thus, I will never truly sleep again.
11. Power Rangers Super Samurai
“Stuck on Christmas”
Despite being the final episode of Super Samurai to air, this special takes place sometime earlier in the season. The framing device for here switches from Mentor, Bulk, and Spike sharing memories to the Rangers sharing stories as they’re trapped in their Megazord. The latter is the more interesting idea, it’s rare to see a Ranger team fixing their Zords.
Sadly not much is done with this and the episode extends its use of old clips to scenes that aren’t supposed to be flashbacks, including the start of the unmorphed fight, and Bulk and Spike riding a motorcycle after Santa.
10. Power Rangers Ninja Steel
“Past, Presents, and Future”
These clip shows are money savers. Quick episodes that don’t need a ton of resources or time to get them done, allowing more money to be spent on other episodes. Yet “Past, Presents, and Future,” which features Sarah traveling through time with Santa, looks to have either needed a ton of planning to film scenes for it during past episodes, or a ton of money was spent to recreate those episodes.
Outside of all that, the episode doesn’t really give a fun Christmas vibe. The concept of time travel overwhelms the usual Christmas spirit (and may have totally shattered the timeline but let’s not think about that too closely.)
9. Power Rangers Dino Super Charge
“Here Comes Heximas”
The context in which this episode was released is critical to understanding it. The previous episode to air was the season finale, where the Rangers time traveled to the past and stopped THE asteroid from hitting Earth. Which caused dinosaurs to not have been wiped out and the Dinosaur Museum they operate out of became a dinosaur zoo. This was a controversial choice to say the least, shunting what could have easily been a season that took place in the Prime Universe of Power Rangers into its own separate one.
And then this episode, which most people assumed would be set before the finale as other Christmas episodes had been, starts with a shot of the Dinosaur Zoo. Featuring dinosaurs wearing Santa hats and fake reindeer antlers. It’s a baffling choice but it does at least provide some insight into the altered Dino Charge universe, even if it squanders the more character based stories an epilogue to the season might offer.
8. Power Rangers Beast Morphers
“Scrozzle’s Revenge”
An episode that gives the Beast Bots and Steel a ton of focus? Hell yes! Clip shows like this should try to give the spotlight to the side characters. Why not? Getting them commenting on the Rangers’ adventures leads to some fun insights. “Scrozzle’s Revenge” decently lives up to that potential, with the Beast Bots taking the lead on helping the Rangers. The Christmas content on display here is fairly negligible but we do get the incredible Steel line, when Nate is trapped in an ornament,
“I will save you, ornament brother!”
7. Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel
“The Poisy Show”
Who would have expected a Christmas clip show to feature the return of a previous season’s group of villains?! Poisandra, along with the other Dino Charge villains, put on a show! Any chance to let Poisandra just be fabulously camp is a welcome one but, like Ninja Steel’s previous Christmas episode, the fun concept overshadows the Christmas spirit.
That and getting a Blue Ranger team-up episode with Dino Charge Blue Ranger Koda helping Preston, the Ninja Steel Blue Ranger. It’s decently fun to get the real life brothers on screen together but as a finale for Ninja Steel as a whole, and really this era of Power Rangers before it was bought out by Hasbro, it’s all a little lacking.
6. Power Rangers Samurai
“Christmas Together, Friends Forever”
Where the reign of the holiday clip show began. The Rangers, including Mia and Emily, recount their favorite moments of the past year. There are some sweet moments here, like Mike giving his new motorcycle away to Bulk and Spike. The best bit is when Kevin gives Mia, who’s notoriously a horrible cook, a book of recipes. He deadpans,
“There’s some good recipes in there… You should use it.”
In a season where the Rangers revealed little characterization outside of Ranger life, this was very much welcome.
Also, Emily emails her sister who has a “PowerRangerMail.net” address. Do all Rangers have that email? Maybe Tommy gets everyone on the server.
5. Power Rangers Dino Fury
“Secret Santa”
Without question the clip show episode with the most plot of its own, it also thankfully has a lot of Christmas spirit. Javi struggles to find a perfect gift for Solon and ends up trapped with her in the base, cut off from the other Rangers. Javi’s struggle with presents is well executed here and Solon not being able to get in the Christmas spirit because she gets too nervous and forgets the words to songs is endearing.
Santa shows off some stunning powers here, with a magical sketchbook (made by his elves) that can create ANYTHING. Santa, my guy, why are you limiting yourself to presents? You could solve every problem in the UNIVERSE.
And hey, there’s a mention of Hanukkah! That’s nice.
4. Power Rangers Dino Charge
“Race to Rescue Christmas”
The lovable villain Poisandra watches the Rangers’ memories, not to feel the warm glow of Christmas cheer, but solely to discover the location of their base. As clip show framing devices go, that’s pretty ingenious and alone would make this a step above the other clip shows. But no, as I wrote in my original review, this episode is pure bonkers from start to end.
Santa has knowledge of not just humans but ALIENS and whether they’re naughty or nice, implying he delivers presents across the universe. Santa uses a naughty or nice machine that is the ultimate arbiter of your moral standing. The Rangers get calls from Santa and don’t question it for a moment. They know Santa has got them on speed dial, which I guess makes some sense if he knows the hearts and minds of every being in the universe. Major news outlets report on Santa’s naughty or nice machine like it’s a regular natural disaster. WHAT?!
Easily the best Christmas clip show episode.
3. Power Rangers Hyperforce
“Holiday Special Featuring Santa”
Only in an RPG show would you get Santa using what can only be described as the “Santa Battlizer” to fight Krampus alongside the Rangers, with that armor extending onto his sleigh. They even have Jingle Bells blaring while he fights, “Flight of the Valkyries” style.
If that doesn’t get you in the Christmas spirit, I don’t know what will.
(Thanks to Rovang.org for their guide to Hyperforce episodes.)
2. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3
“I’m Dreaming of a White Ranger”
Thankfully not a clip show, this episode really gets into the Christmas spirit with a holiday celebration at the Youth Center. We even get some small acknowledgments of other holidays, including Hanukkah! But another element really sticks out, as Zordon reveals to the Rangers,
“Because of a combination of the North Pole’s unique polarity and a cross-current of holiday magic, your morphing powers will not work there.”
The North Pole is where the final fate of Earth will be decided in the Power Rangers universe. Not only do the Rangers’ powers not work there, but neither do evil powers. It’s the final playing field. The one place where both sides could retreat if they wanted and fight their wars out solely with numbers of troops. The fight would rage long and hard but in the end only one force would win. Santa. Santa’s magic, holiday magic is the only thing that seems to work there.
1. Power Rangers Zeo
“A Season to Remember”
“HELLO, who made you holiday monitor?”
And with the delivery of that line, Nakia Burrise as Tanya sealed this episode as the greatest Christmas episode of Power Rangers ever. Possibly in all of television. There’s no shortage of classic moments on display here, especially when the Rangers are put under a spell and start snapping at each other about the holidays. Rocky declaring he’s taking his tamales and getting out of there, Adam defiantly noting that some countries, like Korea, don’t celebrate holidays this time of year, and Tanya telling Adam to talk to the hand… And he then proceeds to speak directly to her hand.
We also can’t forget a look at the future with Tommy and Kat happily married grandparents, shattering the dreams of everyone who wanted Tommy to end up with Kimberly.
More importantly this episode does the most to feature other holidays besides Christmas. Hanukkah is given the spotlight with computer expert Raymond and Tanya gets to share an explanation of Kwanzaa. It’s refreshing after so many of these episodes barely mention holidays besides Christmas (and thus are at least somewhat focused on a Christian-ish holiday.)
(Special thanks to the No Pink Spandex team for help with some of the research for this article.)
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