First Trailer for the ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ Christmas Special Puts Mr. Krabs, Man Ray and Dirty Bubble on the Naughty List

Bikini Bottom has a long tradition of holiday chaos. The ‘SpongeBob SquarePants‘ franchise has spent years sending its characters up to the North Pole, down to the Krusty Krab and into plenty of trouble with Santa Claus, and each new Christmas story tends to find a fresh way to put someone on the naughty list.

The history goes back to ‘Christmas Who?’, the first double-length episode of the series. In 2012, ‘It’s A SpongeBob Christmas!’ became Nickelodeon’s first full-length stop-motion special, with John Goodman as Santa Claus, and in that one Santa stated that everyone in town was on his naughty list except Plankton. More recently, ‘SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas’ had SpongeBob and his pals journey to the North Pole to give Santa a present, and ‘SpongeBob & Sandy’s Country Christmas’ arrived as a stop-motion special in December 2024.

Now the franchise has a new holiday outing, and its first trailer is built around that familiar list. The 28-second teaser opens on a scroll marked Naughty List, with the names Eugene H. Krabs, SpongeBob, Man Ray, Helen and Dirty Bubble inked on it. The Nickelodeon and Paramount logos sit in the corner, and the joke is clear: even SpongeBob himself has landed in trouble this year.

First trailer for the SpongeBob Christmas special. The special follows SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs & an unlikely group of friends who team up to save Christmas after Plankton takes over the North Pole. Releasing November 27 on Paramount+ https://t.co/7Mk3AvLDnt

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 6, 2026

The special is titled ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Plankton’, and it is an hour-long animated special. The official logline says SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs and an unlikely group of friends must team up to save Christmas after Plankton takes over the North Pole. A Nickelodeon synopsis from earlier in the year described the group as misfits.

That premise flips the usual holiday formula. Plankton has long been the character scheming his way onto Santa’s good side to get the Krabby Patty formula. In ‘SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas’, he planned to hack into Santa’s mainframe and put his name on the nice list so Santa would have to give him the formula. A first look released this summer also described the special as one in which Plankton makes Santa’s nice list.

Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Mr. Lawrence, Jill Talley and Carolyn Lawrence provide the voices for the show’s main characters, and Lewis Black guest stars as Santa. Kenny voices SpongeBob, Fagerbakke is Patrick, Bumpass is Squidward, Brown is Mr. Krabs and Lawrence is Plankton.

Santa sits at the center of the story. If Plankton takes over the North Pole, the man in red has to be somewhere in the chaos, and the trailer’s Naughty List suggests Bikini Bottom’s behavior is being judged harshly this year.

‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Plankton’ debuts on Nov. 27 at 5 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon and streams the same day on Paramount+. A new episode of ‘The Patrick Star Show’ follows at 6 p.m., in which the Stars share Christmas stories while snowbound at home.

Fans got their first peek earlier this year. During the first annual SpongeBob Day on July 14, Kenny unveiled a first look at the special during a TikTok Live. The full trailer now adds the Naughty List gag that sells the tone.

The timing fits a franchise that keeps expanding. Paramount describes ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ as one of the most widely distributed properties in its history, seen in more than 180 markets and averaging more than 90 million total viewers every quarter. The series debuted in 1999 and has expanded into TV shows, movies, games, merchandise and a Broadway musical, with recent releases including ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants’ and movies centered on Sandy Cheeks and Plankton.

Against that backdrop, an hour-long Christmas special is a natural way to keep the characters in front of audiences during the holidays. It also gives the writers room to play with Bikini Bottom’s rogues, which is exactly what the Naughty List teaser promises.

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