Review: The Great North “Xmas With the Skanks Adventure”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
When a long-lost family friend shows up at Lone Moose’s white elephant gift exchange, Beef is not pleased. Meanwhile, Moon rescues a reindeer.

Our Take:
The Tobins are celebrating the holidays once again before they take another hiatus this season. However, they won’t be the only ones celebrating this occasion. That’s right, an additional guest has joined the Christmas celebration, and it’s not a person. Instead, it’s a singing and dancing Christmas tree toy that everyone loves. Well, almost everyone.
The episode sees the Tobins attending the white elephant gift exchange with the rest of the townsfolk. There, the family gets a surprise inside one of the gifts: the return of their Christmas toy named Skanky. While the Tobins loved to dance along with Skanky, Beef wasn’t too thrilled with the singing toy, resulting in him giving Skanky away during the last gift exchange.
The story consists of the Tobins trying to use the three steals from the gift exchange rules to get Skanky back while Beef tries to prevent them from succeeding. During the process, we learn that Beef isn’t the only person who doesn’t like Skanky, as Honeybee also hates the tree due to its design. She couldn’t decide whether the ornaments were its boobs or its butt.
The side plot focuses on Moon rescuing a reindeer from Santa’s Village and hiding it inside the shed outside the center. Unfortunately, Moon realizes that the reindeer he saved, which he named Wilhelm, is a female reindeer that’s about to give birth. This is another episode that connects the main plot with its B plot, especially towards the end when the characters meet up to give birth to three adorable baby reindeer.
“Xmas With the Skanks Adventure” delivers the usual comedy that’s far from hilarious but still retains its humorous charm, especially the guy wearing the Satan costume instead of a Santa costume. The Skanky design also got a chuckle out of me, as I also have no idea what its ornaments are supposed to be. However, it also doesn’t shy away from the Christmas cheer and heart the show’s known for.
The ending showcases that Beef only hates Skanky because it reminds him of his failure during his first Christmas as a single father. When he didn’t have enough money to give his family the gifts they wanted, he resorted to giving them crafting tools and Skanky instead. This is the first time in a while that the show uses its plot to examine Beef’s characterization, and it’s a pretty heartfelt way of bringing this development back.
“Xmas With the Skanks Adventure” doesn’t reach the amount of “skankiness” as the Christmas tree toy. However, it offers enough holiday charm to deliver another enjoyable Christmas-themed episode in the show’s successful run. Until the new year, don’t be a skank during the holiday season.