You Wish ('Shanghaied') / Gary Takes A Bath - S2-E11
Deliberate mistake: Spongebob gets stuck in the top of a tree as Gary removes the ladder. In previous episodes it's quite clear that he's more than willing to 'fall' as he takes no damage when hitting the ground due to the low fall speed.





Answer: In the "Christmas Who?" episode's intro, Patchy the Pirate is reading a letter where a fan ask if Spongebob loves Christmas as much as he does. Patchy explains they didn't always celebrate Christmas and this episode is a flashback to the first time Bikini Bottom had heard of Christmas. Santa had never visited before because nobody had believed in him before. Santa finally does visit because of Squidward's Christmas spirit. The "It's a Spongebob Christmas" episode aired 12 years later. So by this time, Bikini Bottom had been celebrating Christmas for quite sometime. Santa comes for a special visit because of how everyone in town, except Plankton, is on his naughty list.
Bishop73