Sonic Christmas Blast

Sonic Christmas Blast is a 1996 Christmas special, aired on the USA Network, spun off from the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which itself was based on the  video game series.

Synopsis
Christmas Eve has come to Robotropolis, and everyone in town has gathered around the Jumbotron in the middle of the square to see Santa Claus (actually a robot duplicate of him, but they do not know this) make a very important announcement - he's retiring. He claims to have found a "perfect replacement" in the form of Robotnik Claus (Dr. Robotnik in a Santa suit), who says that he is making a few slight changes to the holiday. The kids who don't know any better line up in the mall to sit on Robotnik's lap, only to find out that, in true greedy porker fashion, he demands that the children give him presents for Christmas. When one kid objects to this, Robotnik orders to have him taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, Sonic, after having a talk with Princess Sally, goes to meet up with his buddy Tails, whom he recruits to help him find Sally some Christmas presents. This confuses the little fox, because Sonic just agreed with Sally that they wouldn't get each other anything this year. Sonic explains that every year he and Sally agree to not get each other any for Christmas, but she ends up getting Sonic a bunch of cool stuff, like a ring on his finger with a mysterious squiggle mark. Meanwhile, Sonic usually takes the "no presents" agreement seriously, and ends up actually getting Sally nothing. This year, though, he has figured out that when a girl say she wants "no presents, she really means two stores full."

The two arrive at the Robotropolis mall only to find that all the stores are completely empty. Trying to figure out why, Sonic runs into the kid Robotnik tried to imprison earlier, who explains that Robotnik has taken over Santa's position and has sent his Badniks to steal all the presents in the stores. Just then, Scratch and Grounder, Robotnik's bumbling henchmen, show up with the Robot Santa from earlier and attempt to do away with Sonic, but typically fail to do so. Sonic then disguises himself as a garbage man and tricks them into telling him where the real Santa Claus is being held. Upon realizing that they've just been tricked, Scratch and Grounder alert Robotnik of this. Robotnik orders them to alert the SWATbots he has guarding the big guy, but Sonic makes quick work of them.

Sonic rescues Santa from the cave in which he's trapped, but it doesn't change the fact that Robotnik still has every Christmas present in the entire world, and by the time they get them all back, Christmas will be long over. Fortunately, Santa recognizes the squiggle on Sonic's ring from an ancient cave pencil drawing painting that reveals the secret of achieving ultimate velocity. The one who wears the sacred ring (Sonic) must pass three tests of skill, the first being a treacherous climb up a really skinny mountain. After Sonic does that, he then has to go snowboarding down the mountain and then ride a bicycle through dangerous territory.

Sonic passes the tests with flying colors and achieves ultimate velocity, but to no avail, Santa fears, because it's almost Christmas morning, and they still need to retrieve the presents and distribute them. But fortunately, Sonic uses his new super speed to zip to Robotnik's fortress and snatch the stolen presents (as well as Robotnik's clothes for some reason), and then distributes the presents to everyone on Mobius, including Sally. In the end, Santa is so impressed with the job Sonic has done, the he decides to retire after all, and turns the job over to Sonic.

Trivia

 * A brief plug for this special was given in issue #41 of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, advertised as An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas. This suggests that the special was made with the intention of tying in with Sonic X-Treme, a Sonic game that was supposed to be released for the Sega Saturn for Christmas in the same year as the special. When Sonic X-Treme was delayed (and eventually cancelled), though, the special's title was changed to fit with the Sonic game that did come out in time for Christmas of 1996, Sonic 3-D Blast on the Sega Genesis (which was soon ported to the Saturn).
 * The part where Sonic uses a snowboard is probably based on the levels in which he uses one in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on the Genesis and Sonic Triple Trouble on the Game Gear.
 * Although the special is based mainly off of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog series, the character of Princess Sally comes from the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon that ran at the same time as Adventures (which was titled simply Sonic the Hedgehog, but also called SatAM by fans to differentiate from the games and the other show), though here she is colored with her color scheme from that show's pilot, "Heads or Tails". She also notably does not have any actual lines, except for some vocal gasps; a brief cut right after Sonic speaks with her suggests that dialogue for her was already scripted and even animated, but cut out because, for whatever reason, Kath Soucie (who had voiced the character on SatAM) did not agree to reprise the role. Other elements from SatAM used here are the town name being Robotropolis (albeit pronounced differently) and the drone Badniks being referred to as SWATbots (in spite of not resembling the ones seen on SatAM).
 * Sonic's hands frequently shift between having four and five fingers throughout the special.
 * When Sonic zips into Robotnik's fortress, the lights and decorations on Robotnik's Christmas tree disappear before he even touches it.