In a Retail Wonderland...

In a Retail Wonderland... is the 35th episode of the series and the 8th episode of the second season. It aired on December 22, 2005, in Canada on Teletoon and on August 6, 2009, in the United States on Cartoon Network.

Another Christmas has come to the mall, and once again, it sucks. Wayne is a horrible boss with no Christmas spirit, Coach Halder is driving Jen insane at work, Nikki's Christmas-obsessed parents are intent on taking her on a vacation to Acapulco, Caitlin is having boyfriend problems because of a conflict with her self-invented side job, and Jonesy is stuck wrapping presents with his sworn enemy Ron the Rent-a-Cop.

Main Plot
Jude is hanging out by the fountain with a rabbit when Jen comes by, uptight because of Christmas shoppers and Coach Halder, whose very name is now enough to send her into a fit. Jonesy then shows up with good news: because he did a great job decorating the tree, he's now on gift-wrapping detail. His friends are surprised that he decorated the tree until they notice that it's tilting slightly, at which point it becomes all too apparent that Jonesy was involved.

Later, the entire group is gathered around the table when Nikki makes an announcement: apparently, her parents want to take her to Acapulco for Christmas vacation. While her friends think that this is nice on their part, Nikki doesn't feel the same way, because it means she'll be spending her vacation time with her parents. Caitlin's phone then rings, and she answers with the response "Gift Girl." When her friends ask what the meaning of this response is, Caitlin tells them that she's set up a business where she shops for guys who don't know what to get their significant others. She then shuts down the Big Squeeze in order to go shop; when Jen questions how Caitlin can do this, Caitlin responds that she doesn't have a boss like Coach Halder breathing down her neck. At the very mention of her boss' name, Jen screams, and the group parts in order to get to work–except for Jude, who calls his girlfriend for help with getting Jen to chill out.

At Underground Video, Wayne is in a bad mood because somebody replaced his remote's titanium batteries with alkaline ones. When he finds out that Jude was the culprit, he threatens Jude with job termination unless he recategorizes the foreign-language documentaries. Wyatt then arrives, and Wayne complains about him being late. To try and make it up to his boss, Wyatt volunteers to set up a holiday movies display but is told by Wayne that the store doesn't have one because he hates Christmas movies.

Wayne doesn't cheer up when receiving Jude's present for him (a DVD holder for his belt) either. In fact, all mentions of Christmas seem to put him into a bad mood, from selling a holiday movie to being invited to a pre-Christmas party by Wyatt. When Wyatt tries mulling spices in order to get Wayne in the mood, though, Wayne finally decides to get into the Christmas spirit–by keeping the store open on Christmas and making his employees work that day. Naturally, Wyatt is incensed by this proposition, but he can do nothing about it: he will be working on Christmas.

Later that day, though, Wayne falls asleep and is visited by three spirits. The first one, who looks remarkably like Jen, shows him a vision of himself as a child, where he got so engrossed in movies that he wouldn't even get up to use the bathroom just in case he missed something. She then reminds him that he didn't want to grow up into the person he is, and leaves. The next spirit looks like Wyatt dressed as Santa Claus, who further reminds Wayne that he's become a jerk who hates Christmas before leaving. The final spirit to arrive is a ghost from the future who turns everything red–not because he's trying to be ominous, but because in the future people will live on Mars. Wayne is underwhelmed by this lesson until the ghost follows it up with the moral that Wayne must become a better person before it's too late.

After this dream concludes, Wayne awakes and finds out that it's still Christmas Eve. Realizing that there's still time to repent, he pays Stanley to buy him a huge bag of chips, which he then gives to the table of friends by the Big Squeeze. The entire group finds his actions odd, but accept his gift; after all, creepy Christmas Wayne is still nicer than regular Wayne.

Later, after the stores shut down, the teens (except for Nikki) are all in the mall when Jude reveals he made an ornament for the mall's giant tree: a mandala representing friendship. He puts it up, but it's at that point that the tree's instability becomes too much, and it topples over. Jonesy recognizes that he's responsible because he was supposed to secure the tree; however, Wyatt consoles him by pointing out that nobody was under the tree. Groans of pain are then heard, and the group realizes that there's going to be trouble for them over this.

Sub-Plot One: Jen's Holiday Stress
After Jude calls Starr, Starr invites Jen over to practice some yoga. There, Jen does yoga and find that it relaxes her, even when Coach Halder's name is mentioned. She then proceeds to do yoga poses whenever the stress of the season starts to get to her, and as a result is able to relax somewhat and not lose her mind.

Sub-Plot Two: Nikki's Vacation
Nikki is reluctant to go on vacation with her parents, especially when they show up at her place of work. However, because Chrissy hates her, Chrissy is all too willing to give Nikki days off to spend with her parents in Mexico. Nikki then goes to Caitlin for help, but finds that Caitlin is too despondent after breaking up with Connor; however, when Caitlin sees Connor dressed in a goofy costume, she quickly gets over him and decides to help Nikki out. Caitlin's solution is to have Nikki go on the trip with her parents, because Nikki will only have a rotten time and disappoint her parents if she stays at home over Christmas. Nikki agrees, and gets a spray tan in order to get ready for Acapulco. She unfortunately only tans one side of her body; however, because she has to go, she leaves the mall half-tanned and with plans to lie on the tanned side of her body while on the beach.

Sub-Plot Three: Gift Girl
Caitlin is having a good time shopping at the mall, but her over-the-phone business is constantly interrupted by a particular caller: her boyfriend Connor. While she would like to talk to and spend time with him, she's just too busy. Eventually, this busyness gets to be too much for Connor, and he breaks up with her. This leaves Caitlin brokenhearted and unable to shop until she sees him at his job, which forces him to wear an ugly costume. Upon seeing him, she concludes that he's not worth the unhappiness of a bunch of clueless guys and their girlfriends, and she gets back to work on making people happy, starting with Nikki.

Sub-Plot Four: Wrapping Gifts
Jonesy is working at the gift-wrapping table when Ron stops by and inquires as to what he's doing. When Ron finds out that the money is decent and that there are tips, he becomes more interested, and when Caitlin plops down a huge stack of gifts with the demand that they be wrapped in twenty minutes, he quickly sits down and starts wrapping. When Jonesy asks him why, he explains that security work doesn't pay well and he still has presents to buy, so he's going to take this job alongside Jonesy. The two then spend the rest of the day wrapping gifts, with Ron proving himself an expert at the art. They also begin to bond, as Ron brings over some baked goods that he made.

Quotes
Jen: Christmas shoppers are evil! Jen: Don't remind me. Jonesy: Cause if you're late, Coach... (seeing the look on her face) Halder... Jen: NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jen: GAH! HE'S DRIVING! ME! CRAZY! Ron: That's classified. It takes a man to know how to use them. Wayne: What do you mean by that, you mean like, before like before I'm dead? Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come: Dude. You don't have to get all heavy on me. I gotta slide.
 * Jude: (petting the rabbit in his lap) So, little bunny dude, you ever heard the one where the turtle is faster than the rabbit?
 * Jude: Hey Jen, how's it going?
 * Jonesy: Aren't you working today?
 * Caitlin: That's the great thing about working here! I don't have someone breathing down my neck all day like you do. Like that annoying...Coach...Halder...
 * Wayne: Getting a colonoscopy is a yearly ritual for many people too, but that doesn't mean I want a colonoscopy display in my store.
 * Jonesy: Where did you get those bells?
 * Jude: You look like Santa just puked in your stocking.
 * Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come: You must learn to be a nicer person before it's too late!

Trivia
Reason for firing: For the first job, Jonesy was moved to a new station after the tree was set up. For the second job, the Christmas season was ending, and those who worked seasonal jobs were let go. Jonesy, however, wasn't fired from either job. Reason for break-up: Caitlin was too busy with her job as the gift girl and Connor simply wanted to call and talk to her. The busyness soon becomes too much to bear, resulting in Caitlin and Connor breaking up.
 * Jonesy's jobs: Mall Christmas tree set-up and gift-wrapping
 * Caitlin's boyfriend: Connor

Errors

 * Caitlin is shocked that Connor would wear antlers as part of his job. However, in the third Christmas special "How the Rent-A-Cop Stole Christmas", she was seen wearing antlers without any repercussions.
 * In one scene, Jen says she needs to do the "Dragon" yoga pose to ease her stress. However, the pose she actually does is referred by Starr as the "Preying Mantis".
 * When Nikki tans the right side of her body, Caitlin orders her to lie "right-side up" to get the other half of her body tanned. It is actually Nikki's left side of the body that needs to be tanned, not her right.

Episode connections

 * This episode, next to the season 1 episode "Deck the Mall", and the season 3 episode "How the Rent-A-Cop Stole Christmas", is one of the three Christmas-related episodes.
 * Nikki suggests that she should stay with Jen instead of going to Acapulco. Jen would later suggest the same thing in the first part of the series finale.
 * This is the first Christmas special in which Mrs. Wong appears, and the only one where her husband appears. Mrs. Wong would appear again in "How the Rent-A-Cop Stole Christmas" at a gift-wrapping table.

Cultural references

 * Wayne's dream sequence is a reference to Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol.
 * Jude mentions owning a skateboard by pro boarder Alex Chalmers.