Bruce Timm said of the episode, "I like the fact that Fox always runs it on Christmas, every year. It's really different than a typical, sappy Christmas episode on other series. It's dark, bitter and weird."
First episode (production wise) to feature Robin and The Joker.
According to Bruce Timm, Broadcast Standards & Practices (BS&P) refused to approve the original script. "It started out as a much nastier, really funny script, written by a friend of Paul Dini, Eric Radomski. When Joker says 'I didn't have a family of my own, so I decided to steal one,' it's a regular family he's stolen, making it more intense and scary."