The show's first and only Christmas episode.
Xena impersonates Clotho, "First of the Fates whose province is the past". The three fates, or moirai: Clotho spins the thread of life; Lachesis allots or draws out the thread of life; Atropos cuts the thread and ends life. In Plato's 'Republic' Lachesis sings of things that were, Clotho sings of things that are, and Atropos sings of things that will be. This makes them appropriate analogs of the three Christmas spirits in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".
The name Senticles is a play on Santa Claus. The character makes toys for the children & comes down chimneys.
The state of Analia's room, preserved as if on the day she left and gathering cobwebs, may be an allusion to another Charles Dickens work, Great Expectations, where Miss Havisham similarly treats the room where her would-be husband deserted her on the day of her wedding.