At the beginning of the episode, right after Mayor McDaniels says, "We'll be lighting the South Park Christmas tree to kick off the holidays," it moves to a wide shot of the crowd where a classic South Park alien, a Visitor, is standing right behind Maphesto and Father Maxi. This is the only shot containing the alien, who cheers with the crowd when the mayor makes her announcement, however there are other one or two time characters who make an appearance in the crowd, including: Chef's parents Thomas and Nelle McElroy and Ben Affleck's parents Stephen and Martha Thompson from How to Eat with Your Butt (2001).
Santa's line about "being in for a long night, cause I don't know shit" seems to be a 1:1 homage to the same line in Lethal Weapon (1987) when Riggs is tortured by Endo.
This episode marks the second appearance made by Kyle Broflovski's cousin, Kyle Schwartz.
The title is a play on words of the movie "Black Hawk Down" (2001).
Originally titled "Christmas in Iraq"