<P> Jeff arrives to spend the holiday with Hayley, much to Stan's displeasure . However, Santa soon arrives since Jeff wrote a letter telling him where they would be staying . Bob Todd reveals that his airplane - house is also an armory, which includes an M60 machine gun, two RPKs and an M16 assault rifle, to fend off an attack of endless waves of armed elves, flying reindeer, and an enormous snowman (reminiscent of a Cave Troll from Lord Of The Rings) led by Santa . Francine snaps Steve out of his fears, ordering him to "pick up a gun this instant and send these toy makers to Hell!" and the family proceeds to defend themselves . Santa tries to convince Jeff to abandon the Smiths, recognizing that he was not involved in their plot to hide his body, and by offering a relic from The Golden Compass . Jeff walks to Santa's side, but then turns on him and is able to pull Stan who was injured to safety . While Jeff takes care of Stan; Jeff says he thinks Stan is an ass . But, the two agree on their love for Hayley, causing Stan to see Jeff as a true member of the family . The family is almost overrun, until Santa and his army are forced to retreat because they only had until Christmas morning to get vengeance . Santa disappears, leaving behind a letter warning them that he will return next year to take his revenge and kill them, while the Smith family realizes that they have found a new Christmas tradition . </P> <P> "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls" was written by series regular Erik Durbin and directed by series regular Bob Bowen . The episode was the twenty - second to be produced in the season five production cycle . The first few minutes of the episode were previewed at the San Diego Comic - Con International in July 2010, but shown in black - and - white form . While writing the episode, the writers tried to come up with a bloody story . Writer Durbin said, "Everybody in the (writing) room kind of was talking about making it as bloody as possible, I think . It was just which movie were we going to model it after . (...) I think' 300' got thrown around the most, talking about trying to make it as bloody and cool as' 300 ."' The episode had a TV - 14 rating, and series co-creator Seth MacFarlane said that "no kids will ever see it", joking that "They follow those (content ratings) like the f - ing Bible ." He also said that the episode informs kids that "Santa really exists". He said, "Except that he's a crazed murderer . But as long as the tradition is upheld, then I guess that's all that's important ." </P> <P> In August 2010, MacFarlane and the voice cast were present at the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Los Angeles, promoting the hundredth episode, "100 A.D." The event also included a table read of "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls", and Gail Pennington of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, "not much can really be said about the episode except that it includes a mass slaughter of elves ." The event also previewed the animation for the final act of the episode . The band August Burns Red's cover of "Carol of the Bells" was featured in the episode . Series regulars Matt McKenna and Erik Durbin provided the voice of Santa Claus and the moonshiner Bob Todd, respectively, while guest star Clancy Brown provided the voice of the liquor store manager . </P> <P> The episode contains several pop culture references . The title of the episode "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls" is a parody of the novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls and the Metallica song inspired by the novel . The action sequence and bloody themes were slightly modeled after the film 300 . When Bob Todd is teaching Roger moonshining, Roger jumps over barrels of moonshine, similar to the Donkey Kong video games . Frosty the Snowman appears in Santa's army, which is a reference to the cave - troll scene in Moria from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring . The elves are wrangling Frosty in with a collar and chains almost exactly like the scene from Fellowship . When Jeff confronts Santa, he stabs him with the polar bear helmet from the film The Golden Compass . When Santa arrives and finds them the song' Carol of the Bells' by August Burns Red plays . </P>

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