Blue's First Holiday

"Blue's First Holiday"

Episode number

Season 5, Episode 36 (#529)

Question in the episode

Where is Joe's duck blanket? (In Blue's First Clue)

Clues

Circles
A Carrot
Snow

Answer to Blue's Clues

By the snowman (Blue's First Clue)

Chronology

Previous episode

Morning Music (Season Order)
Blue Takes You to School (Production Order)
Blue's Book Nook (Broadcast Order)
Puppets (Release Order)
Look Carefully... (Credit Order)

Next episode

The Legend of the Blue Puppy (Broadcast Order)
Blue Goes to the Doctor (Production Order)
Blue's School (Release Order)
Our Neighborhood Festival (Credit Order)

Update in or theme concept made into

A Blue Christmas with You!

Blue's First Holiday is the 36th episode of Blue's Clues from Season 5.

Characters Present[]

Blue (older and younger)
Joe (older and younger)
Steve (telephone and young)
Sidetable Drawer (older and younger)
Mailbox (older and younger)
Mr. Salt (self in the real world and narrator in the childhood videos)
Mrs. Pepper
Paprika
Cinnamon
Tickety Tock (older and younger)
Slippery Soap (older and younger)
Shovel (older and younger)
Pail (older and younger)
Snail (older and younger)
Boris (big and little)
Horace (just little)

Summary[]

It's Christmas again in Storybook World, and this time Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper show us a special present - two VHS tapes showing everyone when they were young. The gang takes a look back and see young Steve and baby Joe as well as baby versions of many of the characters. "The Day We Met Blue" reveals the untold story of how the gang first met Blue, while the game of Blue's Clues got its origin story in "Blue's First Clue". The gang also gets a special telephone call from Steve.

Elements[]

Question (In Blue's First Clue): Where is Joe's duck blanket?
Clues:
- 1. Circles
- 2. A Carrot
- 3. Snow
Answer to Blue's Clues: By the snowman, the one that babies Shovel and Pail made, wearing a woolly hat, in his left stick hand (childhood video)
Living room picture:
- A snowman with ice cream (has a top hat and faces left during the Mailtime segment)
- Doodle of Little Steve and Baby Joe (childhood video)

Recap[]

This plot summary is incomplete. You can help Blue's Clues Wiki by completing it.

Video Releases[]

Blue's First Holiday (VHS/DVD, 2003)
Nickelodeon: Merry Christmas! (DVD, 2011)

Gallery[]

Watch Episode[]

This episode is available for streaming on Paramount Global's video streaming service Paramount+.

Trivia[]

This marks the only episode to feature two Mailtime segments.
Elizabeth Anderson, relative of former Content Consultant Dr. Dan Anderson, is one of Joe's Friends in this episode.
This episode marks the final appearance of Steve's Handy Dandy Notebook.
Baby Mailbox is the only one who didn't receive a holiday gift as he was giving them out.
This is the last time Steve is ever mentioned, heard, or appeared, in the original Blue's Clues series, however, he's seen as a child.
This is Joe’s version of Blue's Big Holiday.
- He last appeared in person on the 100th Episode Celebration.
- Steve would not appear again until Meet Josh!.
- When Steve says "I miss you" on the phone, the audio is taken from the Season 4 finale episode Steve Goes to College.
Like Steve, in the Season 3 episode Blue's Big Holiday, Joe wears a sweater version of the shirt he wears.
In the Season 4 episode Joe's First Day, Joe said he made Boris himself.
- At the beginning of Mr. Salt's video, the camera zooms in on baby Joe and Boris. Boris was sitting right next to him.
  - This either probably means he is some kind of prodigy tailor for making him all by himself, he lost Boris and decided to recreate him himself later on in life, or his off-screen parents had made Boris for as his first present.
This is the second episode where the Play Blue's Clues was not featured because that song didn't exist back in those videos.
Joe has had his duck blanket when he was a baby and still has it with him today.
When Mailbox is about to deliver the mail and the different music starts, Young Steve runs around the room shouting "The mail is here, The mail is here" and finally yells out "MAIIIILLL!"
All the babies talk except for Joe.
Snail was revealed to have been living in the house since the time of the 1st movie (she appeared as a baby between the cushions by the windowsill where young Steve read his book).
- She can also be seen after the 2nd movie from behind the VCR on the TV interacting with the others.
There was a playing of Blue's Clues and it happened on the second video titled "Blue's First Clue" which told the story about the time the characters played the game of Blue's Clues for the first time. Although the first time they played Blue's Clues was in Snack Time.
This is the last time that The So Long Song was sung, it wasn't sung for 15 years until "Meet Josh!". Starting with "Love Day", it was replaced with The Goodbye Song.
In the first Mailtime segment, when Baby Mailbox brings Young Steve the mail he is shown wearing the same flag warmer that Steve did not give him until he grew up. Possibly, Mailbox grew out of the one he wore in the video, so Steve made him another one that fitted with help from Tickety and Slippery.
This is the 7th time that the telephone was sitting on the floor.
- The 1st time it happened was from "Pool Party".
- The 2nd time it happened was from "Blue's Big Musical Movie".
- This is also the only time that the telephone was answered while it was sitting on the floor.
In the 2nd Mailtime segment, Mailbox delivers a holiday card. It featured 4 different kids celebrating a different kind of observance. There was Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Ramadan. Each of the 4 kids explained the holiday and the corresponding kid narrating that kind of observance explains their favorite part.
During the fading to the next shot, Baby Shovel and Baby Pail are standing looking at the viewers briefly before it cut to them looking at Young Steve reading "About A Puppy" (Where Baby Blue was born, and finally comes to life the next morning. This took place after the story in the Season 6 premiere: The Legend of the Blue Puppy).
This is the last episode of Season 5.
This is the last episode to air in 2003.
There are no Talking Clues in this episode, since Steve has never used them, they were most likely retired and removed starting in the episode, Bluestock.
- However, in Steve Goes to College, Season 5 episodes ending with "Blue's Predictions", and "The Scavenger Hunt", "Let's Write!", "Magenta's Messages", "Bluestock" and "Meet Blue's Baby Brother, Joe doesn't use them, since it was part of the Season 6 OPT.
This is the first episode where Sidetable Drawer's voice sounded more mature and grown-up. It will be like this in Season 6.
This is the last pure Blue's Clues episode, as the future episodes will involve Blue's Room.
Baby Shovel's toy bear resembles a purple version of Winnie-the-Pooh (specifically the Disney version).
This is Joe's version of "Blue's Big Holiday".
Boris can be seen wearing Steve's green striped scarf.
This is the last episode (if one counts the baby versions of Steve and Joe as different live-actors) to feature live-actors that are not Steve or Joe (not counting the kids in the letters).
This the second episode where the ringing of the telephone is mistaken for something else (in this case, the doorbell), after Joe's First Day.
During the scene where Blue leaves her third clue, a holiday version of the music track that is cued when it is time for the Thinking Chair can be heard (with a trombone playing the "Blue skidoo, we can too" tune).
When Blue and Joe go sledding, Mrs. Pepper, Tickety Tock, Slippery Soap, Shovel, and Pail start chasing them.
Joe wears an orange squared sweater in this episode.
The characters all appear as babies during the credits. In order they are Blue, Mailbox, Slippery, Sidetable Drawer, Blue (again), Shovel & Pail, and Tickety.
This is the last time that Joe sang The So Long Song, as the next season would feature The Goodbye Song.
It's possible that this episode was going to be released in 2002, but may have been finished after the winter holidays that year.
When the letter ends, Joe says, "Happy holidays!" instead of "Bye!".
In the last childhood video, the answer to who stole Baby Joe's duck blanket is the snowman, but when Young Steve takes it to the laundry room to dry it off for Baby Joe, the snowman gives up.

Goofs[]

Sidetable is in the living room, she cannot move. Next, Sidetable can move when it's present time.
During "The Day We Met Blue" movie, in the scene where Steve is still sleeping, Blue's ball can be seen right next to Steve's bed and the purple table. After Blue skidoos out of the book, the ball mysteriously moved far away from the bed and the table.
William Ullrich (actor of Young Steve) is credited as William Ulrich.
This episode (the last of Season 5) was supposed to be the last episode with the Season 5 OST. However, the Season 5 OST reappeared in the season 6 episode "Playdates".
The viewer does not say, "Steve!" after Joe says, "Who do you think that is?" with a pause following it.
During the movie, the baby characters are in their cradles, which were to the left of Baby Joe, but when they all start telling him they will help find his blanket, Tickety, Pail, and Slippery appear from the right, even though they were in their cradles.
When Baby Blue puts her paw print on the circles, it moves to a different position when young Steve returns to draw the clue in his notebook.

Blue's Clues Season 5