TV's The Simpsons family own a greyhound named Santa's Little Helper.

Santa's Little Helper is a recurring character in the American animated television series The Simpsons.

Santa's Little Helper has since appeared frequently on The Simpsons and the plots of many episodes center around him.

Some of the episodes that focus on Santa's Little Helper have been inspired by popular culture or real experiences that staff members of the show have gone through.

Although animals in cartoons often have human traits, Santa's Little Helper generally acts like a real life dog.

Santa's Little Helper has become a popular character following his appearances on The Simpsons.

Santa's Little Helper is a fictional greyhound that appears on the animated television series The Simpsons and is the pet dog of the Simpson family.

Although Homer has inside information on which dog is the most likely to win, he instead bets on a last-minute entry, Santa's Little Helper, believing the dog's Christmas-inspired name to be a sign.

When Bart and Homer return home, Santa's Little Helper is assumed by the rest of the family to be a Christmas present.

In various episodes, Santa's Little Helper can be seen chewing on newspapers and other objects in the Simpsons ' household, destroying furniture, and digging holes in the backyard.

Santa's Little Helper does not do well there as Bart is unwilling to use a choke chain suggested by the instructor.

The night before the final exam, Bart and Santa's Little Helper play, thinking it will be their last few hours together.

Santa's Little Helper has fathered several puppies.

Santa's Little Helper sires another litter of puppies with Dr. Hibbert's poodle in the episode " Today I Am a Clown " ( season 15, 2003 ).

Santa's Little Helper ends up in the possession of Mr. Burns, who trains him to become a vicious attack dog.

Several days later, Bart stumbles upon the trained Santa's Little Helper and is attacked, but the greyhound eventually recognizes his old friend and stops.

Laddie learns many tricks that Santa's Little Helper is completely unable to perform, and the Simpson family nearly forgets about their old pet.

Bart eventually gives Santa's Little Helper away instead of Laddie when repo men take back everything he fraudulently purchased.

Feeling guilty about this disloyalty and bored with his too perfect new dog, Bart tries to get Santa's Little Helper back.

When he finally finds him, Santa's Little Helper is serving as a seeing-eye dog for a blind man, but eventually decides to return to the family.

In " Stop or My Dog Will Shoot " ( season 18, 2007 ), Santa's Little Helper becomes a local hero after finding a lost Homer, and the Simpsons decide to enroll him in the Animal Police Academy.

" ( season 22, 2010 ), after Santa's Little Helper devours a pigeon with a broken leg that Bart was nursing, Bart gets mad at the dog and is unable to forgive him.

The Simpsons therefore give Santa's Little Helper away to an ostrich farm.

After remembering that he was told that it is wrong to kill birds, Santa's Little Helper ceases to aid Bart in the fight, confused at his own loyalty ( for Bart's sake or his orders ) leaving Bart to strangle the ostrich to death.

Bart then realizes that Santa's Little Helper could not help killing the pigeon and apologizes.

The role of elves as Santa's helpers has continued to be popular, as evidenced by the success of the popular Christmas movie Elf.

Canada Post has assigned postal code H0H 0H0 to the North Pole ( referring to Santa's traditional exclamation of " Ho ho ho!

Writer John Swartzwelder has noted that the staff members of the show write the character Homer in the same way that they write Santa's Little Helper: " Both are loyal.

Santa's Little Helper has become a well-known dog because of his appearances in the series.

Among fans and critics, Santa's Little Helper has been mostly well received.

Since his first appearance on The Simpsons, Santa's Little Helper has appeared in merchandise relating to the show.

Santa's Little Helper has made an impact on real life in that an espresso-based drink has been named after him at the award-winning restaurant and bar Bambara in Salt Lake City's Hotel Monaco.

In addition, a dog walking and pet sitting company in New York City, called " Santa's Little Helper Dog Walking and Pet Sitting ", has been named after him.

Will, who has never had to work thanks to the royalties from his father's hit Christmas song, " Santa's Super Sleigh ," has a lot of spare time, which he spends smoking, watching TV, listening to albums and looking for temporary female companionship.

A group of volunteers known as Santa's Elves ensures each child receives a reply from Santa Claus ; this tradition has been in existence since at least 1914.

Shady Brook Farm has a large Farm Market and Garden Center, and hosts many events, including Pumpkin Fest and HorrorFest in the fall, Santa's Village and the Holiday Light Show during the Christmas season, and the Annual Easter Egg Hunt, as well as others throughout the year, including the Wine Concert Series and Apple Festival.

Financial assistance has been given to many local events including the Easter Egg Hunt, Santa's Workshop, and Burnet County Livestock Show.

Meanwhile, Dropo, Kimar's assistant, has taken a great liking to Santa Claus and Christmas, puts on one of Santa's spare suits and starts acting like Santa Claus.

Michael Fry and T. Lewis have given Rudolph another brother in a series of Over the Hedge comic strips ; an overweight, emotionally-damaged reindeer named " Ralph, the Infra-Red nosed Reindeer ", who has a red nose just like Rudolph's, but his is good for defrosting Santa's sleigh and warming up toast and waffles.

At first, everyone dismisses what has happened, but Dora immediately insists on helping Swiper, as nobody, not even Swiper deserves to be on Santa's naughty list.

Joe does not believe Santa's story and Marty has Santa arrested.

She meets Mr. Nicholas who teaches her to be nice to people and it soon begins to work ; Schemer's mom has made him a Santa's helper costume and he begins his campaign against Stacy by telling Midge Smoot ( Bobo Lewis ), J. B. King ( Mart Hulswit ) and the Mayor ( Jerome Dempsey ) untrue things about her.

Gadget mistakes Brain for " the fake Santa's " accomplice, lassos the both of them and heads off to tell " the real Santa " he has caught the criminals.