Mr. Krabs woke in his bed, then scanned the room for any sign of what had happened. "Was that all a dream?" he asked himself.

The crustacean would have gotten back to sleep when the clock struck two. Jacob Squidly had said that the next ghost would show up at this time, but so far nothing was showing up.

That is, until a booming voice said, "Ebenezer! Come in and know me better, man!"

Mr. Krabs fell out of bed in surprise and went into what would have been his living room to find it virtually unrecognizable. Bountiful food was stacked everywhere save one giant wrapped box with a ribbon.

"Uh...ghost?" Mr. Krabs asked, "Where are yeh?"

The giant box's top popped off to reveal a pink starfish inside it. (Patrick Star) "Here I am!" he said in a low-bass, not-too-quick voice.

"Who are you?" Krabs asked, scratching the back of his shelled head.

"Well, I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present!" the starfish answered, "Can't you tell by my costume?" He spoke of the giant box he was in.

"Uh...I think you mean 'present' as in the here and now. Not the gift." Mr. Krabs stated with a flat look, "And are yeh wearin' anything under that?"

Patrick looked down at the box, then realized his error. "Oops."

(Please stand by)

Patrick now stood in a green robe, had a Christmas wreath for a hat, and held a torch in his hand. "Is THIS better?"

"Yes. Much so." Krabs said with a nod.

"Okay, let me try again." He cleared his throat and then spoke in what was supposed to be a eerie voice, "I am the Ghost of Christmas Present…oooooh…"

"Yeah, yeah, I think we've established that already." Mr. Krabs said flatly.

Patrick absent-mindedly grabbed one of the turkey legs and took a large bite out of it. "Anyway," he said with a mouthful of food and looked down at a small slip of paper. "It says here I'm supposed to take you somewhere to look at something."

"Me go somewhere with you?" Mr. Krabs questioned. "After my experience with the last time-traveling ghost, I don't think I can bear anymore of that."

With the same dull look on his face, Patrick tossed the food aside and walked over to Mr. Krabs. "You're supposed to grab onto this." He said handing him part of his robe.

"What?" Mr. Krabs asked in confusion. "Am I supposed to compliment you on your garments or-"

But then he screamed when the all the food and his room began to disappear. He and Patrick then reappeared in the snowy city. Oddly enough, it was morning where it had once been night.

"Where are we?" Mr. Krabs asked.

"Why, it's Christmas Day!" Patrick said, jovially

"Wait a minute. We're just outside me room??" Mr. Krabs asked. "If we were gonna appear outside, we could've just used the front door."

"There's actually someone around here that you have to see." Patrick said, holding up a finger, "A man you've been really cheap to."

"What're you talkin' about?" Mr. Krabs asked. "I haven't been cheap to anyone!"

"You haven't?" Patrick asked as he scratched his head in confusion. "Then why am I supposed to show what's inside that house over there?" he pointed to a window of a house that was right next to him.

Out of curiosity, Mr. Krabs peeked inside the window to see a kitchen inside with someone at the stove. It was none other than SpongeBob, who was happily cooking something.

"It's Mr. CratchitPants." Mr. Krabs said in surprise as he watched SpongeBob turn around with a small can of food. "Who's getting those can scraps?"

Then he heard SpongeBob holler. "Oh, Gimpy Gary! It's Christmas dinner time!"

On hearing the words, a small snail with a bandaged-up shell slithered out. When Gimpy Gary, as SpongeBob called him, was at his master's feet, he looked up and meowed happily.

"Oh, Gary, what would Christmas be without you?" SpongeBob said, happily, as he stroked the snail's back. "Now, how about some dinner?"

"Meow." Gary said, in a 'yes' manner.

"Hold on a second, Spirit, what's with that little snail over there?" Mr. Krabs asked from the window.

Patrick joined him, then squinted at the snail, inspecting it every inch. "Hmm...he doesn't look too good." he concluded.

"Ya THINK?" Mr. Krabs asked.

SpongeBob took Gary to a seat, placed him on it, and dunked the can's insides onto Gary's bowl. SpongeBob had a simple meal consisting of some meat, some peas.

"Well, here's to Ebenezer Krabs." Mr. CratchitPants said, cheerfully.

"Meow?" Gary asked, as though saying 'what'.

"Give the crustacean some credit, Gary." SpongeBob scolded, "Without him, we wouldn't have this food. So, here's to Mr. Krabs and Christmas Day."

Much to Mr. Krabs' surprise, Gary spoke in a soft, British voice. "And God bless us, everyone."

And with that, Gary and SpongeBob helped themselves to dinner, happy as a sponge and snail could be.

"Spirit?" Mr. Krabs asked.

"Huh?" Patrick grunted. He probably wasn't paying attention.

"Will that there snail...?" Mr. Krabs asked. He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Hm...it looks pretty bad." Patrick said, solemnly, "If he doesn't get the right doctor or food, I think he WILL..." Patrick drew a finger across his throat and made a grating sound. On seeing the horrified look on Mr. Krabs' face, Patrick shrugged. "Well, if he's gonna, he'd better do it and decrease the surplus population.

"That sounds like somethin' I said once!" Krabs accused.

"You did?" Patrick asked, "Maybe you didn't take consideration that this poor snail might be part of the…uh…other snails!"

"NO! NO! NOOOO!!!" Krabs screamed to the heavens.

Next time, Krabs gets a look further into what he'