The title is a reference to the date of the All Valley Karate Championships in the original The Karate Kid (1984).
Tory is wearing a skeleton-decorated outfit, similar to the one that Johnny and his "gang" wore in the '84 movie.
This is the first episode in the whole series to be over 40 minutes.
During the Christmas party, Johnny warns a waiter to watch where he is going, as he is wearing a white jacket and the waiter is carrying a tray of pasta. This is a callback to a scene in The Karate Kid (1984), when Daniel ran into the country club's kitchen and bumped a waiter, drenching himself in marinara sauce.