In the flashback scene in Juno, Sycorax 33 years ago that opens the issue, Sheng Dan Jieh is Chinese for "Holy Birth Festival", the term used by Christians in China for the Christmas day holiday.

On page 2, Jayne's narration comments on receiving package drops of Christmas presents from his secret agent dad. In "A Christmas Cobb", Jayne and Mattie's mother had spun a story that their missing father was a secret agent in the Xuan Wu system. Jayne's reflections on the time he fell into a frozen pond and was rescued by his brother are also from events seen in that previous story.

The words of the head monk at the funeral for the dead monk on pages 5-10 are from quotes of the Buddha on death.

On page 16, Mal and Zoe give the head monk a pile of guns, with the advice that if the monks learn to shoot, they'll have a lot more peace. The pair of them are reminded of the Alliance's slogans at the start of the Unification War, "War is peace." The Unification War was fought between the Alliance and the Independent Planets from 2506-2511 to bring the 'Verse fully into Alliance control, in which Mal and Zoe fought for the Independents. The phrase "war is peace" originated in George Orwell's 1949 novel 1984. 

In the last panel of page 16, Inara's shuttle has a symbol painted on the hull of two six-pointed stars and a crescent moon. I'm not sure exactly what this signifies, but, in general, spiritually, a six-pointed star signifies a balance of the elements, and a crescent moon the goddess or divine feminine energy of the universe.

At the end of the issue, Jayne meets his previously unknown son, Owen.

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