Santa's origins Some films about Santa Claus seek to explore his origins. They explain how his reindeer can fly, where the
elves come from, and other questions that children have generally asked about Santa. Two
Rankin/Bass stop motion animation television specials addressed this issue: the first, ''
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970), with Mickey Rooney as the voice of Kris Kringle, reveals how Santa delivered toys to children despite the fact that the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger had forbidden children to play with them; and the second, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1985), based on
L. Frank Baum's 1902 children's book of the same name, follows Santa being reared by a collection of mythical creatures who finally grant him
immortality. Another animated version of Baum's book was made by
Glen Hill in 2000, and the book also served as the basis for an
anime series,
Shounen Santa no Daibôken (''Young Santa's Adventures
) in 1994 and The Oz Kids video, Who Stole Santa?'' (1996). None of these films focus on Santa Claus's saintly origins. The 1985 feature film
Santa Claus: The Movie, inspired by the 1978
Superman: The Movie, stars
David Huddleston as Santa Claus and British actress
Judy Cornwell as his wife Anya, shows how Santa and Anya are discovered by a clan of elves called the Vendequm.
Dudley Moore portrays Patch, the central character and main focus of the story;
Burgess Meredith portrays their wise leader, the Ancient One, who reveals that Claus represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, whereby he has been designated as "the Chosen One", whose mission it will be to deliver the elves' toys to children all over the world. The film's prologue features Claus and Anya performing Santa-like duties in their home village, and strongly suggests Santa's saintly origins. The 2007 Finnish film
Christmas Story explains Santa's origin as an orphan boy in
Lapland named Nikolas. The 2019 animated Netflix Christmas comedy
Klaus, also features its own telling of the origin of Santa. Where Jesper Johansen, the pampered spoiled son of a postmaster general (played by
Jason Schwartzman) is sent to the secluded town of Smeerensburg, as their latest postman. There Jesper learns that due to a local family feud, the town’s people hardly have time for anything else, let alone writing or exchanging letters. There he reluctantly teams up with the titular Santa Claus (played by
J. K. Simmons) who is portrayed as gruff hermit, with a sad past and a skilled hand for woodcarving and toy making. Together, they not only help end the feud in Smeerensburg, but also create one of the most beloved holiday traditions.
Questioning and believing Another genre of Santa Claus films seeks to dispel doubts about his existence. • One of the first films of this nature was titled
A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907) and involves a well-to-do boy trying to convince his poorer friend that Santa Claus is real. She doubts because Santa has never visited her family because of their poverty. •
Miracle on 34th Street (1947), starring
Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, revolves around the disbelief of young Susan, whose mother (
Maureen O'Hara) employs a kind old man (
Edmund Gwenn, who won an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) to play Santa Claus at
Macy's; he later convinces Susan that he really
is Santa. •
One Magic Christmas (1985) depicts Santa as
Saint Nicholas, in charge of Christmas angels (deceased people) in lieu of
elves, whom he assigns to restore individuals' Christmas spirit. He assigns Gideon (
Harry Dean Stanton) to a woman (
Mary Steenburgen) who worries too much about the practical side of life and shows little charity. Gideon shows her a potential Christmas in which her husband is killed by a desperate bank robber whom she has neglected to help, and takes her little girl to Santa, who gives her the last letter her mother sent him as a child and tells her to give it to her. This works to restore her spirit and gives her a do-over of Christmas with her husband and the desperate man, and she greets Santa putting presents under her tree. •
The Polar Express (2004), based on the
children's book of the same name, also deals with issues and questions of belief as a magical train conducted by
Tom Hanks transports a doubting boy to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus. •
Yes, Virginia (2009) is an animated holiday TV special based on the true story of a young girl,
Virginia O'Hanlon, who writes a letter to the editor of the
New York Sun in 1897 after her friends tell her that there is no Santa. The newspaper editor tells her that indeed there is a Santa: "He lives, and he lives forever."
Francis Pharcellus Church was the real-life editor played by
Charles Bronson in the special.
Santa as a hero '' Some
science fiction B movies feature Santa Claus as a
superhero-type figure, such as the 1959 film titled
Santa Claus produced in
Mexico with José Elías Moreno as Santa Claus. In this movie, Santa allies with
Merlin the magician to battle the
devil, who is attempting to trap Santa. In the television show
South Park, Santa is often depicted with firearms; in the episode "
Red Sleigh Down", he battles Iraqis to try to bring Christmas to Iraq. In the episode "
A Woodland Critter Christmas", he uses a
combat shotgun to blast away Satanic animals who try to give birth to the
AntiChrist. Santa (played by
Nick Frost) made a brief appearance at the end of the
Doctor Who episode, "
Death in Heaven". In the following episode, which served as the show's 2014 Christmas special, "
Last Christmas", he plays a more prominent role. It is eventually revealed that the scenes with him are the characters experiencing a shared dream, and he is their subconscious trying to help them wake up before they are killed. At the episode's end, he successfully awakens
the Doctor and
Clara, reuniting the two.
Succession of Santas One genre of movies suggests that Santa Claus is not historically a single individual but a succession of individuals. In
Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Ernest P. Worrell (
Jim Varney) joins the challenge of Santa Claus, alias Seth Applegate (
Douglas Seale), to convince Florida kids' show host Joe Carruthers (
Oliver Clark) to become the next Santa. In
The Santa Clause (1994),
Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof of his house. After he puts on Santa's suit, he finds himself contractually obligated to become the next Santa. Reluctant at first, his appearance changes over the next year from average to the legendary image: he grows fat, his hair whitens, and his beard grows uncontrollably by magic. He ultimately falls in love with his new role. A 2001 television special,
Call Me Claus, stars
Whoopi Goldberg as Lucy Cullins, an
African American woman destined to reluctantly become the next Santa Claus. In
The Hebrew Hammer (2003), the role of Santa Claus is traditionally passed down from father to son. The system is disrupted when the reigning Santa is murdered by his son, Damian, who then uses the position to attack the competing holidays of
Hanukkah and
Kwanzaa. The 2011 animated film
Arthur Christmas portrays being Santa Claus as a
dynasty. The first "Santa",
Saint Nicholas, established the North Pole workshop and passed the title and responsibilities to his son after 70 Christmases, after which his son passed them on to his son, and so on. In the film, the current Santa initially refuses to retire, due to worry about what he will be if he is not Santa.
Impostor Santas Several films have been created which explore the consequences should an
impostor Santa take over. One of the first films featuring a fake Santa Claus is the 1914 silent film,
The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus, written by Frederic Arnold Kummer. In this film, a bogus Santa steals all the Christmas presents and amateur detective Octavius (played by Herbert Yost) tries to recover them. The most notorious impostor appears in the 1966
cartoon based on
Dr. Seuss's 1957 children's book,
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, wherein the
Grinch, a hairy and mean-tempered creature, attempts to rob the Whos in Whoville of their Christmas by stealing their presents, food and decorations, but has a change of heart when he sees that he has
not stopped them from celebrating after all. This animated feature was made into a live-action movie in 2000, directed by
Ron Howard and starring
Jim Carrey as the Grinch. A CGI feature film was made in 2018, starring
Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch. Another less-than-friendly impostor appears in
A Christmas Story (1983) as a disgruntled mall Santa at Higbee's Department Store (a real store in downtown
Cleveland, Ohio) in the fictional town of Holman, Indiana. Played by Jeff Gillen, Santa is depicted as a larger-than-life figure who terrifies, rather than amuses, children. Gillen's performance lends credence to the theory that the mall Santa is not quite genuine. Another recent devious mall Santa was played by
Billy Bob Thornton in
Bad Santa (2003), a film which gained the normally family-friendly
Disney "bad press".
Tim Burton's
stop-action animated musical film,
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), depicts
Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of
Halloween Town, wanting to become Santa Claus after an accidental visit to Christmas Town. After the mostly well-meaning but totally clueless Halloween Town citizens capture Santa, they then try to take over Christmas with disastrous results; children are terrified by Jack's Halloween-themed gifts, and the real Santa is almost killed by
Oogie Boogie. Santa is voiced here by
Ed Ivory and in the video game spinoffs by
Corey Burton. In 2002's
The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause, Scott Calvin (
Tim Allen) must leave
the North Pole to find a wife, so his number one elf turns a plastic toy Santa into a life-size robot clone of Calvin to cover for him. The robo-Santa interprets the rules of Christmas literally, convinces himself that all of the world's children are naughty, and dresses and runs the North Pole like a
Latin American
dictator, constructing an army of giant
toy soldiers. When Calvin returns with his wife, he must defeat his clone to regain control of Christmas. In 2006's
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause,
Martin Short appears as
Jack Frost, who is jealous of Santa Claus. He usurps the role from Scott Calvin, turns Christmas into "Frostmas" and the North Pole into a
Disneyesque tourist resort, and addicts the worlds' children to toys which their parents must buy from him. In 2007's
Fred Claus,
Vince Vaughn plays Santa's jealous older brother who grows up hating Santa and Christmas. He cons his brother (
Paul Giamatti) into giving him a large sum of money for a business deal, in return for which he must come to the Pole and help prepare for Christmas. Fred ends up sabotaging his brother by placing all the world's naughty children on the nice list. Meanwhile, another Santa-hater (
Kevin Spacey) is auditing Santa, looking for excuses to fire him and the elves. When Santa injures his back, Fred must deliver the gifts in order to save Christmas. Other, darker impostors have appeared in
slasher films such as the first three films of the five-film
Silent Night, Deadly Night series,
Santa Claws and ''
Santa's Slay, and in the short "...And All Through the House", part of the horror anthology film Tales from the Crypt (1972) and later remade as episode 1.2 and directed by Robert Zemeckis for the HBO TV series of the same name. Both versions were inspired by the comic book Tales from the Crypt''.
David Howard Thornton portrays
Art the Clown in
Terrifier 3, wearing a Santa suit after killing a department-store Santa Claus played by
Daniel Roebuck. ==See also==