‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ Review – Even At 40, This Is One Christmas Movie That Won’t Fly Despite A Great Santa

Each year, as December rolls around, we deck the halls. In between lighting a tree and wrapping gifts, we visit yuletide nostalgia through an annual Christmas movie rewatch.

All the classics spring to mind. It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, even Batman Returns (and yes, that’s as much of a Christmas movie as Die Hard). We chuckle at the pratfalls of Clark Griswold stringing up the lights. We awe at the love-dovey exchange of cards before Kiera Knightley. It is a time for ghost stories and rewatches of Christmas movie glories. And yet amid all the hustle and the bustle, there is one holiday film that seems perpetually abandoned, banished as though it were a South Pole elf. That cinematic excusion is Santa Claus.

And no, I am not forgetting the “e” at the end. The movie Santa Claus, or as it is referred to in the marketing, Santa Claus: The Movie, dashed its way into theaters forty years ago. Boasting an impressive cast, including The Big Lebowski himself, David Huddeslton as Santa, Dudley Moore as Patch the Elf, and John Lithgow as an evil toy manufacturer, BZ. Built as an origin story for how Santa came to be.

The film uses the 1978 Superman framing in its setup to tell Santa’s origin story. The movie was produced by Ilya Salkind, one of the men responsible for the ’78 film. Even the director of 1984’s Supergirl, Jeannot Szwarc, joined in on the fun, but that is where the Superman connections stop. Released amid a major marketing blitz, Santa Claus was a box-office disaster here in the States. While it did find an audience in England, the movie failed to recoup its budget. 

While a film failing to land on first entry is a tale as old as time. Many beloved movies have seen a second life. The timeless classic It’s a Wonderful Life failed spectacularly during its initial release, but is now heralded as a Christmas movie classic. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Santa Claus. While there is some good cheer in the last forty years, sadly, this film often finds itself on the list of worst Christmas movies ever made, alongside such company as Jingle All The Way 2 and Deck The Halls. 

But is it truly the case? Does this film deserve the lumps of coal it keeps receiving now, forty years later? The answer is more complicated. Like memorizing the lines verbatim of The Twelve Days of Christmas, Santa Claus is a film that takes patience and even tries ours, yet despite some baffling choices and awkward story directions, the film deserves to be brought in from the cold, if nothing else, so that we can enjoy the heart-warming and merry performance of David Huddleston as the big guy.

The movie is one-half origin tale and one-half save-Christmas affair, which feels like an afterschool special. At the start, we meet a man named Claus and his wife, Anya (Judy Cornwell), who are making a Christmas delivery to children in a village. Claus is a craftsman and self-taught toymaker. He has all the makings of the jolly old elf we expect him to be. After a blizzard, the Clauses are rescued by a sea of elves. They take them back to their workshop at the North Pole. Upon learning he is the prophesied chosen one who will bring gifts to children all over the world on Christmas Eve, Claus eventually becomes Santa. A legend is born. 

For much of the first half, we see the beginning of the Christmas icon. The establishment of the flying reindeer. The impressive toy factory construction. The creation of the red suit. The movie plays like a checklist, showing us the making of a holiday myth and building to the first Christmas Eve flight with great fanfare. Visually, the film is eye candy. The North Pole is a wonderland, the elves are delightful, and the atmosphere radiates Christmas spirit. 

Huddleston, known for playing gruffer fellows, eccentrics, and even villainous roles, has a legendary performance as Santa Claus. And it makes up for many of the film’s shortcomings and baffling story choices. The guy looks like Santa, from the suit to the beard to the twinkle in his eye. When he declares to a skeptical street kid named Joe (Christian Fitzpatrick), “I’m Santa Claus,” you believe him. Sentimental, yet nurturing. Imposingly jolly, but heartwarming. He is the living embodiment of joy and goodwill. 

The first half of the film gives Santa a superhero origin story. There is a whimsical logic and childlike fun, even as the movie takes itself seriously. The first half delivers a payoff, especially when Santa and his reindeer take flight for his first Christmas Eve. Even forty years later, the reindeer flying sequences hold up quite well. In part because of the attentive care the film takes to the build-up, but also thanks to the magic of Huddleston’s performance. If you believed a man could fly in Superman, then you’ll believe eight reindeer can soar past the Statue of Liberty.

Now, where the film gets stuck in the chimney is when it makes the jump to 1985, the present day. What begins as a grand origin for Santa Claus devolves into a product-placement blitz. This half-baked cookie of a movie ends up having the big guy take a back seat to a sidequest of Dudley Moore’s Patch. 

The setup begins when Santa decides he needs an assistant to help run the day-to-day operations at the workshop. The job goes to Patch, an out-of-the-box-thinking elf. He is looking to revolutionize the North Pole into a modern assembly line and bring Christmas into the 20th century. Of course, all of Patch’s inventions and efforts go to pot. He leaves the Pole for New York City, where he becomes unwittingly ensnared in the machinations of B.Z., the unscrupulous businessman and toy manufacturer.

The story becomes like one of Patch’s North Pole inventions, a giant dud. Patch wants to prove his usefulness to Santa. B.Z. partners with Patch and then randomly decides he wants to take over Christmas. Two kids whom Santa befriends one Christmas almost become tangled in the web. What should be a rousing battle for Christmas plays like a series of scenes stitched together, without any real menace or grand threat to Christmas or Santa. There are plenty of McDonald’s food placements, reminding us we are in the present day, and of course, to visit the Golden Arches.

Now, to his credit, Lithgow as B.Z. makes the second half of the film watchable. His hammy, mustache-twirling performance is outrageous. Yes, it is out of step with the rest of the movie, but it is such a riot, and he is clearly having a ball; you cannot help but watch. Understandably, Moore was a big name for the picture, but his dominance in the second half feels more like elements they wanted for a sequel, and derails the central focus on this being a story of Santa Claus. 

The film tells us that B.Z. and his plans are a threat to Christmas and Santa, but we never see it, and sadly, we cannot care. There is no confrontation between B.Z. and Santa, thus lowering the stakes. By the end of the film, Santa becomes nothing more than a bystander in his own movie, flying to the rescue of the kids because the story calls for it. 

Nostalgia is often kind to films, though it is unlikely we’ll see reindeer fly after a revisit to this one. It is unsurprising that forty years later, Santa Claus failed to capture the vast public’s imagination. The movie feels bigger than it actually is. It is like seeing a boxed artificial tree. The image out front is dazzling and wondrous to the eye, but once out of the box and in the middle of the living room, we realize we’re staring at a bare plastic-manufactured disaster. 

To Christmas movie junkies who may not have heard of this film, I’d recommend it for two reasons, both performance-based. Yes, it is better than the myriad of copy-and-paste-driven Hallmark films, though the lack of a rousing central story will likely leave people bored. Still, Lithgow’s chewing scenery is a holiday delight. And above all, watching Huddleston as Santa Claus is enough to make even the most icy cynic a believer.