The Santa Clause (1994) review

Dir. John Pasquin

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Children’s acceptance of the story of Santa Claus is heartwarming for many reasons, one of them being their resistance to the slow but fledgling recognition of truth that starts festering in their minds around age nine or ten.

While a cable TV staple every holiday season, and heralded for its contagious holiday spirit, The Santa Clause‘s enduring appeal might simply come from the fact that it justifies the details of Santa Claus. For example, here’s a holiday movie about the big man in red that finally explains how he’s able to fit down a chimney, and how he manages to slip into homes lacking one.

The Santa Clause opens with Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), a business executive for a toy company who does not believe in Santa Claus. Despite having a great work life, his home-life is nothing to desire. His ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson) has shacked up with a therapist named Neal (Judge Reinhold), and his 8-year-old son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd), is growing ever-more distant from his father as a result.

On Christmas Eve night, there arises such a clatter that Scott and his son Charlie race to the yard to see what is the matter. To their wondering eyes, they see Santa Claus, his sleigh, and faithful reindeer up on their housetop. In their haste, Scott startles Santa, who falls of the roof and disappears from his red robe and pants. Scott finds a card in his pocket that notifies him that he is the new Santa Claus, a fact he doesn’t really grasp even as he’s suddenly trying to steer the sleigh and hustle down chimneys, all with a wide-eyed Charlie in tow.

Initially resistant but slowly resigned to the fact that he is now the kids’ favorite person right up there with Ronald McDonald, Scott’s physical transformation begins to take shape. He puts on weight from all the milk and cookies children leave him, he grows a thick, bushy white beard, and he’s promptly whisked away to the North Pole on the morning of December 25th, where work for next Christmas begins. Scott takes command of the workshop, taught by the head elf, Bernard (David Krumholtz), while back home, his ex-wife, and pretty much everyone he knows thinks he’s a candidate for the mental hospital. Even Neal can’t figure him out.

I might be the last person on the face of the Earth who hadn’t seen any of the Santa Clause movies until this season, but somehow, thanks to “Coming Soon to Home Video” previews on Disney VHS tapes or chopped-and-screwed television commercials, I already knew the reason behind the additional “e” in the title. The title is derived from the card Scott finds in the then-deceased Santa’s pocket, which informs him of the “clause” that makes him the new distributor of gifts and holiday cheer.

The fact that the writing team of Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick incorporated contracts, clauses, visitation rights, and family court drama so seamlessly into a Christmas movie, and made it entertaining for that matter, is a testament to their writing powers. The Santa Clause has that special holiday elixir that’s nearly impossible to make. It’s sweet-natured and genial, and watching Scott go from a corporate curmudgeon to a sentimental softie hellbent on keeping the Christmas spirit in tact is effective because, for us older viewers, it reminds us how the transition into adulthood and the priorities of work too often subjugate that sense of wonder and innocence.

My review of The Santa Clause 2
My review of The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause

Starring: Tim Allen, Eric Lloyd, Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold, David Krumholds, and Paige Tamada. Directed by: John Pasquin.