For 25 years, The Santa Clause has been a beloved Christmas movie adored by kids and adults of all ages. The 1994 film spawned two sequels in 2002 and 2006, but it was the original that first brought smiles to our faces and reminded us how to believe in Santa.
The Santa Clause (and that’s not a typo) is about a man named Scott (Tim Allen)who finds himself subject to a clause about becoming the new Santa after the old Santa accidentally falls off the roof of Scott’s house on Christmas Eve. Scott’s the new big guy in charge at the North Pole whether he likes it or not, and he must learn how to handle being Santa while also fighting for custody of his young son Charlie. While the movie is both sweet and funny, there were some parts that had us scratching our heads. Here are ten questions we have after watching The Santa Clause:
Where does the original Santa go after disappearing?
On Christmas Eve, poor Scott accidentally scares Santa, causing the jolly man to fall off of the roof. Then Santa just… disappears, leaving his suit behind. We assume that the fall has tragically led to Santa’s demise, but why did he disappear afterward? It’s probably good that he mysteriously vanishes because no kid wants to be traumatized by a stiff Santa in their yard (especially if their dad is at fault), but where the heck did he go?
Did his body get magically transported back to the North Pole? Is it just gone, and now he’s in heaven or wherever deceased Santas go? We at least want to know where we can go to pay our respects.
Why do the reindeer take off if Scott hadn’t put on the suit?
Santa disappears after his fall, so Scott picks up the suit and climbs to the roof. However, he doesn’t put it on yet. He gets in the sleigh to try and coax Charlie out of it, telling him, “Let’s go.” The reindeer take this as a signal to start flying, and off they all go.
The card that Scott found on Santa made it seem like Scott would need to be wearing the suit for the reindeer to know that they should take him somewhere. Would they have taken off no matter who was in the sleigh telling them to go? That doesn’t seem like a very good security system. How do they not get stolen?
Why aren’t the elves upset that the other Santa is gone?
The Santa that left the North Pole is not the same Santa as the one that returns. All the elves seem to realize this right away… and they’re seemingly fine with it. They act as if it’s totally normal, almost as if they were expecting it. In fact, most of them are all smiles. Why don’t they show any sadness?
Who knows how long the previous Santa had been around, but they probably all got to know him and spend at least some time with him. Now he’s just gone suddenly, and they’ll never see him again. Are elves just heartless little beings? Are they incapable of feeling sorrow? Is the Christmas magic in the North Pole too strong for tears? Well… we’re sad about Santa…
How long would Santa have lived if he hadn’t fallen off of the roof?
Okay, so we’re spending a lot of time discussing Santa’s demise, but the whole thing is just so strange to us! Obviously Santa has a lot of magic (the suit, his bag, his sleigh), so if he hadn’t fallen off of the roof, would he have lived for longer than an average human? Does his magic make him live for a very long time?
Perhaps he was already very old and had been Santa for hundreds of years. Maybe it’s not essential to the plot of the movie, but we really want to know the life expectancy of a Santa. (When we tried Googling it, we instead found the life expectancy in Santa Barbara, which wasn’t much help.)
Why are the elves working on toys already?
We know that Scott, aka Santa, gets brought to the North Pole by the reindeer after he finishes delivering presents on Christmas Eve. As he makes his way about the workshop following the head elf Bernard, we see many elves scattered about, and they all seem to be very busy. We can see that some of them are working on toys, which, after all, is a Christmas elf’s main job. However, it’s the end of the night on Christmas Eve.
Are they really already getting a head start on toys for next year? Out of all times to take a break, this seems like a good one. Do they not get time off? Hopefully there’s an Elf Union they can contact.
How does Bernard know that Scott is a businessman?
As Scott arrives at the North Pole, everyone calls him Santa, no matter how much he protests that his name is not Santa. The head elf Bernard is trying to explain that because Scott put on the suit, he thereby accepted the stipulations of the Santa Clause. Scott is a bit puzzled. “Look,” Bernard says. “You’re a businessman, right?” Scott confirms. He works for a toy company, but how does Bernard know this? Scott may not be questioning it, but we certainly are.
Did he get word from the reindeer that there’s a new Santa, so he researched Scott before his arrival? Is Bernard just all-knowing or a mind reader? We can’t believe Scott doesn’t find it weird that Bernard just… knows.
Why is Bernard so mad at Scott for not understanding?
Bernard is trying desperately to get Scott to understand what’s going on. Scott is now the new Santa because he read the card and put on Santa’s suit, thereby agreeing to the Santa Clause, a clause that Scott did not read or know anything about. He is very confused, and Bernard is getting extremely frustrated by this. Give the guy a break.
One minute he was asleep in his bed, and then the next thing he knew, he’s in a magical sleigh with flying reindeer and able to squeeze down chimneys to deliver presents. Then he ends up in the middle of nowhere at a workshop and is being told he’s Santa. He didn’t even believe in any of this stuff not too long beforehand, and now he’s just been thrown into the middle of all of it. We don’t blame him for being a bit bewildered.
Why does Bernard send The List to Scott by mail?
Now that Scott has become to Santa, he has to make a list and check it twice. Bernard says he will send The List to Scott’s house shortly, and it soon arrives. It comes in many many boxes. We don’t get to see exactly how many, but considering it contains every child he must deliver to, we’re guessing it’s a lot more than what is shown. Postage for all those packages couldn’t be cheap.
We can’t help but be curious… why didn’t Bernard just email The List? Email existed at the time the movie came out, and even if it didn’t, elves have their own special technology, as seen in the upgraded sleigh later on. For that matter, why didn’t they just use some sort of Christmas magic to get The List to Scott? It seems like it would have been a lot easier than lugging all those boxes to the nearest post office (which is in the Santa Claus Village at the Arctic Circle, by the way).
Wasn’t Scott supposed to return to the North Pole in November?
Before Scott leaves Santa’s Workshop on Christmas Eve, Bernard tells him that Scott has eleven months to get his things in order, and then he is to return on Thanksgiving That’s all just fine and dandy, except that we don’t see Scott return to the North Pole until Christmas Eve the following year.
He arrives at the Workshop, the elves catch him up with changes that they’ve made, and then it’s time to go deliver presents. Is it possible that he went, and they just didn’t show it? It seemed like he would have to stay there for the whole month before Christmas, but it’s clear that he did not. What gives, Santa?
Why does nobody notice anything going on on the roof?
The following Christmas, the police are after Scott, and they’re looking for his son Charlie. They’ve blocked off several streets surrounding Charlie’s mom’s house, and they are patrolling outside. The father and son soon land on the roof in the sleigh, and then Scott heads down the chimney. For a while, Charlie is sitting up there by himself, along with the sleigh and reindeer.
Later on, some elves land on the roof to rescue Charlie, but the police and other people in the area don’t notice any of this. They don’t even think to look on the roof after Scott tells the police that Charlie is in the sleigh. Apparently, they’re just content believing that Scott magically materialized into the house and left the boy somewhere else. Charlie is the one they really want to find; you would think they would be a bit more aware of his whereabouts.
