Warning! This post contains SPOILERS For The Santa Clauses Episode 4!The Santa Clauses cleverly flips Scott Calvin’s original arc in becoming Santa with the man he chooses to become his successor. In The Santa Clauses, Scott Calvin feels the time has come for a new Santa to take over the job. After an extensive interview process, Scott chooses tech businessman Simon Choksi (Kal Penn) to take the reins of his sleigh.
In The Santa Clauses episode four, “Chapter Four: The Shoes Off the Bed,” after Tim Allen’s Santa Clause fully hands the mantle of Santa over to Simon, the latter brings a lot of enthusiasm to becoming St. Nick. Funnily enough, Scott himself reacted in the complete opposite way to becoming Santa in The Santa Clause, fighting his physical transformation and even the belief of his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) before finally embracing the role. This also sets up a perfect dynamic between Scott and Simon with The Santa Clauses to be the former’s final sleigh ride.
Why Simon Is So Different From Scott In The Santa Clauses
Scott and Simon have a lot in common, both being businessmen and loving fathers to their only children. Unlike Scott, Simon’s natural Christmas spirit leads him to view becoming Santa Claus much the same as he did in running his growing tech ventures and drone-based delivery service. Ever the innovator, Simon believes the North Pole has the potential to make Christmas a daily event of worldwide gift-giving and sets about establishing his plan.
The thing is, while Simon does let being the new Santa go to his head a bit, he is not a villain or even an antagonist in any sense. He simply looks at the revelation of Santa’s magic at the North Pole through a combination of fanboy energy and his natural business acumen. Scott took almost a year’s worth of convincing to believe in the magic of Santa at all, which is what makes their parallel stories in The Santa Clauses so perfect.
How Simon’s Role Could Impact Scott’s Fate In The Santa Clauses
As Scott’s (surprisingly old) elves point out to Simon, Christmas is special because it comes once a year, giving people around the world a joyful season to look forward to that simply cannot have the same impact as a daily occurrence. As the veteran Santa between the two of them, Scott can show Simon the mistake he has made in misinterpreting Christmas and his role as Santa as something to be treated like a business. That could also be the perfect story for Scott to truly pass the torch to Simon as the new Santa.
Scott already learned a lot from becoming Santa, including recognizing the right successor in Simon. After Scott’s adventures in The Santa Clause movies, mentoring a Santa in the right direction might not have been how Scott saw his Santa retirement playing out. Still, like the Santa Clause itself, Christmas is maintained by a delicate balance of magic that The Santa Clauses can show Simon learn to navigate.
