The Santa Clause is a 1994 American Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by John Pasquin and written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick. The first installment in The Santa Clause franchise, it stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, an ordinary man who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall from his roof to his supposed death on Christmas Eve. When he and his young son, Charlie, finish the late St. Nick's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole where Scott learns that he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed Santa Claus.
Ernest Saves Christmas is a 1988 American Christmas comedy film directed by John Cherry from a screenplay by B. Kline and Ed Turner. It stars Jim Varney, Oliver Clark, Noelle Parker and Douglas Seale. It is the third film to feature the character Ernest P. Worrell and the second film in the Ernest series, after Ernest Goes to Camp (1987). The film chronicles Ernest's attempt to help find a replacement for an aging Santa Claus.
Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum. It stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human raised by Santa's elves, who learns about his origins and heads to New York City to meet his biological father. James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Asner and Bob Newhart appear in supporting roles.
The Santa Clause 2 is a 2002 American Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck in his directorial debut. It is the sequel to The Santa Clause (1994) and the second installment in The Santa Clause franchise. All of the principal actors from the first film, including Tim Allen, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, and David Krumholtz, reprise their roles, and are joined by Elizabeth Mitchell, Spencer Breslin, and Liliana Mumy.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas slapstick comedy film and the third installment in National Lampoon magazine's Vacation film series. Christmas Vacation was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, written and co-produced by John Hughes, and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid with supporting roles by Miriam Flynn, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki.
Santa Claus: The Movie is a 1985 British-American Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston. It depicts the origin of Santa Claus, and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow). It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind.
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is a 2006 American Christmas comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck. It is the third installment in The Santa Clause franchise, following The Santa Clause (1994) and The Santa Clause 2 (2002). The film features Tim Allen returning as Scott Calvin, who must find a way to reverse a spell cast by Jack Frost that caused him to lose his title of Santa Claus. Allen and Short had previously worked together in the 1997 Disney comedy film, Jungle 2 Jungle. Most of the supporting actors from the first two films reprise their roles, with the exception of David Krumholtz. As a result of his absence, Curtis, who was previously the Assistant Head Elf, has now been promoted to Bernard's former position. This was Peter Boyle's final film to be released during his lifetime. Its production was completed in February 2006.
Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre. Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children. In 1897, in a short film called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys. Another film called Santa Claus and the Children was made in 1898. A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled Santa Claus was created. In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree. He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children. After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney.
Fred Claus is a 2007 American Christmas comedy film directed by David Dobkin, written by Dan Fogelman from a story by Fogelman and Jessie Nelson, and starring Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Trevor Peacock, Ludacris, and Kevin Spacey. The film was first announced in October 2005 with Mike Mitchell attached to direct. The film was released in the United States on November 9, 2007 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is loosely based on the poem "A legend of Santa and his brother Fred" written by Donald Henkel. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed $97 million worldwide against the production budget of $100 million.
Call Me Claus is a 2001 American Christmas comedy television film directed by Peter Werner and starring Whoopi Goldberg and Nigel Hawthorne. The movie involves Santa Claus (Hawthorne) who needs a replacement Santa after serving his 200-year reign. He decides on Lucy Cullins (Goldberg), an eccentric, grouchy shopping network executive, who hires him to promote Christmas decorations and presents on the network. The film premiered on TNT on December 2, 2001, and was also released on VHS and DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. The film has since been reran on Lifetime, Freeform and The Hallmark Channel.
Bad Boys is a 2003 Finnish crime drama film directed by Aleksi Mäkelä, based on the story of a notorious real-life family of criminals known as "the Daltons of Eura". It was the second most successful film in Finnish theatres after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003, taking in $4,778,324. This makes the film one of the most successful Finnish films at the national box office of all time.
The Boys is a 1962 Finnish war drama film directed by Mikko Niskanen. It is based on a 1958 novel of the same name by Paavo Rintala. It was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. The second lead role, Jake, was played by 17-year-old Vesa-Matti Loiri, who received the Jussi Awards certificate of honor for his role as a young actor.
Miracle on 34th Street is a 1994 American Christmas fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Les Mayfield and produced and co-written by John Hughes. The film stars Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, J. T. Walsh, James Remar, Mara Wilson, and Robert Prosky. It is the first theatrical remake of the original 1947 film. Like the original, this film was released by 20th Century Fox.
Arthur Christmas is a 2011 animated Christmas comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, and Aardman Features, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film is Aardman's second computer-animated feature film after 2006's Flushed Away. It was directed by Sarah Smith, co-directed by Barry Cook, and written by Smith and Peter Baynham. Featuring the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, and Ashley Jensen, the film centres on Arthur, the youngest son of Santa Claus, who discovers that his father's high-tech ship has failed to deliver one girl's present. Accompanied only by his grandfather, a Christmas elf and a team of reindeer, he embarks on a mission to deliver the girl's present personally in the early morning hours of Christmas Day before sunrise.
The Santa Clause is a media franchise that consists of three American holiday family-comedy theatrical feature films starring Tim Allen, and one television series for Disney+. Based on an original story by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick, the plot centers around Scott Calvin's transformation into Santa Claus, and his adventures thereafter.
Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure is a 2012 animated comedy/adventure film, produced by Finnish studios Anima Vitae and Cinemaker OY, with co-producers Ulysses (Germany), A. Film (Denmark), and Tidal Films (Ireland). The animation was produced in Finland, Germany and Denmark, with post-production carried out in Ireland. It is the sequel to The Flight Before Christmas and was written by Hannu Tuomainen and Marteinn Thorisson, and directed by Kari Juusonen and Jørgen Lerdam. It was released in Finland on October 12, 2012. Anima Vitae and Cinemaker OY were nominated for Cartoon Movie Tributes 2013 in the category "European Producer of the Year". Like its predecessor, it is among the most expensive Finnish films ever produced.
Santa's Apprentice is a 2010 French-Australian animated Christmas film produced by Gaumont-Alphanim and Flying Bark Productions in association with Avrill Stark Entertainment and Cartoon Saloon. The film is based on the animated TV series SantApprentice.
Violent Night is a 2022 American Christmas action comedy film directed by Tommy Wirkola and written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. It follows Santa Claus as he fights mercenaries who have taken a wealthy family hostage in their home. The film also stars John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, and Beverly D'Angelo.
The Magic Crystal, also released as Santa's Magic Crystal and The Elf that Rescued Christmas in the UK, is a 2011 Finnish-Belgian computer-animated Christmas film directed by Antti Haikala from a screenplay by Haikala, Bob Swain, Dan Wicksman, Nuria Wicksman and Alessandro Liggieri. The film is part of a unified multimedia concept developed by Mikael Wahlfors, which also includes Andrew Bernhardt's Special Patrol children's books, the Italian-produced animated series Red Caps, and the mobile app World Polar Heroes. The Magic Crystal was produced by the Epidem ZOT, Aranéo and Skyline Animation.
