History Main / SantaClaus

'''The''' [[HolidayPersonification]].

Saint Nick. Father Christmas. Papa Noel. Kris Kringle. The man with the bag. The jolly old elf himself.

->''"Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!"''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/santa_reindeer_sleigh.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Literature/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas When what to my wondering eyes did appear,\\
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,\\
With a little old driver so lively and quick,\\
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.]]'']]

* Santa Claus is a recurring character in ''Webcomic/BreakingCatNews''. [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2019/12/15 He first appears in the Dec. 15, 2019 strip]] and figures prominently in the [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2020/12/01 Christmas 2020 story]] in which creator Georgia Dunn deals with the "sees you when you're sleeping", "only good children/cats get presents" stuff.

See also BadSanta, BadAssSanta, ChristmasElves, HowCanSantaDeliverAllThoseToys, LeavingFoodForSanta, MallSanta, MrsClaus, PseudoSanta, {{Santabomination}}, SantaClausmas, SantasSweatshop, UsefulNotes/{{Sinterklaas}}, StillBelievesInSanta, EasterBunny, and TheKrampus.

* ''Special Delivery'' for UsefulNotes/Atari8BitComputers has you play as a Santa who has overslept on Christmas Eve and hence has only five hours to make his rounds. His helpers drop presents from clouds, but he still has to descend chimneys to deliver them himself.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' Christmas special, Santa is revealed as TheChessmaster behind the misadventures in the episode, which he arranged so that everyone could get what they really wanted for Christmas, including giving Phineas a chance to take on the role of Santa, his hero. The boys build him an awesome winter clubhouse as a gift that he takes back to the North Pole.

Santa is universally known as a [[BigFun festively]] [[GentleGiant overweight]] [[CoolOldGuy old man]] with a long white or silver beard, who wears a red suit, [[PrettyInMink with white trim]] a matching cap, (originally a red bishop's robe and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camauro camauro]]), black boots, and a vast black belt worn across his belly. [[ChristmasTown He resides at the North Pole (or in Lapland, or in Spain, or somewhere else depending on your culture – the original St. Nick was Greek, from a city in what is now Turkey) and oversees a large workshop]] staffed by elves (diminutive commercial-friendly elves; not tall, proud, [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Tolkien]]-type elves – [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D players]] will see more of a resemblance to gnomes) who are often [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld far]] {{older than they look}}. These elves in their workshop produce toys year-round and every Christmas Eve they load them into an [[BagOfHolding improbably roomy sack]] which Santa carries as he sets out to deliver them to all the good boys and girls of the world. His vehicle is a flying sleigh pulled by eight reindeer named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen (with an option on a ninth, in the form of [[Literature/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer Rudolph]], on nights with poor visibility). You might hear the sound of some SnowySleighBells as well.

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** He also appears in several Christmas specials of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''; in one of them he is turned evil by Chlorydris.
* Santa Claus exists in the ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' animated universe and is not an alien, but everything around him is explained with sci-fi elements rather than magic. Among other examples, his Elves are actually aliens; his flying reindeers are robots made by the Arquillians; the North Pole is a façade (he lives in New York); and in the event that he can't fulfill his work, the higher ranking MIB should cover for him (Zed), which implies that the title of "Santa Claus" is given to a particular human and not a magical being. However, Santa does shows some unexplained abilities, like helping Jay finding a suitable present for Kay.

See also BadSanta, BadAssSanta, ChristmasElves, HowCanSantaDeliverAllThoseToys, LeavingFoodForSanta, MallSanta, MrsClaus, {{Santabomination}}, SantaClausmas, SantasSweatshop, UsefulNotes/{{Sinterklaas}}, StillBelievesInSanta, EasterBunny, and TheKrampus.

* '''Literature/TheAutobiographyOfSantaClaus''': The book is written as if Santa himself wrote it, telling his own personal life story.

* It is revealed that there are ''thousands'' of Santas in ''Series/RoundTheTwist''. As Santa #115,302 notes, "It'd take more than ''one'' Santa to get down all those chimneys in one night, get real!" Also, Santas have [[IncrediblyLamePun handily evolved claws]] after hundreds of years of scrambling up chimneys.

** In the 'Battle to Eradicate Christmas' special, Dr. Raichi and Hachiyack are re-appropriated into various forms of Santa...namely a Santa that's decided to eliminate evil the hard way. Which means most of the heroes have gotten on his naughty list: Goku because his lust for battle has endangered everyone, Trunks because of his meddling with the time stream, Piccolo for his father's actions in trying to conquer the world[[note]]While this may look like SinsOfTheFather (and Piccolo called it out as such), it should be noted that Piccolo is technically a reincarnation of Piccolo Sr. and had planned to continue his father's legacy before Raditz's appearance caused a domino effect that caused him to have a HeelFaceTurn[[/note]] and Vegeta for too many crimes to mention, but prominent among them is hitting his sleigh with a ki blast. (Gohan makes the nice list, however, and gets a copy of ''Literature/MobyDick'' in French.)