Characters from the Christmas comedy family film, Fred Claus.
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Claus Family
Fred Claus
Fred Claus
Portrayed by: Vince Vaughn (Jordon Hull and Liam James; young)
The brother of Santa Claus who was sent to the North Pole to help his brother Nick in exchange for his sentence from prison.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Nick's responsible.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sure, he is kind of an ill-tempered killjoy with regards to Christmas, but a number of his criticisms, such as questioning Nick dropping down a chimney rather than knocking on the door and the uncompromising nature of the naughty/nice list are actually quite logical and reasonable.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is an ill-tempered and immature killjoy, but he does show he has a caring heart like when he helps Willie learn to dance or when he helps his brother save Christmas and his toy shop.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He realizes that his hatred of his family and the holidays has cost him almost everything, plus realizing that his negative words have made Slam sullen and cold-hearted which leads to him getting into fights with the kids at the orphanage he was sent to.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He accidentally gets Christmas cancelled. However, he quickly realizes what he's done and spends the next few days travelling back to the North Pole to fix it.
Nicholas Claus
Nicholas Claus
Portrayed by: Paul Giamatti
Fred's younger brother who is Santa Claus.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Fred's foolishness.
- Mr. Vice Guy: He is the kind, caring, and giving person you would expect Santa Claus to be, but he does have trouble putting up with his brother. He does love Fred dearly and even looked up to him when they were kids, but he will crack if something goes wrong. This is understandable giving everything Fred puts him through.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He realizes that it was his fault his brother turned out the way he did, even if he didn't mean it, and by proxy he probably judged millions of kids over the years as naughty by only their actions without bothering to ask why they were being naughty in the first place and ruining many childhoods like he did Clyde's.
- Nepotism: Despite knowing what an ill-tempered troublemaker Fred is, Nick still decides Fred is qualified to handle the job of judging kids as Naughty or Nice simply on the basis of being his brother.
- Never My Fault: He is quick to blame Fred for marking all the remaining kids as nice creating a huge workload impossible to fulfill when Nick was the one who hired Fred for the job.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He flat out destroys his brother's spirit and sense of selflessness in their childhood, and it takes several centuries to mend those bridges.
Annette Claus
Annette Claus
Portrayed by: Miranda Richardson
Nick's wife and Fred's sister in law.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She may be a nice woman for a Mrs. Claus, but you do not want to mess with her husband.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She, along with Wanda, calls Fred out for his selfishness on not caring or looking out for anyone.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus
Mr. and Mrs. Claus
Portrayed by: Kathy Bates and Trevor Peacock
The parents of Fred and Nick.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being neglectful parents towards Fred while favoring his brother Nick, they do care about him.
- Karma Houdini: Phyllis is partly responsible for how Fred turned out. Unlike Nick, who realized what he did to his brother, she never realizes her own mistakes nor is she ever called out on them.
- Parental Favoritism: Obviously towards Nick. When one son is a saint beloved by all the world's children and responsible for rendering you functionally immortal while the other is a grinchy con-man who defined Santa's idea of naughty children, you're going to be a little favoritist. They were favoring Nick long before his sainthood; in several instances in childhood, whenever Fredrick did something his mother was about to positively remark on, Nicolas would top him in an outlandish manner. Then chiding Fred started when he tried applying logic to any of the things Nick did.
- The Quiet One: While he was quite talkative in the past, Mr. Claus doesn't have any dialogue in the present.
Chicago
Wanda Blikowski
Wanda Blikowski
Portrayed by: Rachel Weiss
Fred's girlfriend and a parking enforcement officer.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She, along with Annette, calls Fred out for his selfishness on not caring or looking out for anyone.
North Pole
Clyde Archibald Northcutt
Clyde Archibald Northcutt
Portrayed by: Kevin Spacey
A greedy efficiency expert who's determined to find anything that will justify him shutting down Nick's North Pole operation, including his own use of sabotage.
- Freudian Excuse: When he was a child, he was bullied by the children for wearing a Christmas tree costume while forcing him to beat them up. This made him wish for Santa to give him a Superman cloak every Christmas Eve, but never receives it.
- Karma Houdini: Although it could be argued in his case that karmic retribution would ruin the message of the film.
- Manipulative Bastard: He is determined to find anything that will justify him shutting down Nick's North Pole operation, including his own use of sabotage.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He realizes how much of an asshole he's been when Nick gives him the present he always wanted as a kid, but never got.
