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alt title(s): Action Santa 
Courtesy of Full Frontal Nerdity
If you stop and think about it, Santa Claus isn't that much different from Superman. Both have amazing powers that defy the laws of physics as we humans know them. Both can fly around the world with no problem. They both like the color red, and they both have their headquarters hidden in the Arctic Circle.
So it is not surprising, really, that there are so many instances in fiction where Santa is a Big Damn Hero, defending the Spirit of Christmas from Humbugs. This kind of Santa Claus rarely needs help Saving Christmas, though there may be trouble if an Evil Twin Bad Santa shows up.
Action Santa is a common variation: he's merely playing Nice Guy for the sake of the kids, but when it's time to fight, boy, does he know how! Action Santa usually reveals that his bag of toys holds whatever weapon he needs, his sled comes equipped with heat naughty-seeking missiles, and he himself is a Genius Bruiser underneath the red coat.
Not to be confused with, but similar in style to Kung Fu Jesus. When they team up, God help you... wait...
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Kyouran Kazoku Nikki has a Santa with a six-pack that survived a direct hit from a missile and could shoot ki blasts.
- In Haruhi-chan, we find that the eponymous character's mental image of Santa is of a secret clan of ninja who have near perfect stealth and are trying to shut down the SOS Brigade. That's not a good thing, considering she's a reality warping god of a fairly Lovecraftian bent.
Comic Books
- In JLA, Plastic Man tells his kid a bedtime story where Santa Claus has heat vision for some reason.
- This.
- One DC Comics Holiday Special features a strip in which Santa Claus breaks through the formidable defences of the Mordor Apokalips in order to deliver to its ruler, the evil god Darkseid, a lump of coal for being naughty. It's implied he does this every year. And then he escapes to do it again next year. And what makes this especially badass is that the Santa who does this is just the traditionally jolly, friendly old man version.
- The British Sonic The Hedgehog comics continuity had a similar case happen to Dr Robotnik, combined with elements of A Christmas Carol.
- The most recent (Dec. 2008) one begins with what seems like a retelling of Superman's origin story... only son, sent from a dying world, raised by good, honest people, goes off to decide how best to use his power, sets up a Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole... only the Fortress of Solitude is a workshop, and he decides to bring peace to the world by delivering presents to everyone, one day a year. X-Ray Vision explains how he knows if you've been bad or good... he's always watching...
- Lobo's Paramilitary Christmas Special featured Lobo being hired by the Easter Bunny to whack Santa Claus, and a Bad Ass Santa getting into a machete fight with the alien bounty hunter.
- Howard the Duck Holiday Special evoked high-tech combat elves with Santa as his leader, after a little talk with Howard first.
- There have been several Christmas specials where The Punisher dresses up in a Santa costume to gun down mafiosi.
- A Christmas Badger episode featuring a huge biker-like "Klaus" in his rocket sled. He delivers weapons to the Lebanese Christian militias and machie guns ivory poachers as well as his normal stuff. Oh and beats up a troll who tries to take over the workshop.
Film
- One of the best examples is a film by none other than the producers of the "Superman" films: Santa Claus: The Movie. In it, Santa defends Christmas against a ruthless corporation that seeks to "cash in" on Christmas's commercial potential.
- Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, despite the title, is NOT an example of this trope. Santa Claus merely gets kidnapped by Martians, and teaches the kidnappers how not to be emotionless StrawVulcans.
- In the So Bad Its Good Mexican kids' movie Santa Claus, he defeats Satan with the help of his pal Merlin. .
- In Disney's The Santa Clause, trilogy, an aspect of this happens in each of the three films. The first The Santa Clause has Tim Allen locked in a You Kill It You Bought It scenario when he accidentally causes Santa to fall off the roof; he spends the night in orientation at the North Pole and the next 364 days trying his hardest to shrug it all off as one crazy dream, even in the face of his slow metamorphosis into Saint Nick (down to having "the list" delivered to his house via several trucks). In the end, having accepted his role as Santa Claus, he's mistakenly arrested as a kidnapper, which is where the movie hews closest to this trope as a squad of high-tech combat elves is sent in to break him out; in the end, everyone's faith in Christmas (and his hold on sanity) is restored, and everybody lives Happily Ever After until the sequel, where the new Santa discovers he has to go back to civilization and get himself a Mrs. Claus. He puts a toy double of himself in charge while he's gone which promptly goes mad with power; the finale, true to the trope, has Santa having to deal with his evil robot duplicate in order to save Christmas. The third has it the least, but when Jack Frost and Santa go back in time twice, the second time has Santa beating down Jack Frost with a shovel to prevent a change to the space/time continuum. Unknown if that actually counts though, as in that scene Scott isn't really Santa. Unfortunately Jack Frost isn't defeated this way, and instead gets his due with a...hug.
- Also, in the first movie the coorporation Scott works for tries to revamp the Santa image by putting him in a tank instead of a sleigh. Scott tweaks on them all and tells them that Santa isn't going anywhere without his sleigh.
- In The Night The Reindeer Died, one of the Films Within A Film in Scrooged, there's a short version of this. Terrorists attack the workshop at the North Pole, and the Clauses and the elves apparently have well-established emergency procedures and lots of guns. They also have Lee Majors on their side.
- Santa With Muscles features Hulk Hogan as a man who, after getting amnesia, thinks he is Santa Claus and then proceeds to beat up bad guys and Garret Morris in order to save an orphanage.
Literature
- In C.S. Lewis's Narnia series,
Santa Claus Father Christmas is presented as an archetypal opposite of the White Witch, providing gifts and encouragement (in contrast with the Queen's message of sameness and hopelessness).
- Particularly when said gifts consist largely of weapons...
- The Hogfather in Discworld is that world's equivalent of Santa Claus, and like our Santa is partly derived from old pagan gods...just a little more literally. As they say, you'd better watch out...
- JRR Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters (originally written to his children) depict a version who leads armies of Elves to war against Goblins at the North Pole. Also a case of Really Seven Hundred Years Old, as Tolkien depicts him as being literally as old as Christmas itself (about 1,930, at the time).
Live Action TV
- Santa fighting a grizzly bear to the death armed with only a knife, cutting Elvis Costello out of the godless beast's stomach? Has to be Stephen Colbert's Christmas Special. According to the special, Santa Claus is also Stephen Colbert.
- In the Santa Claus episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Santa shows up in Deep 13 and challenges Pitch to a fistfight. Notably, he also invokes Chew Bubblegum when he shouts "I'm here to eat candy canes and kick ass, and I'm all outta candy canes!"
- GoodEats cookie recipes episode had one that could qualify. He wears a bandanna under the cap and manipulates the the time stream and the episode begins with him saying in a bad ass, "Here's Santa." On a cooking show! But this is the same cooking show that had both an TheIgor and the lady of the refrigerator.
Music
- The Arrogant Worms have the song "Santa's Gonna Kick Your Ass" after having a really crappy year. The reindeer and elves are in an equally bad mood.
Video Games
- Parodied in Kingdom Of Loathing. Uncle Crimbo is a lazy-ass, alcoholic Bad Santa who is nonetheless great at making toys. His brother, Father Crimbo, was a Bad Ass and made good toys, but that's not such a good thing when robots have reanimated his corpse.
Web Comics
- The above page picture is from this strip of Full Frontal Nerdity.
- This arc of PVP Online.
- The Santa v. Bun-Bun fights in Sluggy Freelance. Santa here is particularly powerful because he can use his ability to slow down time (in order to deliver all the presents in one night) to fight in Bullet Time.
- He's also an alien overlord, which does give him an edge.
- O in Commissioned believes Santa is actually the Jolly Red Roof-lurker, a violent supernatural psychopath that steals cookies.
Western Animation
- There is no Santa Claus who is more of a Bad Ass than Santa from South Park. He gets into a huge fight with Jesus in the South Park debut short "The Spirit of Christmas," goes totally Rambo in "Red Sleigh Down," brutally slaughters the demonic Woodland Critters with a shotgun in "Woodland Critter Christmas," and wields a huge axe against the forces of Evil Imagination in "Imaginationland."
- In the Christmas episode of Earthworm Jim, after recovering from a mind-control chip implanted by Queen Pulsating Bloated Festering Sweaty Pus-filled Malformed Slug-for-a-Butt, Santa tears open his red suit and reveals that in his previous job he was "Wotan, Norse god of judgment!" In the ensuing Battle Discretion Shot, Jim remarks, "Yes, Peter, there is a Santa Claus. And he kicks butt!"
- Mucha Lucha had a fight between Santa Claus and the evil Rudo Claus.
- Codename: Kids Next Door had a Santa Claus as a parody of Professor X from the X-Men who with his X-Men parody elves, helped defeat the Delightful Children from down the Lane.
- The entire episode is an adaptation/parody of the famous "Dark Phoenix Saga", with Numbah Three as Jean Grey.
- Parodied in Pucca, where Santa once was a badass ninja thief but then pulled a Heel Face Turn and became Santa... and the Butt Monkey.
- Fairly Odd Parents - Santa was like this at the end of Christmas Every Day and Have a Merry Wishmas. He was fighting the other holidays in CED and in Wishmas, he used it on Jorgen Von Strangle because Jorgen Von Strangle tried to replace Christmas with Wishmas. He was using Christmas magic.
- Futurama has an evil robotic bazooka-wielding Santa. Not nice, but definitely Bad Ass.
- Heck one song they sing about him is called "Santa Claus Is Gunning You Down."
- My Life As A Teenage Robot "A Robot For All Seasons", Santa defends the North Pole using his skills as an ex-ninja, complete with cookie shruken.
- One of Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah Cartoons was Super Santa, which showed what Santa Claus does for the rest of the year: he fights crime which with Emma Peel-inspired wife.
- Robotboy features a Santa who seems pretty standard at first, but when the Christmas of one child is threatened, he ties his hair in a ponytail, takes off his red suit to reveal a six-pack and a Rambo-esque outfit, switches to his rocket sled, and goes on a rampage with a variety of insanely destructive weapons.
Web Original
Other
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