"You ain't a saint, you a slaver like a pharaoh in the snow
Stop with the unpaid labor, and let my little people go"
Stop with the unpaid labor, and let my little people go"
We all know the stories about Santa and his workshop staffed by elves over at the North Pole, where they build quaint wooden toys for the children of the world. Recently, however, a more cynical take on this concept has arisen, mostly due to the realization of the logistics necessary to even attempt such an endeavor. When the question of how to supply toys to billions of children each year arises, it's easy to conclude that these days, some form of sweatshop environment would be involved. Choking pollution, unsafe work conditions for elves, even Santa himself may be at risk of snapping under the pressure.
Note that this is something of an Unbuilt Trope: before the famous elves were introduced to the legend of Santa Claus, his helpers were traditionally depicted as slaves. Due to the obvious Values Dissonance in this concept, however, they were eventually bowdlerized and replaced with magical elves.
Sub-Trope of Christmas Town. Bad Santa is especially likely to run this kind of operation, though depending on the author's cynicism, even the regular version may not be immune. Often a form of a Nightmarish Factory and can also be a Dangerously Garish Environment.
Examples:
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Comic Book
- One comic book story had Krampus plotting to kill Santa in front of an orphanage to bring himself back into the public consciousness in a big way. A twist came in Santa instead killing Krampus, then having his elves kidnap every naughty child present to enslave in his workshop. He does this in revenge for being forgotten in the first place, and orders the witnesses to tell the world that working on building toys is his new punishment for naughty children.
Comic Strips
- Discussed in a Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin claims that Santa's secretarial staff must be "a bunch of underpaid and woefully unprepared temps".
Films — Live-Action
- The Santa Clause 2 has the toy replacement Santa go bad and turn the workshop into a toxic environment. The real Santa returns to set things right in the nick of time.
Literature
- More & More & More Tales to Give You Goosebumps: Santa Claus appears as the main antagonist of the story "Santa's Helpers". Instead of being a Benevolent Boss like in most portrayals, this Santa is a Mean Boss who overworks his elves, who are not allowed to quit or leave. The workload is so bad that some elves attempt to run away from the North Pole, prompting Santa to send the other elves to recapture them. In the story, the elves sent to recapture the two latest runaways mistake two human children for them and take them to the workshop, where Santa sentences them to 18 hour shifts for the next five years, with a measly two day vacation afterward only if they work hard enough. The kids will presumably be stuck doing hard labor for the next couple of years until they grow enough for Santa and the elves to realize their mistake.
- The Ur-Example is almost certainly S. J. Perelman's 1936 piece "Waiting for Santy"
, a short parody of Clifford Odets' play Waiting for Lefty.
Live Action TV
- The Late Show with David Letterman: One Top Ten list ("Top Ten Elf Complaints") implies this trope. Entries include "Santa's union-busting goons killed a guy last spring," "Workman's comp doesn't cover mistletoe lung," and "dead elves just tossed out on tundra."
- Saturday Night Live: In a parody of the play Glengarry Glen Ross, a higher-up elf played by Alec Baldwin (who is a Captain Ersatz of the salesman played by him in its film adaptation) comes in to harshly criticize some workshop elves after they complain about the inferior tools they are using and reminding them to "always be cobbling," a parody of the line in the play "always be closing".
- Implied by the "pixie helper" in the TV adaptation of Hogfather who is actually celebrating that the boss is "dead" and he's free.
Music
- "Elf's Lament" by Barenaked Ladies is sung from the perspective of an elf that's sick of his working conditions and goes on to rally his co-workers to unionize and demand better treatment under the threat of a strike.
Video Games
- A DLC for The Escapists is literally titled "Santa's Sweatshop", and has you play an elf trying to escape Santa's factory complex. A similar level, "Santa's Shakedown", is included for free in the game's sequel, The Escapists 2.
Web Comics
- One Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic shows Santa whipping his elves, screaming at them to "Work faster, you idiots!" Subverted when the caption notes that Santa's only doing that because the elves like it.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation has SCP-4666 AKA "The Yule Man", possess one of these. Hidden somewhere deep underground, most of the children he targets are taken here - usually after butchering their families. They are tasked with making presents for the few targeted kids who manage to escape the Yule Man's attention without displeasing him, and they are not to stop for any reason: anyone who slows down or falls asleep on their shift is punished with starvation, beating, burning, or even with having their fingers bitten off; repeat offenders are eaten by the Yule Man. Worst of all, children who fall ill or can't work anymore are recycled into raw material for fresh toys. And not all of them die from this treatment, incidentally - hence why the Foundation knows of the workshop at all.
- In Epic Rap Battles of History's "Moses Vs. Santa Claus," Moses compares Santa to the pharaohs and implores him to "let [his] little people go." The elves themselves are quick to deny being slaves, though.
Western Animation
- In the Family Guy episode "Road to the North Pole", rampant demand for presents has reduced the North Pole to a polluted wasteland, the elves have devolved into barely sentient mutants, and Santa himself is suffering from a Heroic RRoD.
- Futurama: Robot Santa rules Neptune with an iron fist, to the point that his "elves" are actually short due to malnourishment, and his actual workshop is more of a blatant fortress. Even when Fry, Leela, and Bender trap Robot Santa in the ice and take over the factory in "A Tale of Two Santas," they don't actually improve working conditions all that much.
- This shows up often on Robot Chicken, usually being played for laughs. A particularly noteworthy example of this is one skit where elves are in constant danger of being eaten.
- In an episode of American Dad! Santa kidnaps children to work as miners to dig out the eyes and head of a slain Sumerian giant. One of the kids that gets captured is Steve, who thinks it's all part of a holiday simulation. He realises the truth when one of the other kids collapses from fatigue and is thrown into a rift by a pair of elves.
