Basic Trope: Someone is mistaken for Santa Claus.
- Straight: Alice sees Bob, and she excitedly proclaims "Look, it's Santa!"
- Exaggerated:
- A Running Gag is Alice mistaking people for Santa.
- Bob looks nothing like Santa, but Alice is still convinced that he's Santa Claus.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is an adult who's convinced that a Mall Santa is the real Santa.
- Alice wonders if Bob might be Santa.
- Justified:
- Bob has a resemblance to Santa Claus (e.g. wearing red, being old, fat, and/or having a white beard), and it happens to be close to Christmas.
- Bob is a Pseudo-Santa.
- Alice has met the real Santa, and she thinks that Bob looks like him.
- Inverted: Santa Claus is mistaken for someone else.
- Gender-Inverted: Alice thinks that Claire is Mrs. Claus.
- Subverted:
- Alice reveals that she didn't actually think Bob was Santa Claus, and she was just making a joke.
- Bob turns out to actually be Santa Claus.
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied:
- Santa Claus exists in this universe and is a true-blue Identical Stranger to Bob.
- Bob is about as far away from resembling Santa Claus as Mount Everest is far from resembling an ant hill; Alice is either that stupid, has a really weird theory or is blind.
- Bob and Santa Claus are siblings and Bob is sick of being mistaken for his brother.
- Bob is mistaken for Santa in a Fourth of July episode taking place in Florida — Alice mistook him believing that "Santa" is taking a vacation and may give Bob lip for that. For further parody points, it turns out that Santa is having a Summer vacation right behind the Alice.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: No one is mistaken for Santa Claus.
- Enforced: "We should throw in a joke for this Christmas Episode. How about a kid thinking that Bob is Santa Claus?"
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: The real Santa Claus uses Bob to avoid being discovered.
- Defied: Bob makes a point (even if it is at gunpoint) to have Santa Claus (hopefully the real one) stand right there next to him every time some idiot who thinks he could be Santa comes out of the woodwork so they can see that Bob is not Santanote .
- Discussed: "Maybe I shouldn't wear red during the Christmas season, because another kid just thought I was Santa Claus."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied:
- Alice is very excited to see an old man wearing a red suit, though it's never stated why.
- It's never made clear whether or not the man actually is Santa Claus.
- Played For Laughs:
- A minor Running Gag of the Christmas Episode is Alice continuously pestering Bob cause she thinks he is Santa, asking for her presents.
- Bob tries to make clear that he is not Santa, but events conspire to keep the lie ongoing (he is organizing a visit to Antarctica, he has presents for his family (one of which is the very same one Alice asked for) in a burlap sack on the back of his car, he is being asked to be the Santa of the December 23 parade, his full name is revealed to be a Significant Anagram of "Kris Kringle", etc.)
- Played For Drama: Alice is the Heartwarming Orphan who hoped for Santa to help her tonight, to find her a family or at least a warm place to spend the night. Bob has a borderline Sadistic Choice of either ruining her hopes right now by saying he is not Santa or ruining her hopes by letting the lie keep on going but being unable to help her.
- Played for Horror: Bob invokes this trope in order to lure little Alice into his van... Where horrific things happen in there.
Santa Claus is visiting the main page!... wait, what do you mean that's not him?
