Headscratchers / The Santa Clause

• How is it that no parents believe in Santa...yet every Christmas, they are sure to find gifts that they did not buy under the tree? If Santa is bringing the kids what they want, then what are the parents even buying and why aren't they noticing added gifts everywhere?
  • As The Dresden Files points out, most people are eager to delude themselves into believing that the world is nice and normal and exactly as they think it is. In the case of married couples they probably think "Oh, my spouse must have got that and just not mentioned it", in the case of single parents excuses like "Huh, his grandmother must have sent it and I forgot to put it under the tree" or things like that would be made. And they make themselves believe it because to them that makes more sense than believing in Santa.
  • Judy explains it in the first movie:
  Scott: I'm talking to an elf. And I stopped believing in Santa Claus a long time ago.
  Judy: That's not surprising. Most grownups can't believe in magic. It just... sort of grows out of them.
  • Besides, who says they don't? One of the first names on Santa's list is actor Armand Assante.
• So what would happen if a woman somehow enacted the Santa Clause? Would she be subject to a Gender Bender? Turn into Befana? Trigger the secondary "Must be married clause" from the second movie if she's a married woman and turns her husband into Santa?
  • Perhaps there'd be a balance between Gender Bender and Befana complimented (hopefully) by the Rule of Funny. A controversial idea, but a good writer could make it work!
  • Alternatively, some sort of magic ensures that only men can enact the Santa Clause?
    • Just my thought, but she'd probably she'd turn into Mrs. Claus but get all of Santa's powers. To preserve the story, if a kid saw her she could just say "Santa's really busy this year so I'm helping out". She'd most likely be subject to some version of the Missus Clause, but whether the Santa powers would transfer to her husband upon marriage... hm. Likely the Powers That Be that Santa meets with in the second movie would rule on that. If Mrs. Clause had been doing a good job they'd probably declare she kept the powers, if she'd been just keeping her head above water until she got married they'd probably go ahead and give her new husband a shot.
    • "In putting on the suit and entering the sleigh, the wearer waives any and all rights to any previous identity, real or implied, and fully accepts the duty and responsibilities of Santa Claus, in perpetuity until such time the wearer becomes unable to do so, by either accident or design." That means, male or female, whoever puts on the suit becomes "Santa Claus." However, the "Mrs. Clause" specifically refers to "A woman of his choosing," which implies that "Santa" must be male, or the female Santa be a lesbian. So either females don't fall subject to the Mrs. Clause, or females cannot be made subject to the Santa Clause in the first place, and only a male can put on the suit and become the new Santa.
• Similar to a point raised above: what happens if the person to enact the Santa Clause is LGBT? Does their sexuality get overwritten for the sake of the Santa lore, or would a gay or bi Santa be allowed to marry a man once the Mrs. Clause kicks in?
  • Unfortunately, the Exact Wording of the Mrs. Clause is "A woman of his choosing." Therefore, Santa Claus has to be male, and Mrs. Claus has to be female, to fulfill the terms of the Mrs. Clause.
    • It's a magical contract. I'm willing to believe that it magically updates itself (to a limited extent) in response to changing conditions. If Santa was gay it would just say "A man of his choosing", or maybe it would say nothing at all, and the Mrs. Clause wouldn't exist for that particular Santa.
• What would happen if a kid or an animal enacted the Santa Clause?
  • Would the kid experience an epic growing-up thing, and would Humanity Ensue for the animal?
    • If the Clause is a binding legal deal, then only an adult may enter into such a deal unless the child had his parent's support and signed off as well. So no-go on animals, but it could depend on if the child was allowed to wear it by his/her parents.
    • Problem is, that a 'binding legal deal' varies between jurisdiction and jurisdiction. In some, children can enter into a contract. In others, the Clause very much is not a binding legal deal for Scott Calvin and others who became Santa in a roughly similar situation, as they were not informed of, and could not know of, the details of the contract beforehand.
    • It's not a binding legal contract, it's a binding magical contract. One that Scott agreed to, whether he read it or not when he enacted the terms of it by putting on the suit. However, just because it's a magical contract and some of the rules are different from legal ones doesn't mean that all the rules are different. It may have some provision for people who would be incapable of fulfilling an adult role like Santa Clause... little kids, animals, people with severe mental problems, that sort of thing. Even if it doesn't, likely if a kid showed up back at the North Pole in the Santa suit, the elves would flip out and convene the council of Powers That Be to seek some sort of waiver.
• If all Santas have to be married, what happened to the previous Mrs. Claus when Scott killed Santa in the first movie? Did she go back to her pre-Santa life? Did she die when he did?
  • Didn't they discover the Mrs. Clause until Scott's reign as Santa? Maybe no Santa has survived long enough for the Mrs. Clause to factor into their contract. Which is a completely different kind of Fridge Horror.
    • It may be that the only other Santas to survive long enough that the Mrs. Clause would have kicked in were already married, lessening the Fridge Horror.
    • Scott was given eleven months to get his affairs in order. Mrs. Claus was presumably given the same amount of time.
    • The third movie, The Escape Clause, proves that the Magical Contracts affect time as well. If Mrs. Claus' husband invokes the Escape Clause (or dies, presumably), a "Mrs. Claus Escape Clause" is also invoked, and time is reset, erasing the memories of Mrs. Claus as well and returning her to her life before she married Santa. In the altered timeline, for example, Scott and Carol never got married.
• Why is there no Legendary Figure for Halloween? There seems to be one for every other major Holiday (Valentine's Day, Easter, New Year's Eve/Day, etc.).
  • Because there is no consistent folkloric character associated with Halloween. Baby New Year, Cupid, and the Easter Bunny are well-known characters usually thought of as singular beings, but there is no comparable "spirit of Halloween."
  • Because they couldn't get the rights to use the Great Pumpkin.
  • Samhain was supposedly an old spirit related to Halloween, but he likely would have been too...not family-friendly, if the lore about sacrifices is correct.
  • Clearly Jack Skellington wasn't invited back to the meetings after the incident of '93.
  • Maybe they could've used Stingy Jack.
• The clause states that "In putting on the suit and entering the sleigh, the wearer waives any and all rights to any previous identity, real or implied". And it's shown that Scott and Charlie could get into the sleigh in their normal clothes. Scott only put the suit on at the first house where they landed because Charlie insisted. But if the person never put on the suit, and did all the deliveries in their normal clothes, would they still be fully subject to the Santa clause, or would they be allowed to return to their normal lives?
  • If he doesn't put on the suit AND enter the sleigh, he does not fall subject to the Santa Clause. Which means he does not become Santa. This means none of the Santa Magic (the magically refilling bag of toys, the ability to go down chimneys) would occur. Therefore making it impossible to complete all the deliveries.
• In the first movie, Scott clearly didn't want to be Santa at first, so why didn't Bernard or any of the other elves just tell him about the Escape Clause?
  • They probably didn't know about it. They had to look very carefully at the card to find out about the Mrs. Clause.
  • Even if they knew, would they tell him? It's been years since I saw the film, but if the wording of the clause doesn't specifically tell how it works the elves might have been wary about telling their brand-new Santa how to quit the job. Sure, time resets and the old Santa gets the job back, but if nobody knows that part it's a huge risk to take.
• Isn't the whole "Secret of Santa" thing a bit ridiculous? Scott's family knows he's Santa, part of the Mrs. Clause means they'd have to tell the woman in question who he is, and at the end of the first movie, the entire neighborhood saw Scott taking off in his sleigh! Besides, in the first two movies, nobody believed him at all when it came to that, so what's the problem? And even if the in-laws told people about that, the same logic would apply.
• Since Santa is, indeed, real in this universe, why didn't Laura and Neal get their respective presents they asked him for as kids?
  • Santa probably didn't give Neal the weenie whistle because it was a choking hazard and he was only three. The Mystery Date is unclear, but he could have also made an executive decision that it wasn't age-appropriate due to the subject matter.