For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. During the month of December, the Falls Free Press will return to our tradition of “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2024—a year that can still do with plenty of peace and joy. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch.
Writing letters to Santa Claus, including a list of hopeful presents to receive on Christmas morning, is something many children take part in during the holiday season. The joy parents get from seeing the jolly man in red at the few locations he can still visit in this age of online retailers helps spread the cheer and goodwill from one person to another. While some venues in America sometimes embellish this tradition by including Krampus, Saint Nicholas’ literal partner in crime, a horned half-goat demon creature who was known in legend to beat naughty children with branches, the portrayal of Claus in person and on film has remained relatively similar to that of storybook Coca-Cola’s red depiction of the character…. until recently.
Paramount+’s Dear Santa shows the aftermath of 11-year-old Liam (Robert Timothy Smith), a differently-abled child with dyslexia who loves Christmas and still writes letters to Santa in the hope that it will make his mother happy. Liam’s parents are seen at the opening of the film constantly arguing and nothing seems to cause this rift more than Liam’s strange quirks. Due to his issue with letters which he cannot see, Liam mistakenly addresses his letter to Satan rather than to Santa. Of all the letters in the holiday mailbox, this particular one magically makes it to the addressed location, leading to a sooty, black-horned Jack Black portraying what we are to believe is the devil himself appears from Liam’s closet, performing wacky magic like that of Robin Williams’ Genie character and telling the child he has three wishes.
Sure, Dear Santa isn’t a run-of-the-mill Christmas movie of any age, however the plots of this story have been presented far better than the Farrelly brothers have pieced together in this script; notably 2023’s Peacock original film Genie with Melissa McCarthy–the same genie wish storyline with a far more wholesome outline. Santa’s Slay portrayed Bill Goldberg as a demon who had lost a bet in a game of curling, only to spread cheer for a thousand years. In 2020, Syfy premiered Letters to Satan Claus, which starred Karen Knox as a television anchorwoman forced to return to her hometown for the first time since her childhood when sending an angry letter to a misspelled “Satan Claus” left her parents murdered and her with a lifetime of PTSD.
In those previous films, there were far more repercussions for invoking the devil. While we see Liam get three wishes, he is constantly being warned that making all three means he’s sold his soul, with Liam regularly stating he won’t make a final wish. This devil unfortunately never seemed to learn from Aladdin’s tricks though, often creating fun and chaos out of nowhere for one simple wish such as wishing a girl would give him the chance to ask her on a date, or a way to help his friends. None of his wishes ever lean dark and the whole movie seems to live in a world where these characters, including the devil himself, don’t understand what evil means. Black keeps appearing in random places as: a carnival concession vendor, security for Post-Malone, or inside a hamster cage, but never goes the as far as Rue McClanahan in NBC’s puppet-filled The Wickedest Witch (who even then still failed her assignment, despite seducing younger than Blanche ever tried).
Through the devil’s half-hearted attempts and Liam’s wholesome wishes, the film barely touches on the worst possible outcome of the story, but instead focuses on what doing good around you can accomplish. Even with side characters create conflict throughout the movie— the parents with their constant arguing, the child psychologist who insists Liam is crazy, or the overactive crossing guard who belittles everybody and behaves superior for attending a crossing guard class— something always happens to remind us they have no redeeming role in the story and therefore should focus on other characters. This illustrates the film’s biggest fault, if the audience is more focused on everybody else when wacky Jack Black is headlining the movie, perhaps this wasn’t the best role to cast him. It seems he and Kyle Gass can win in a rock battle against the devil but portraying him is best left for another actor.
Dear Santa is available to stream on Paramount+.
