It’s about damn time we bestow a Christmas crown on our favorite yuletide queen in red. Okay, our second favorite … fine, third: Mrs. Claus. So iconic she doesn’t even need a first name, Mrs. Claus has been imagined and reimagined in every possible format: poetry, video games, Family Guy cutaways, drag queen inspo. So, let’s take a long-overdue minute to honor some of Shondaland’s favorite Mrs. Claus pop culture moments. Here are 10 times Mrs. Claus took the spotlight.
Robie Lester in Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
This classic 1970 stop-motion origin story for Saint Nick also shows how the future Mrs. Claus — here, she’s kindly teacher Miss Jessica — found her own destiny via a trippy animated musical number, “My World Is Beginning Today.” We’re here for Mrs. Claus depicted as an empowered woman of action, especially one with Jessica’s Liza Minnelli-inspired red bob.
Shirley Booth in The Year Without a Santa Claus
Voiced by the Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning actress Shirley Booth, Mrs. Claus in this 1974 stop-motion fave is a feisty old dame who thinks nothing of stepping in for her husband when needed or convincing Mother Nature to end the toxic male energy clash between Snow Miser and Heat Miser. With a twinkle in her eye, this finely aged queen does all the damn things.
Bea Arthur in Shoppers Drug Mart Commercials
Mrs. Claus was never more fabulous than when portrayed by Emmy-winning legend Bea Arthur in a holiday series of 1980s commercials for the Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart. Whether she’s sharing her Christmas list, partying down with Rudolph, or letting “Nicky” know she wants to put on the glitz, you can’t take your eyes off the true Queen of Christmas … or her glittery wardrobe. (Her Golden Girls green silk tuxedo’s cameo is a personal favorite.)
Elizabeth Mitchell in The Santa Clause Franchise
While she never gets gifted with the biggest moments or laughs that go to her on-screen husband Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell has still been a beloved pillar of The Santa Clause franchise since 2002. (The first sequel’s kind of all about her, in a way, with its “the Mrs. Clause” plot.) Take heart, Mitchell Maniacs — she has returned in this year’s Disney+ miniseries The Santa Clauses, apparently after learning some North Pole jujitsu. Ho, ho, hi, ya!
Angela Lansbury in Mrs. Santa Claus
The first original musical for TV since 1957, this charmer was old-fashioned even in 1996. It stars the one and only Angela Lansbury as a Mrs. Claus who leaves Santa at home and ends up stranded in 1910 New York, with plenty of new songs to sing with her Tony-winning pipes. Undaunted, this plucky magical girl boss decides to crusade for child labor laws and women’s right to vote in head-to-toe Bob Mackie. Role model!
Janet McTeer for Marks & Spencer
This glossy, high-end 2016 campaign for the retailer Marks & Spencer showcased Oscar-nominated actress Janet McTeer as an elegant Mrs. Claus who secretly makes her own Christmas Eve deliveries. Whether she’s piloting a helicopter, pretending to have fallen asleep while reading Fifty Shades of Red (!), or opting to magically enter houses through the front door rather than the chimney, this Mrs. Claus is a posh goddess who will never reveal all her secrets. We need more of her, stat!
Katy Perry in “Cozy Little Christmas”
Campy pop chameleon Katy Perry helps her hubby Santa unwind with massages and a poolside frolic in this frothy little video. Inspired by a Christmas the singer took with her family in Copenhagen, the song topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 2018. Katy’s Mrs. Claus is a stylish party gal who never turns down a chance to sexily splash around in an enormous eggnog martini. Just like grandma!
Mrs. Claus
Originally titled Stirring (as in “not a creature was”), this no-budget 2018 slasher features someone disguised as Mrs. Claus offing attendees of a sorority party in various festive ways. (Watch out for that giant candy cane, Thinly Drawn Character No. 4!) Most notable for allowing genre legends Helene Udy and Brinke Stevens to chew the (cheap) scenery, this film reminds us if you cross Mrs. Claus — you’d better watch out!
Goldie Hawn in The Christmas Chronicles
It’s hard to imagine more perfect casting than the sunny Goldie Hawn and the studly Kurt Russell as Mrs. and Mr. Santa. And thankfully, after a charming cameo at the end of the 2018 original, the Oscar-winning Hawn steps up in the 2020 sequel, which better showcases both her character’s magical abilities and her own magical screen presence. Here’s hoping if there’s a third film in the series, it focuses solely on a happy Hawn-nukkah.
Lilly Singh via YouTube
The host of A Little Late With Lilly Singh plays a dissatisfied Mrs. Claus hashing out her issues with her husband in this 2021 marriage therapy comedy skit. Bemoaning Santa’s kinky desire for her to role-play as Rudolph and the couple’s shady financial dealings, Singh is a sassy white-haired snow queen who gives voice to the big question: “Everything is about you, you, you, you! What about me? There’s no carols about me, the woman behind the brand.” Equality is, of course, the best present of all.
Jonathan Riggs is a freelance writer and former managing editor of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle magazine Instinct.
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