Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Santa Clauses’ on Disney+, Where Tim Allen Deals with a Crisis of Christmas Faith

The Santa Clause franchise continues in The Santa Clauses, a new holiday series from Disney+. Tim Allen returns as Santa Claus, the spirit of the season formerly known as Scott Calvin. Along for the sleigh ride are Elizabeth Mitchell as Mrs. Claus and new addition Kal Penn, who plays a tech startup rival of Santa’s. Does this series recapture some of that movie magic, or is this a franchise that was better left on ice?

THE SANTA CLAUSES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A reindeer’s-eye-view of the water as we pan up to see New York City at night — on Christmas Eve, no less! And as we make our way into tech mogul Simon’s (Kal Penn) home, we see that he is on a Zoom call with his employees instead of helping his daughter decorate the Christmas tree.

The Gist: It’s been 28 years since Scott Calvin took over for Santa after St. Nick’s accidental death, and Scott — I mean, Santa has this whole Father Christmas thing down. He’s got an elf sidekick named Noel (Devin Bright) who helps him on his annual toy drives, and he’s got a whole control room of pros back in the North Pole making sure everything goes according to plan. But things aren’t going according to plan! The nice list gets shorter every year, almost as if kids are losing their Christmas spirit. And when kids lose interest in Christmas, Santa’s magic starts to dwindle! Pretty soon Santa’s not able to travel up and down chimneys with ease and he keeps losing weight. What gives?! Can Santa amp up Christmas spirit? And what will happen to Santa’s whole setup After a beleaguered tech dude and single father named Simon spots what looks like a sleigh and eight reindeer soaring through the sky…?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Forget shows — this is definitely the Santa Clause franchise. You’ve got Allen’s irreverent take on Santa, which includes a weight-gaining montage set to “Eye of the Kringle.” The North Pole is the same, including that terrifying fireplace shaped like Santa’s head. There are even a few gratingly silly gags that kids will love and parents will tolerate, like an “Elves Just Wanna Have Fun” dance routine. It’s like they took the movies and broke them into half-hour episodes.

Our Take: Well, it’s The Santa Clause but in TV series form. You have to appreciate the ambition and ingenuity at the very least, as holiday-themed seasons of television are still incredibly rare even in the increasingly crowded streaming landscape. Beyond that, whether or not this is for you and your family depends on your level of tolerance for this franchise’s shenanigans and Tim Allen’s “own the libs” humor — which, yes, somehow even pops up in a Disney+ series about Santa Claus. You better believe Allen’s Santa is annoyed that he “suddenly” can’t say merry Christmas anymore (groan), and gets miffed when one elf accuses him of “brat-shaming” during a conflab on who belongs on the naughty or nice list. Oh — they’re not “naughty” anymore; they’re “misunderstood,” and they also get gifts. Sure.

As for the impetus for a whole show spinning out of the Santa Clause trilogy, it’s not exactly original. The idea that Santa is losing his magic due to a lack of Christmas spirit is one that’s been done many times before, and it’s one that families already rewatch every single year in a little movie called Elf.

More intriguing is a subplot focused on Elizabeth Mitchell’s Mrs. Claus, who suddenly starts asking the kinds of questions that you’d expect to hear in a WandaVision or Lost-style puzzle series. Why does Mrs. Claus not have a first name? Why does she just sit around a knit all year? Was there a Mrs. Claus before her and if so, what happened to her after her husband died during Christmas ’94? These are great questions and way more interesting than a plot about a lack of Christmas spirit. Fortunately this is a limited series, which means there should be enough time to unpack this plot point eventually.

Whether you stick around to see if the series answers all of Mrs. Claus’ questions depends largely on how much you or your kids like this seasonal schtick — jokes like Santa saying he looks more like “an MMA fighter and less like an M&M eater.”

Parting Shot: The first episode ends with the worst thing happening to a Santa Claus finally happening to our Santa Claus: he falls off the roof, seemingly to his demise, and his best bud Noel salutes the fallen Claus. Is Santa done for?! No, because this is Episode 1.

Sleeper Star: The highlight of the first episode is Casey Wilson, who pops up as a grown-up version of Sara. Remember, she’s the little girl who left soy milk out for Santa after he told her he was lactose intolerant (don’t worry, there’s a flashback). She’s 28 years older and is now an adult woman who’s sleeping on her parents’ couch and spends her “endless, blurry, long days” are broken up by Judge Judy episodes. Again, there’s something interesting here about Scott revisiting the kids from his first run as Santa, especially since it allows the show to stunt cast with comedy ringers like Wilson, people who can make anything funny. I’d personally like more of Wilson and less of the elf-themed parody songs, but I’m also not the target audience.

Our Call: This is a SKIP IT to all but the diehard Santa Clause fans out there. If you rewatch the entire Santa Clause trilogy every year, of course you’re going to want to see what happens next. The rest of us are fine sticking to the first film — or just rewatching Elf.