‘Tis the season to be murdered! We take a thorough look at our history with psycho murder Santas in pop culture

“Santy Claus only brings presents to them that’s been good all year. All the other ones, all the naughty ones, he punishes! What about you, boy? You been good all year?…You see Santa Claus tonight you better run boy, you better run for ya life!”

– Silent Night, Deadly Night

For almost as long as we’ve had the tradition of cozying up with festive Christmas films and specials over the holidays, there’s been just as rampant an appetite for gorging on perverse pieces of Christmas pain every December. While there’s an obvious comfort in snuggling up near a fire and watching Santa right wrongs and instill tidings of good will to all, we as a people have gotten just as comfortable watching Santa eviscerate sugar plum fairies and clean his axe off on mistletoe. This trend towards Santa snapping and this “murder Santa” sub-genre of horror has been gaining an alarming amount of support in recent years, arguably being the most popular that it’s ever been. But as we accept that there are now just corrupt Kris Kringles terrorizing the public every December, have we ever stopped to wonder how this strange phenomenon became so popular in the first place? Have murder Santas always been a staple of the season, or are they a more recent development? And what is it about them that have kept them swinging that ax after all of this time? We’ll unpack the definitive history of murder Santas here, going through each era of the ne’er do well St. Nicks and showing you how this inappropriate apostle has changed through the years. So ready that hot cocoa and cue the carols because here’s the history of how Santa became so ho ho ho-rrible.

While they might seem like such a construct of movies and television as these red-and-white lunatics are built for laughing manically and lumbering towards you, the twisted trope actually began as a creation of comic books. Granted, there were ancient texts and archaic civilizations that were portraying the figure devilishly beforehand. Hell, even Dickens’ A Christmas Carol refers to Santa as a ghost (which still manages to be a creepier idea than the entirety of Zemeckis’ motion-capture take on the tale). Even when film—the natural adaptation medium—began running with the sub-genre, it was only after adapting a comic story of a murder Santa in the first place.

It might not seem like much, but Leading Comics #2 made a nice little piece of history in 1942 when it was depicting Santa as a murderous pirate. This might be a far step from the homicidal maniacs that we’re getting now, but it was a huge deal at the time. This pirate Santa was otherwise known as Captain Bigg and was one of the many gang members of a cadre of villains assembled by the criminal mastermind, Black Star. This iteration of Santa was still fairly tame, and upon invading ships rather than robbing his victims, he would gift them with jewelry. As a result of this “controversial” behavior Captain Bigg was seen as insane, almost like the irrational Joker of their group.

It was around the same time that the prolific Will Eisner was also experimenting with a preliminary draft of our modern murder Santa in his popular The Spirit comics. There was a time during the ‘40s where the foes and baddies that Eisner’s titular character was facing would be dressed up as Santa while committing their nefarious deeds. However, after the Spirit had gotten through to these villains and shown them the error of their ways, they would ditch their Santa garb when they saw the light. This was still merely a villainous Santa than a killer one, but it begins to see the start of this normally beloved figure being cast in a wicked light.

A particularly significant footnote through this bloody journey comes in the form of the iconic Vault of Horror #35’s “And All Through the House…” written by Johnny Craig. This incredibly simple story boils down what’s so appealing about this scary concept by delivering a cat-and-mouse story between a damsel in distress (and her child) and the prototypical murder Santa. If that wasn’t enough, in a nice little added bonus after the conclusion of the story, it’s ultimately revealed that the Santa narrating the story was none other than the Vault Keeper himself, providing two evil Santas in this book by the end.

“And All Through the House…” is even a little jarring in juxtaposition to the previous works being looked at here, in terms of how frightening and vicious it is. This degree of carnage was possible due to the comics landscape being pre-Code at this point. It was this same freedom that would allow Secret Mysteries #17 to feature a story titled “Sinister Santa Claus” in 1954 about a murder mystery featuring Santa as the felonious culprit. The formation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) followed shortly after in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America. The Comics Code allowed publishers to self-regulate their content, meaning comics would see screening by the CCA with the group essentially becoming censors and watchdogs towards content. Unsurprisingly, the sort of lewd, reckless behavior seen in comics up until this point was toned down for quite some time. It would practically be fifteen years later until murder Santas would break from their hibernation.

In spite of this Comics Code business, it’s also worth bringing to attention a certain sinister Santa text that a lot of people take for granted. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! saw publication in 1957 and while many of us think of this as a charming, off kilter text from one of children’s lit’s best, it’s literal interpretation is hardly so friendly. Seuss’ story at face value sees a monster dressing up in a Santa suit and going to children’s homes causing trouble. We’ve been conditioned to “aw shucks” at this classic tale, but for the ‘50s this premise wasn’t nearly as safe. If anything it’s skewing more to the other works being looked at here.

It wasn’t until 1969’s “Santa Claws” from Web of Horror #3 that the next real substantial take on a murder Santa was happening, but it was sure not to hold back. This very dark story presents a vampire version of Santa Claus that believes that wearing the trusted Santa Claus attire will help secure him the trust of children. This predatory Santa conveys a chilling tone in atmosphere and just as things are about to get rather bloody—they still do—but for other reasons entirely. “Santa Claws” concludes itself by the real Santa Claus showing up to vanquish his vampiric doppleganger in what’s no doubt one of the most surreal vampire slayings of all time.

The sub-genre saw some healthy evolution in 1974 in the form of Creepy #59’s ambitious “Bless Us, Father.” This deeply disturbing story is equally innovative as it unravels through twin panels on both sides of the comic telling two parallel stories, contrasting them accordingly. One half of these panels focus on an escaped renegade Santa, with the other side chronicling the policeman chasing after him. The story does an incredible job of keeping you guessing as to who you should be empathizing with, showing you what they’ve been through, and obfuscating the case of who’s the real hero, all within a very complex narrative. “Santa Claws” would be so successful for Creepy that they would turn evil Santa-themed covers into tradition for the publication. With the ‘60s and ‘70s being comics’ clear time to shine for killer Santas, the ‘80s would become when the villainous figure would safely transition over to cinema.

The 1980 release, Christmas Evil (AKA You Better Watch Out) is widely considered to be the “first” film instance of a murder Santa tearing things up on the big screen, which is a little confusing though since several films pre-date this in the ‘70s. For instance, The Tales From the Crypt movie’s “And All Through the House…” from 1972 is technically the first filmic instance of a killer Santa, but perhaps its validity is questioned due to it being one piece of a larger whole. It’s absolutely significant to note though that this momentous film is an adaptation of the 1953 comic of the same name, giving it a little extra resonance. Also falling pre-Christmas Evil is one of the more famous Christmas horror movies, Black Christmas. Black Christmas might also find itself falling outside of the canon due to the fact that you never see the killer within the picture, with his first-person perspective being revolutionary for the medium, but it’s a fair assumption that the killer bears some resemblance to a murder Santa. The film is so iconic to the slasher sub-genre that it still warrants examination.

With comics these sort of perversions of Santa were largely a response to having or not having some sort of morality cause in place, but in the case of Black Christmas, a different source of inspiration was found. Roy Moore, the film’s screenwriter, allegedly based his story on real murder cases from Montreal (although there’s debate over whether the script’s not just based on “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs” urban legend). However, with Moore passing away in 1980 and never elaborating on the film, the true kernel of the murder Santa idea will remain with him. In this case at least, this murder Santa seems to be based on reality rather than some twisted event from Moore’s past or some sick fascination he had with the concept.

Returning to, Christmas Evil, the film is your typical murder Santa romp where a child catches his mother having sex with someone in a Santa costume (a surprisingly common occurrence amongst these films) and grows up to be Christmas obsessed accordingly. As he keeps a watchful eye over everyone he makes a naughty and nice list, albeit with impossibly high standards, and exacts vengeance as a result. The film very clearly knows what it is and with its basic template helped usher in the wealth of films that would follow that decade. Besides, John Waters loves the hell out of it and who knows creepy Santas better than someone like him? Listen to the man!

Lewis Jackson, the film’s writer/director, did provide some illumination on how he came about the murder Santa construct. To begin with, he was enamored with Carpenter’s Halloween, the idea of a holiday-based horror film, and how something like that can print money if done right. He elaborates, “So suddenly I have a Christmas horror movie and nobody had dared to deal with that outside of Black Christmas, which is essentially a slasher movie using Christmas, but doesn’t really deal with Christmas. I’ve buried myself in Christmas lore for years and I had this material.” But when it comes to the murder Santa himself Lewis wasn’t up to anything revelatory in its inception, “I was alone in the 1970’s. I was in my early 20’s. I was smoking a joint and had an image of the Santa with a knife. It was nothing more than that.” Much like with Black Christmas, ultimately nothing deeper or more traumatic was responsible for Lewis’ excitement with the subject matter. It was just inspiration striking at the right time.

The rest of the ‘80s saw film running wild with this idea, with the likes of Don’t Open Till Christmas, and the first four Silent Night, Deadly Night films seeing release. Television was also getting onboard with the craze with the Tales From the Crypt series doing yet another adaptation of “And All Through the House…” Even Matlock was taking part in the trend. Their holiday episode, “Santa Claus”, saw numerous people dressing up as Santa, all of which were either murderers or victims of being murdered. What the ‘80s collectively showed us about murder Santas is that they are baseless ciphers that are more scary than deep, with franchises highlighting their ability to succeed off of simplicity.

The ‘90s saw murder Santas shedding their skin of simplicity though, with the final entry in the series, and the most convoluted, Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 kicking the decade off right. Other films such as Santa Claws, Satan Claus, and Feeders 2: Slay Bells all feature ridiculous spins on the usually minimalist murder Santa motif by injecting elements like Hollywood, aliens, and a Santa that builds a Christmas tree out of his victims’ limbs. All of these works are also much more violent, and now that the murder Santa concept has sunk in a little they’re allowed to go overboard with it. Television was also pushing the limits of all of this, with Futurama’s “Xmas Story” not only featuring a gun-toting warlord of a robot Santa, but also a later timeslot and an advisory caveat. Weird Al’s ‘90s offering, “The Night Santa Went Crazy” also manages to push the limits of what already seemed like a macabre idea. The mere fact that Weird Al released an alternative “Extra Gory Version” of this song/video is evidence of the influence murder Santas were having on the public.

Moving out of the ‘90s and into the next decade saw films like, Santa’s Slay, Silent Night, Zombie Night, Rare Exports, Yule Die, Sint, Silent Night, and the most recent, Christmas Cruelty all transform Santa himself into some sort of monster rather than him just being a psychopath in a costume. These films all play much more with Santa’s lore and excite in hyperbolization and spectacle. Even the atypical Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater subscribes to these rules in the presentation of their 2005 story, “Present”, too. Similarly, Ryan Murphy’s infectious “Asylum” season of American Horror Story also saw itself catering to this trope (beginning with “Unholy Night”), with acclaimed actor Ian McShane donning the bloodied suit, no less. The Killers’ music video from this time period for their song, “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” doesn’t see their murder Santa being turned into some sort of creature, but still sporting the same excessive bloodthirsty, almost immortal relentlessness. We’re also seeing remakes going on now too, where previous simplistic takes on the murder Santa idea (Black Christmas) can be made more complex (and often less subtle).

Clearly these exploitative films are still very popular. We keep making these movies and audiences continue to love the trope, so it’s likely not going to disappear any time soon. With how far we’ve come, these indulgent films would need to get really drastic in order to cause some sort of backlash. Like if actual copycat murders began taking place, for instance. After all of this time it feels like we’ve gone as far as we can with these quirky characters, but as recent films have shown us, there’s still plenty of Santa left to subvert, and he’s having no trouble staying scary through the winter. If anything, he’s developing an even wider net of demonic friends to help spread bloody good fun over the holidays.

Don’t forget to double-check your chimney tonight…