I’ll admit that I’ve watched several Christmas specials this week, and I’ve noted a common theme: if something happens to Santa, Christmas will be ruined, just ruined! And, of course, Santa is always saved by the end. So I got to thinking…
Are there any Christmas shows/movies etc - probably meant for audiences over the age of ten - where someone says (or shows) Santa isn’t the important part of Christmas? We’ll still have presents and togetherness, and isn’t Jesus the reason for the season? I suppose Charlie Brown is something like that in giving the true meaning of Christmas, but I really mean ones that have Santa as a character.
Well, there’s the *Silent Night, Deadly Night* series in which a psychopath dresses up like Santa Claus and chops people up, but I don’t think that’s quite what you’re looking for.
I don’t know of any specials featuring Santa that promote the message you’re thinking of. As you mention, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” features the Infancy Narrative from the Gospel of Luke as “what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown”, and in general promotes the idea that Christmas means deeper things than commercialism. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” consciously avoids mentioning anything about religion but still ends with the Whos down in Whoville celebrating Christmas in spite of having been robbed of not only their presents but also all their food and a good many of their possessions… but no Santa, just the Grinch as the antiSanta. And I know there have been Christmas specials featuring the Gospel stories, although the only title I can remember at the moment is “Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey”, which retold the story from the point of view of the donkey Mary rode to Bethlehem on. Needless to say, no Santa Claus there, either.
It would almost seem to be that some, perhaps unsuccessful, comic-strip-tie-in special would have featured such a combination of character and message; it almost seems like something the creators of Family Circus could have come up with, or Johnny Hart of BC fame in his later years. But if it exists I’ve never heard of it.