30 Feminist Christmas Movies, Ranked

The Santa Clause 2, Image via Buena Vista Pictures

The Santa Clause 2

It’s been eight years since the events of the first movie, and Scott Calvin has fully embraced his role as Santa Claus. However, his excitement around his new job turns to panic when he is given another ultimatum. He must find a Mrs. Claus and marry before the next Christmas Eve, or he will cease to be Santa and Christmas will cease to exist. At the same time, Scott’s son Charlie has started acting out back at home, which causes great distress. Scott and his helper Curtis create a life-sized toy Santa to cover things while Scott goes to deal with Charlie and search for a wife. Even as Scott starts to find love, things go awry at the North Pole when the toy Santa, having been programmed to follow the Handbook of Christmas, takes it too literally and decides everyone deserves only lumps of coal.

The Good

• Carol is presented as independent and headstrong, which is nice. Although, really, she gets shunted into a bitchy stereotype initially.
• The head of the Council of Legendary Figures is Mother Nature, a woman.

The Bad

• Santa has less than a year to get married to someone? Having a deadline by which you have to be married essentially amounts to a forced ceremony.
• Mother Nature is the only female member of the Council of Legendary Figures. Even the traditional gender of the Tooth Fairy is changed.
• Carol is initially portrayed as uptight.
• Scott uses magic to coerce Carol into being in love with him.
• The marriage plot idea seems to have been co-opted from traditional women’s literature such as Jane Austen’s work. Even though it is, this time, applied to a man, the concept is still very harmful. It reinforces the idea that people can only be their best selves and do their best work if they are paired off in heterosexual couples.

The Ugly

• Carol has a career, as a school principal. But when she falls in love with and marries Scott, there is no discussion of her job, her dreams, or her emotional needs. She is expected to move to the North Pole and take on the role of Mrs. Claus, no questions asked. And that’s what she does. The question of whether she would like to do so is never really addressed.