7 Surprisingly Dark Moments From Your Favourite Christmas Movies

2. Santa Dies - The Santa Clause

For all the schmaltz later on in Disney's The Santa Clause, once Tim Allen's cynical advertising executive learns the true meaning of Christmas and becomes Santa, the film kicks off by murdering the embodiment of Christmas - Kris Kringle himself! When Allen's Scott Calvin sees a guy on his rooftop on Christmas Eve, he does the realistic thing and shouts up to him to ask what the hell he's doing up there. Unfortunately, this frightens Santa (you'd think he would have better balance on rooftops) who slips and falls to a horrible death. Of course, he puts on the dead man's clothes (as you do) and in doing so signs a contract to be the new Santa and Christmas is saved. Except, the old Santa remains dead. And it's never addressed if he had a Mrs Claus or little Claus kids who were turfed out to fend for themselves, in the cold wilderness of the North Pole, when the new Santa sauntered in. Buzz Lightyear killed Santa Claus. This is the stuff that Christmas films are made of.