Here's a little festive question for you... what is the most stone-cold brutal, horrific Christmas film ever made?
Good guesses from everyone, but pull up a chair for a truly seasonal hot take. The most horrific Christmas film (or, rather, trilogy) is The Santa Clause. Oh yes.
I'm not talking about what happens to Scott Calvin & his transformation into Santa. Or the fact that SCII belongs to the 'Santa Finds a Wife' subgenre, which is always creepy as hell.
To recap, when Santa falls off his roof, Scott Calvin puts on his suit & instantly becomes the new Santa. It's all fun & frolics, and the elves explain that this is the Santa 'clause'.
The creepiness begins early on, because the roof-Santa actually dies on screen (quite slowly) and that's the only reason Scott can take on the role.
None of the elves at the North Pole mourn the dead Santa. Bernard just refers to him as 'the other Santa' and shrugs it off. They just cold-heartedly accept that roof-Santa is gone, and now they work with Scott.
It's not just humans though. Elves disappear after hundreds of years, and NO ONE cares.
In SCI, Judy says she's spent the last 1200 years perfecting her cocoa recipe. But she's no where to be seen in SCII. She's just casually replaced with another cocoa-maker & never mentioned again.
And let's take a minute to consider Bernard. He's a huge part of SCI & SCII, but he's just... absent in SCIII. Curtis is now 'Elf No. 1' & no one mentions Bernard.
But this is far from the worst bit. Trust me, I've got so much more.
In SCII, Curtis & Bernard discover the 'Missus Clause', which dictates that Santa must be married. They'd never heard of this before & the Council of Legendary Figures also know nothing about it.
Curtis specifically says that he has been working with Santas for 900 years, and that this clause hasn't come to his attention before.
The obvious (and chilling) implication of this is that ALL previous Santas were married at the point when they donned the suit & invoked the Santa Clause. (Or they lasted less than a year before dying/invoking the Escape Clause.)
So... where are the wives?? Dear God, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WIVES??
When roof-Santa dies, it's a matter of hours before Scott gets to the North Pole to take over. But there is no sign of recently-bereaved Mrs Claus. What happened to her??
In SCIII, we see the Hall of Snow Globes, which has 1 globe for every Santa. There's about 50-60 globes in there. That's 50-60 former Santas, who were presumably all married.
60 Santas over the history of Christmas means that the average life expectancy for a Santa is just over 33 years. Some of them will have lived at the North Pole for much longer.
And, as we find out from SCIII, Santas are fertile in this universe, so Buddy Claus may not have been the first baby to be born at the North Pole.
So where are the babies? Where are the wives? There are potentially 60 women unaccounted for in this film series, and the elves never ever mention them.
I think there's a clear hint, though, in SCIII. To quote Bud Newman, on entering the elves' kitchen: 'How come the oven in the kitchen is bigger than the delivery room?' 
Why would the elves need a massive oven? Santa delivers toys, not baked goods. Now think about how wryly the elves smile whenever someone comments on the flavour of their cocoa.
The elves are clearly baking women (& possibly children) in their oven, then using the bodies to make ceremonial cocoa, which they then feed to future Santas.
And that, my friends, is why The Santa Clause is the most horrific Christmas film ever made.
