Top 5 Non-Traditional Santa Christmas Movies You Haven’t Seen (But Should!)

Everyone knows the classic cinematic Santas: the jolly gift-givers, the grumpy mall imposters, and even the occasional action hero. But cinema runs deep, and if you venture off the beaten snowy path, you’ll find depictions of Saint Nick that are downright bizarre, unsettling, or wonderfully weird. If you’re looking to spice up your holiday viewing with something truly unexpected, here are five non-traditional Santa movies that venture far beyond the North Pole norm.

5 Non-Traditional Santa Christmas Movies

1. Dial Code Santa Claus (1989)

Also known as Deadly Games or 3615 code Père Noël, this French thriller actually predates Home Alone by a year and features a similar, albeit darker, premise. A young boy named Thomas, a tech whiz obsessed with action movies, defends his grandfather’s mansion from a deranged man dressed as Santa Claus. This isn’t a charming holiday mix-up; the “Santa” here is a vagrant turned home invader. The film is stylish, intense, and features a child setting intricate booby traps to survive the night against a terrifying St. Nick. It’s a cult classic that transforms the symbol of joy into the face of fear.

2. Saint (2010)

Forget the Coca-Cola version you know. In this Dutch horror-comedy (originally titled Sint), Sinterklaas is reimagined as a murderous ghost of a disgraced bishop. According to the film’s lore, the original St. Nicholas was a rogue gang leader who was killed by villagers centuries ago. Now, whenever December 5th coincides with a full moon, he returns on his phantom steed to wreak havoc and slaughter innocents rather than deliver presents. It’s a visually striking, gory, and cynical take on the holiday legend that flips the script entirely—turning the anticipation of his arrival into pure dread.

3. Christmas Evil (1980)

While Silent Night, Deadly Night often gets the spotlight for “killer Santa” tropes, Christmas Evil (also known as You Better Watch Out) is the stranger, more psychological cousin. The film follows Harry, a toy factory worker who was traumatized as a child after seeing “Santa” (his dad) getting intimate with his mom. As an adult, Harry becomes obsessed with being the true Santa Claus. He spies on neighborhood children, keeping literal naughty and nice lists, and eventually snaps. What makes this stand out isn’t just the slasher elements, but the bizarre sympathy the movie builds for Harry. He genuinely wants to bring Christmas cheer; he just has a very violent way of dealing with cynicism and “naughty” behavior.

4. Santa Claus (1959)

This Mexican fantasy film is a fever dream of holiday weirdness. In this version, he doesn’t live at the North Pole—he lives in a crystal castle in outer space above the Earth. He works with Merlin the Magician and uses high-tech surveillance equipment (including a giant ear fan) to watch children. His nemesis isn’t the Grinch, but a demon named Pitch sent by Lucifer to ruin Christmas. The film features uncanny mechanical reindeer, disturbing dream sequences, and a surreal logic that feels more like a hallucination than a festive fable. It’s a fascinating, if baffling, watch that completely ignores Western Santa canon.

5. The City of Lost Children (1995)

While not strictly a “Santa movie” in the traditional sense, this visual masterpiece from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) features one of the most unsettling sequences involving Santa Claus ever put to film. The movie opens with a nightmare scene where a young boy sees a room full of identical Santas coming down the chimney. The jovial image quickly turns grotesque as they multiply and menace him. Though brief, this depiction taps into the inherent uncanniness of the mythos—a stranger entering your home at night—within a darkly whimsical steampunk universe. It’s a perfect example of how the iconography of Christmas can be warped into something beautiful yet disturbing.