Santa Clause 2: One Scene's A Wonder!

This guest post from Lewis Beck

My favorite non-animated Christmas special is Santa Clause 2 with Tim Allen and Elizabeth Mitchell. I always seem to find it on Satalite TV, just before Christmas day. When I do I stop everything, pull close whatever family is around, and bask in the Christmas glow.

The whole movie is good—a battle between North Pole workshop automation and elf-crafted tradition—but one scene really steals the show. In it Scott Calvin (aka Santa Claus) escorts the feisty but deep down kindhearted Principal Newman to a gloomy teachers' Christmas party. Scott decides to liven up the party by holding a Secret Santa, but Principal Newman is certain there are no gifts. To everyone's surprise Scott produces a huge bag of gifts and when he pulls out the first one, it's addressed to the most sullen of all the teachers, John Pierce (Scott asks, “Didn't your Mom call you JJ?”). John grabs the gift out of Scott's hands and, as he's walking back to his cheerless colleagues, tears off the wrapping paper. His eyes widen: the gift is Toss Across, his favorite of all childhood Christmas toys.

After that each of the other teachers receives a gift, always perfectly selected from their Christmases past. And then Scott Calvin walks to Principal Newman with her gift and, well, you enjoy watching the rest yourself!