Scott Calvin

"Who gave you permission to tell Charlie there was no Santa Claus? I think if we're going to destroy our son's delusions, I should be a part of it."

- Scott Calvin

Scott Calvin, later Santa Claus, is the protagonist of The Santa Clause trilogy. He was an executive for a toy company before accidentally coming across the former Santa Claus, alongside his son, Charlie, and taking his place by wearing his suit. Over the year, Scott slowly became the new Santa Claus, while in denial.

Scott later went on to marry Carol Newman, who took on the role as Mrs. Claus.

Background
Originally, Scott was an advertising executive for a toy company. At the time of the first film, he is divorced from his ex-wife, Laura, with whom he had one son, Charlie. He was initially cynical in regards to Christmas but was willing to reassure his son about his belief. Owing to his initial cynicism, he was also shown to be a bit sarcastic, which is evidenced by when Neil and his wife, alongside the principal, tried to ask him what Scott and Charlie did during Christmas Eve before they went to bed regarding Charlie's claims that Scott's Santa Claus, Scott, in a slightly flippant manner, rattled off a list of things that he and Charlie did that would ordinarily be considered extremely inappropriate such as "shar[ing] a bowl of sugar, [doing] some shots of brown liquor, play[ing] with [Scott's] shotguns, field-dress[ing] a cat, Look[ing] for women." before admitting that he was, in fact, reading him a book, and when Neil asked what book it was, Scott, in a similarly flippant tone, said it was Hollywood Wives before promptly stating in an irritated manner that it was in fact The Night Before Christmas. He eventually comes to realize the true meaning behind Santa after being forced to take on the role and comes to accept his new life as Santa Claus. He may have done hallucinogenic drugs when he was younger, as during his first experience with Santa's bag and going down the chimney when Charlie remarked on his flying, Scott told him that he was used to flying as "he lived through the sixties."

As Santa, Scott is capable of certain feats of Christmas magic. He eventually remarries to a woman named Carol, who becomes Mrs. Claus and fathers another son, Buddy.

Powers and Abilities
Scott is able to transform things into other things. This is shown when he made the baby's toy from beads to a little toy. He was also able to build a rocket-powered scooter at supersonic speeds.

The Santa Clause
On Christmas Eve, Charlie is spending the night with Scott before spending Christmas with Laura and her second husband, Neil. Despite a lack of belief in Santa, Scott tells the story The Night Before Christmas to Charlie, and reassures him about Santa, and was also angry that his ex-wife and Neil told Charlie Santa doesn't exist. Later that night, Scott awakens to a sound on his roof. He and Charlie investigate and discover Santa and his reindeer. Scott's shouting startles Santa into falling off to his death, presumably killing him. While looking for an ID, Scott finds a business card explaining the reader to put on the suit if something should happen to him. He does so, and with Charlie, he is abruptly forced into Santa's job of delivering presents.

When they finish, Scott and Charlie are taken to the North Pole, where Scott meets the head elf, Bernard, and learns that he has entered a form of contract, wherein he agrees to become the new Santa Claus upon putting on the suit. He is told he has until Thanksgiving to put his affairs in order and awakens at his home the next morning. While Scott believes the adventure to be a dream, Charlie is ecstatic about his father's new role.

Over the upcoming months, Scott begins to take on Santa's appearance and habits, such as putting on weight, whitening his hair, growing a white beard, and craving cookies and milk. Eventually, Laura and Neil, become worried that Scott's behavior is encouraging Charlie's "delusions" as he continues to insist that Scott is Santa. Eventually, Scott's visitation rights are suspended. After seeing Charlie at Thanksgiving, Scott is encouraged by him to accept his new role, and both are taken to the North Pole by Bernard.

Meanwhile, Laura and Neil fear that Scott kidnapped Charlie, resulting in a wide search on Christmas Eve. Scott is arrested while delivering presents and put in jail. Luckily, he is able to escape thanks to a rescue by Charlie and a special team of elves. Charlie and Scott return to Laura and Neil's house, where Laura and Neil finally accept that Scott is Santa. He leaves them the presents they had not received as children and takes off in the plain sight of the public. Since that moment, his name was cleared and the charges against him were dropped. After being summoned by a magic snow globe given to Charlie, Laura allows Charlie to ride with him to deliver presents.

The Santa Clause 2
Scott has been working as Santa for 8 years now, and is happy and settled in the North Pole. Everything seems perfect until he is approached by elves Bernard and Curtis who have discovered another clause - The Mrs. Clause.

Only married men can be Santa Claus, and Scott must marry before the next Christmas Eve or he will no longer be Santa. The de-Santafication process begins taking place, with Scott losing weight, his beard shortening, and running out of magic as he runs out of time to find a wife. As Scott sets out to find love, Curtis finds a way to disguise Santa's absence to North Pole residents by making a plastic clone of him.

Meanwhile, Charlie has been getting into trouble at school, and Scott is called in to meet with Principal Carol Newman to discuss his behavior. An attraction develops between Scott and Carol as he uses the last of his magic to romance her - surprising her with snow, a carriage, and childhood Christmas wishes come true.

Scott is visited by Curtis who informs him that Toy Santa has turned evil and his dictatorship is threatening to destroy Christmas. Scott returns to the North Pole to save the day and marries Carol soon after and transforms back into Santa.

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
When Jack Frost finally gets fed up with all the attention and love that Santa Claus is getting, he tricks Scott into giving up his job as Santa. Jack goes back in time and becomes Santa Claus himself, turning the North Pole into a theme park. Scott and Jack were the only ones who remembered that Scott used to be Santa, so it's up to him to regain the title and save Christmas.

Trivia

 * Originally, Scott's role in the original Santa's death was going to involve going out of the house to investigate and finding Santa on the roof, where Scott was supposed to have used a shotgun to shoot Santa off of there. When Disney took control of the film, this was toned down and changed to simply having Scott call out to him and inadvertently startling him into slipping and falling off the roof.


 * On a similar note, the de-Santafication effect in the sequel was added in as a means to have Tim Allen, Scott's actor, spend less time as Santa because the prostheses used to give him the effect of Santa contained a compound that set off severe allergic reactions to Tim. However, the addition of a toy Santa as the main antagonist, also played by Tim, ended up mandating Tim to continue wearing the prostheses for ironically enough an even longer period during filming than in the original film.


 * When learning that Charlie was on the naughty list, Scott, before realizing it was referring to his son, initially thought that he had "gone straight".
 * During one of the Letters to Santa segment made around the time of The Santa Clause 2, Scott was seen interacting with three Buzz Lightyear action figures, alluding to his actor playing both roles.
 * Additionally, in The Santa Clause 2, the Toy Santa calls Scott a 'sad strange little man'. When he experienced the flying bag for the first time, Scott, when telling Charlie that it was all right, he mentioned that he was used to this sort of thing as he "had lived through the sixties." This was a reference to LSD, a hallucinogenic drug which had the frequent side effect of causing the person taking the drug of having the delusion of "flying," and was a popular drug during the 1960s.