[Editorial] 12 Ghouls of Christmas: Christmas Evil (1980): Finding Santa’s Tune

There are only so many Christmas songs in the world. You don’t realize how many different versions there are of each one until you’re forced to listen to Christmas music all day. Though a retail worker suffering through their 50th repeat of “Wonderful Christmastime” might disagree, there’s a great deal of comfort in Christmas music. Often (but certainly not always), the songs are familiar, they’re jolly, and they remind people of happy childhood memories. In writer-director Lewis Jackson’s Christmas Evil (1980), Harry Stadling’s (Brandon Maggart) whole life revolves around trying to reclaim and recreate that comfort. He surrounds himself with all things Christmas, especially Christmas music, and he devotes his life to performing his own Christmas tune. Surprisingly, Christmas Evil doesn’t paint Harry and his bloody tune as villainous; rather, he is an avenging Santa Claus who is the hero of his tragic story, even if the world isn’t ready for his tune just yet. 

Harry is traumatized as a child when his brother Phil (played by Jeffrey DeMunn as an adult) tells him that the Santa Claus they saw placing presents under their tree was actually their father, not the real St. Nick. Harry runs downstairs to spy on Santa some more, only to find Santa being very naughty with Harry’s mother. So begins an oddly affecting story of Harry’s attempt to reclaim his innocence and protect the good children of the world while punishing the bad children. Harry also punishes bad adults — with bloody results — but, refreshingly, his psychosexual trauma does not make itself known through misogynistic murder. He clearly has issues with sex — he focuses his ire on a young boy he catches reading Penthouse, and he spies on Phil and his wife as they get carnal on their couch — but, unlike many slasher-adjacent horror films with similar stories of sexual trauma, Christmas Evil isn’t about punishing women for having sex drives. It’s about bad people getting figurative coal in their stockings (and literal knives in their throats), all while the film’s star hums “Jingle Bells.”

In fact, “Jingle Bells,” along with “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” recurs throughout the film. Both songs appear as diegetic music that partygoers dance to or that the town plays during a tree lighting ceremony. The songs also weave in and out of the film’s eerie score, lending the cheery, heart-warming songs a menacing undertone as Harry goes about his vengeful Christmas Eve activities. Harry frequently hums the songs to himself, whether he’s building toys for the good neighbourhood children or having a psychotic break in front of a mirror as he dresses up as Santa Claus and begins to believe that he really is Jolly Old St. Nick. There is a stark contrast between the whimsical, childlike music that Harry favours, the adult versions playing at the various parties Harry attends, and the distorted, tarnished Christmas songs that populate the score at tense moments. All three varieties of Christmas music reflect different aspects of Harry’s personality: the childlike innocence he desperately wants to return to, the adulthood he fears and spurns at every turn, and the disturbed disconnect from the real world that ultimately leads him to violence. 

Harry navigates the world through music. Figuring out social situations and finding a way to fit in all revolve around finding “the right tune,” as he calls it. As an R&B version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” plays at an office Christmas party, Harry tells a co-worker that he’s figured out the right tune to deal with the men at his office who mock and bully him: “I got you guys’ number now. The right tune. I’ve been trying to find the notes to it for as long as I can remember. Well, I’ve found them. I can play the tune now.” This is a key scene for understanding Harry’s psychology. One of his personal theme songs, which in this case is an adult version to reflect the fact that Harry’s adult persona is in charge at the moment, plays as he stands up for himself and learns to deal with the deceit and duplicitousness of adulthood. As the music suggests, the grown-up version of Harry is coming out to play.

His other theme song, “Jingle Bells,” begins to play as he learns another tune. Harry is a supervisor at the toy factory where he works, and as he talks to executives about a charity campaign that turns out to be a scam, he tells the PR flack, “You’re worse than he is! He doesn’t know why a tune has to be played. You actually know how to play it, and look what you’re doing with it.” Again, this is a turning point for Harry. The purest thing in the world for him is giving toys to needy children at Christmas time, and his company is only pretending to do that in an attempt to get good publicity. They’re singing a false tune, but Harry’s is true. He steals sack loads of toys and takes them to the local children’s hospital, and in another key scene that begins with “Jingle Bells,” Harry finally finds his tune as Santa...the real Santa. 

A twinkly, whimsical version of “Jingle Bells” plays as he rings the buzzer at the hospital, but an ominous piano track plays underneath it. Having convinced the security guard that he means well, despite the music warring between his childlike side and his violent side, Harry waits for the other hospital personnel with bells jingling and a tentative flute playing on the score. He experiments with variations on “Merry Christmas,” saying each new version out loud but not sounding very confident. Finally, he bellows, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” sounding for all the world like the real Santa Claus. The flute plays in full force at this point; no longer tentative, it is now jubilant and strong, just like Harry. He has found his tune. Whimsical Christmas songs play over the rest of the scene as he embraces his identity and revels in the discovery of the proper tune for him to play: he will become Santa Claus, giving good children presents on Christmas Eve.

There are two sides to Santa, though. After all, those on the naughty list don’t get presents. The jaunty, whimsical Christmas songs at the hospital give way to a choral hymn as Harry drives off in triumph to search for his company’s PR executive so that he can give him his lump of coal in person. When Harry arrives at the church where the executive is attending mass, a group of people mock him and the van he has painted to look like Santa’s sleigh. Klaxons go off, signalling that this is the punitive side of Harry’s tune. He uses the toys in his sack to murder the naughty adults who insult him, and he leaves to continue his dual-sided crusade of spreading holiday cheer and dispensing brutal justice. 

Unsurprisingly, the town doesn’t take too kindly to Harry’s brand of yuletide vigilantism, and a mob gathers to take care of this bloody Santa Claus. Frenzied music plays as he runs in fear. His tune is off-key now. Harry tells his brother, “I failed. You were right, Phil. I’m a failure. Everyone’s rejected my tune. I don’t understand. I know it’s right.” The world — the adult world, at least — doesn’t see things in black and white the way Harry does. Perhaps they don’t want to admit how naughty they actually are...greedy, abusive, and deceitful, they fail to live up to the standards they were taught as children. Indeed, Harry is vindicated in the end: as he tries to escape again in his makeshift sleigh, he veers off the road as whimsical music plays. His van takes off into the sky as Phil watches him fly in front of the moon, and the credits roll as a jazzy version of “Jingle Bells” finishes Harry’s tune. 

There are many ways to play a Christmas song. It can be bright and cheery, it can be smoky and sultry, or it can be eerie and frightening. True to his word, Harry Stadling found his proper tune, his perfect Christmas song. Rewarding people who are good and punishing people who are bad was Harry’s calling after all. Witnesses to his attacks even defended him, saying that his victims had it coming. Every child in the film (except for the Penthouse fan) loved him. Christmas Evil’s music finally reaches a resolution, letting Harry experience the joy and wonder of Christmas the way he’s always wanted, as he truly becomes Santa Claus. The jazzy version of “Jingle Bells” signifies that adult Harry is at peace now; though you may disagree with Harry’s (or the film’s) moral compass, in the world of Christmas Evil, all's now right with the world. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. 

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