James Proclaims!

And so to the second of three movies to make the cut for my 2024 advent calendar that were actually released in 2024.

Dear Santa is a comedy that relies on a single joke. The joke in question being the orthographical similarity between the word ‘Santa’ and the word ‘Satan’. And how a dyslexic child might make that mistake and accidently summon the devil when writing their Christmas letter to Father Christmas.

I’m not sure that the makers of the movie have a full understanding of dyslexia and as it is a fairly core aspect of my day-to-day working life to promote an understanding of learning difficulties, I feel duty bound to point that out. Then again, Dear Santa is not really a pretending to be an accurate portrayal of…erm…anything at all. So it’s as well to let the dyslexia tropes slide, because the entire premise of the movie hinges on what is, in essence, a fairly weak joke about a spelling mistake.

Dear Santa is not an especially good film. It could be argued that it is quite a bad film.

However, a fairly committed and typically energetic performance from Jack Black as the Satanic Santa is just about enough to save the movie from being a total waste of time.

Score for Christmasishness

The only reason this movie will bear any kind of repeat viewing is because it is clearly intended to be a Christmas movie. On that score, if on no other, it is pretty successful. So while Dear Santa deserves to be largely forgotten by early 2025, it just might endure as a Christmas classic in some households.