| “ | In Santa we believe. | „ |
| ~ Grandsanta |
Grandsanta is the deuteragonist of the 2011 Christmas film Arthur Christmas. He is the 136-year-old father of Malcolm Claus, the father-in-law of Margaret, the grandfather of Arthur and Steven Claus, the previous Santa before Malcolm.
He is voiced by Bill Nighy (who also portrayed Thomas Jerome Newton).
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Grandsanta served as Santa from 1902 to 1941 and was the nineteenth member of his family to take the title. Like previous Santas, Grandsanta did his duties whilst travelling in the family sleigh Eve (which he nicknamed Evie).
At some point before or during his time as Santa, Grandsanta met an unknown woman with whom he had a son named Malcolm.
One time when Malcolm was young, Grandsanta took him for a ride in Evie, a tradition Santa's do with their heirs.
In 1923, during his Christmas duties, Grandsanta suffered a heart attack with the left ventricle popped out of his mouth. Grandsanta pushed it back down and carried on his duties.
During his last year as Santa in 1941, Grandsanta carried out his duties during World War Two with six reindeer and a drunken elf. He was shot at, taking 12 direct hits and lost three reindeer whilst the elf fell off of Evie as it flew over Lake Geneva, never to be seen again.
In 1962, he left The North Pole on Evie and got caught up in the Cuban missile crisis and nearly caused World War 3. Because of this, his son Malcolm and grandson Steve decided that Grandsanta should not fly again. Steve then ordered that Evie be scrapped and the barn it was stored in to be sealed.
However, Grandsanta managed to stop Evie from being scrapped by threatening the elves by saying he would feed them to polar bears.
Arthur Christmas[]
Grandsanta is first seen with his pet reindeer watching Malcolm carrying out his 70th Christmas Eve delivery via his television before being joined by his other grandson Arthur. Arthur's mother Margaret then arrives to give Grandsanta a mince pie, despite Grandsanta telling her that he cannot eat it because it gets stuck in his teeth, but after Margaret leaves, he takes out his false teeth and eats the mince pie. Grandsanta then falls asleep as Malcolm delivers the last present. After Malcolm returns from his deliveries in the family spaceship the S-1, he does a speech to the elves and talks about how Grandsanta told him that being Santa is the best job in the world. However, Grandsanta is fast asleep and does not hear this, but wakes up when the speech is over.
Later, the family have Christmas dinner, where when Malcolm toasts to doing a better job at being Santa next year, to which Grandsanta replies that the turkey on their table did more than him and laughs before accidentally spiting out his false teeth, which land into gravy. He tells Steve that he may be the next in line to be Santa but says that Steve will never get to be Santa unless he kills Malcolm, which causes an awkward silence. Arthur then brings out Christmas: The Board Game which leads to Grandsanta and Steve fighting over who should play Santa in the game, before Malcolm takes it. Grandsanta is given a sleigh shaped piece, which Steve calls a relic, much to Grandsanta's annoyance. Grandsanta and Steve then begin arguing over how delivering presents has changed with Grandsanta disliking how the S-1 is used to deliver presents and calls Steve a postman with a Spaceship. Grandsanta believes that he could still do deliver presents despite his age and being retired.
Grandsanta along with his pet reindeer, accompanies Arthur and an elf named Bryony Shelfley in delivering a bike to a girl named Gwen after it was accidentally not delivered to her by Malcolm, Steve and the elves.
They use Evie which this time is pulled by the great-great grandchildren of the original eight reindeer. During the journey, they travel through Toronto in Canada and then the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania where they are nearly eaten by lions.
After escaping the lions, Arthur is disappointed to learn that Grandsanta only came along on the journey to take a picture of the present being delivered to show Steve how it's really done.
They appear to arrive in Gwen's hometown of Trelew in Cornwall, England, before discovering that they are actually in Trelew in Mexico.
Later, they crash land in Cuba where Arthur briefly loses his Christmas spirit before regaining it.
The military mistake the group for aliens and fire missiles at them, Grandsanta sacrifices Evie to escape the missiles.
After arriving in the correct Trelew, Grandsanta, Malcolm and Steve argue over who should put the bike under Gwen's tree until they decide that Arthur should do it.
After Arthur becomes the new Santa, it is said in the epilogue that Malcolm became an armchair companion to Grandsanta. It is also said that they spend many happy hours playing Christmas: The Board Game and become world experts.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In 1941, during World War II, Grandsanta (during his final year as Santa) did his deliveries with six reindeer (after losing three after the sleigh was shot at) and a drunken elf (who fell from the sleigh into Lake Geneva and was never seen again).