Mrs. Clauses, Ranked
Sisters are doin’ it for themselves. Even Mrs. Claus. While Saint Nick often gets the most screen time, Mrs. Claus still makes her mark in many a Christmas movie. The character has been embodied by great actors, Hollywood divas, and queer icons. Goldie Hawn, Barbara Eden, Angela Lansbury, and Bond pinup Jill St. John have all taken on the charming and formidable part of Santa’s mate — to varying degrees of success.
Christmas movies are naturally cheesy and extravagant exercises, indulging in outrageous story lines — like restoring humanity’s faith in Christmas — or exaggerated onscreen scenery to excite the minds of the gullible children watching. In most cases, Mrs. Claus proves just as ridiculous and comical an undertaking for these esteemed actresses too.
It can involve playing a sexy or sassy grandma serving attitude on a cookie-lined plate (Hawn and Eden). Or a confused or stifled housewife looking to cut loose and break free from the shackles of the North Pole (Mira Sorvino and Miranda Richardson). Or simply the traditional stereotypical stately grandmother knitting in the study and keeping Santa’s undergarments fresh (Jill St. John and June Lockhart).
Here, we rank the greatest Mrs. Claus incarnations onscreen (big and small), based on the camp-mother qualities of each entertainment icon slumming it in a Christmas movie. Which Mrs. Claus sleighed for you?
Jill St. John (Northpole)
Former ’60s Bond girl Jill St. John trades 007 and diamonds for Yukon quarters and a Party City wig with her turn in 2014’s Northpole. The Canadian Hallmark movie is premised on news from the North Pole that the Christmas spirit — powering the icy enclave — is waning, as people are abandoning the true message of the holidays. One little boy, Kevin, hopes he can help his cynical mom break this cycle and rediscover the magic of Christmas, finding his way north thanks to an enchanted elf. There, he meets St. John as Mrs. Claus, who plays opposite real-life husband Robert Wagner as Santa. Northpole only has a few brief appearances from St. John, but she does try and maximize her screen time — to mixed results. “Even the smallest snowflake can turn into the biggest snowball,” she clumsily advises the wayward boy. St. John is a sweet, grandmotherly Mrs. Claus, but is sadly mostly muffled by the wooden Wagner. With the green screen knowing no bounds here, Wagner struggles to master his Santa ho-ho-ho “voice” while St. John stiffly walks through her marked-out steps. Skip the story line here and just stream the movie to catch a glimpse of the shake-and-go atop St. John.
Streaming on Fubo.
Miranda Richardson (Fred Claus)
Unlike her peers onscreen — Vince Vaughn and even Paul Giamatti — Richardson is seriously well below the standard of this boyish slapstick take on Santa Claus and his criminal sibling. Giamatti as Santa gets a call from brother (Vaughn) for a bank loan to help him get out of trouble with the law. As thanks, Vaughn offers to head north and do some bookkeeping for the Clauses. Playing the ’50s-esque wife to Sainty Claus, Richardson has some small comedic moments in the film; she leafs through a copy of Gingerbread for Dummies and later warns her husband that he can’t “eat his stress away,” before snatching the sweet from his hands. But she’s otherwise a smiling, mostly silent, and long-suffering housewife. Plus, she’s playing 30 years younger than husband, the 70-year-old-something Santa. Fred Claus is fueled by its bad jokes, belches, and brawls with elves. Richardson, unfortunately, has no chance to make much of an impact, except to enjoy wearing red tartan clothes or attend to Santa after he throws his back out. Richardson is ultimately shortchanged here on giving us the gingerbread content we so hungrily want.
Streaming on Hulu.
Mira Sorvino (Finding Mrs. Claus)
Winning an Oscar doesn’t preclude an actress from taking a bad turn as Mrs. Claus in a Christmas movie. Look at Mira Sorvino. In Finding Mrs. Claus, Sorvino plays another long-suffering and stifled Mrs. Claus (furry silver eyebrows included) who leaps at the chance to head to Sin City and shake things up. There are six-inch pumps, a limousine, and a blonde dye job to take Mrs. C from grandma to glam-ma in a hot sec. The ruse in Vegas is to play matchmaker, after a girl writes to Santa asking for a mate for her lonesome mother, Noelle (!). Sorvino does get stupid cheeky in some scenes, like hitting one casino up, playing a quick game of craps, and screaming, “Mama needs a new pair of Muk Luks!” There’s also some sex and sass served with cute Romy and Michelle–esque looks, including a Russian fur hat as she checks into the famed “Cascade Casino.” (Caesars Palace was full, apparently.) Don’t miss a ridiculous matchmaking scene, featuring the prospective men Sorvino rounds up for Noelle who all seductively chew on candy canes. It’s the fashion, flair, and slightly desperate acting from Sorvino that helps partly redeem this budget-TV take. Plus, its loud and overt message of womanly independence in the Christmas narrative is noble (even if Noelle must be paired up by the film’s end).
Streaming on Prime Video.
Barbara Eden (My Adventures With Santa)
A particularly taut Barbara Eden (of I Dream of Genie fame) stars as Santa’s sprightly companion alongside an often-smirking Denise Richards (her current RHOBH trademark) in My Adventures With Santa. Richards plays a corporate career mother who places PowerPoints and teleconferences above her family life. Thanks to a magical snow globe, the family is soon teleported to the North Pole to rediscover the importance of (nuclear) family love at Christmastime. There, they encounter Eden, who — donning another synthetic hairpiece — tries to be as grandmotherly as she can but mostly can’t get the facial expressions down. When one of the kids drinks too much eggnog, she stiffly warns, “It’s likely to make you gassy!” Only when you overlook the many continuity errors and see Eden out from under Santa’s thumb does she really shine. The camp crescendo is when she dons a red hood (à la Little Red Riding), pumps a candy-colored shotgun, and tells a quizzical-looking Richards: “Okay, let’s kick some tuchus!” Unlike other recent TV incarnations of Mrs. Claus, this one shows a little more spirit and independence than those more cloistered versions. Unfortunately, the film is terrible, and Eden can only smize her way through the part.
Streaming on Prime Video.
June Lockhart (The Night They Saved Christmas)
One legend from the Golden Age of Hollywood stars in this ecofriendly Christmas tale about an oil company looking to blow up the North Pole. Well, not quite. But the corporation is looking to tap the oil under Santa’s home and makes no apologies about it. In a panic, Santa sends for one family (where the father works for the oil company) to see if he can make a change from within and stop the company’s raid on the poles. The unassuming family soon find themselves on snowmobiles and ferried up north, where they meet the warm and hospitable Mrs. Martha Claus. Lockhart, ignoring the poor script and bad story line, acts her way through scenes on the soundstage as if it were an Old Hollywood production. In one particularly artificial moment, Lockhart takes the family into “Santa’s study,” adorned with antique toys encased in glass cabinets. As one boy starts asking about toy guns, Lockhart quickly chastises him: “Papa [Santa] has never given a child a gun!” The parents of today are to blame for wanting to feed and foster such violence in kids, Lockhart cries. The fact that Lockhart commits so seriously to this mostly forgettable grandmotherly role — as if it were a past Vincente Minnelli production — adds to its stupid camp pleasure. Even more so since it seems that parts of the set around her could give way. Just don’t mention the fracking.
Streaming on Tubi.
Elizabeth Mitchell (The Santa Clause 2)
In The Santa Clause 2, Elizabeth Mitchell’s Carol is roped into becoming Mrs. Claus after Tim Allen (playing Scott Calvin, a.k.a. Santa) explains there’s a clause (ho ho hoe!) mandating that Santa needs a romantic partner to stay as Santa. Carol is rightly cynical about the idea and first abandons marital plans with Scott, forcing him to take on a series of bad blind dates. “So, the whole thing was … you needed to find a wife,” she admonishes. But love conquers all, so after Scott admits he still loves Carol, the union is back on as the elves cheer around them. Although the blonde and youthful Mitchell is an unlikely Mrs. Claus (she’d marry Tim Allen?!), she still serves some pleasurable sweetness and radiant warmth as Mother Claus in the role. Especially with her agreeing to marry Scott, who turns back into elderly “Santa” and gets unsightlier after they marry. What a woman! The sacrifice and lengths women must go to keep the peace and maintain the status quo … The ultimate message might be a bit warped on equal partnerships after wedlock, but Mitchell keeps us hooked with her sensitivity and kindness that we vainly hope might rub off on the self-interested Scott Calvin. The Christmas spirit is all about giving, and Mitchell gives it in spades.
Streaming on Disney+.
Imelda Staunton (Arthur Christmas)
Imelda Staunton goes full Queen Elizabeth II for her role as the regal and refined Mrs. Claus in the 2011 animation Arthur Christmas. The story goes that the North Pole project is really a fast-moving, technologically advanced enterprise. The current “Santa Claus” runs his operations like it’s a military exercise, with supersleuthing elves out delivering the goods each December 25. Staunton serves tea and mince pie to the elderly Saint Nick with a royal uniform of tartan skirts and conservative cardigans — not unlike her performance as Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter franchise. But she’s also a woman of many senior responsibilities herself, at one point explaining, “I’ve got to visit the elf hospital, look over a treaty with Greenland, and make the gravy.” Despite the stately manners and imperial attitude, Staunton’s Mrs. Claus is a refined, self-assured, and gracious queen— er, Mother Claus — who keeps the order in the sometimes chaotic Claus household. Whether it’s putting Father Claus’s false teeth back in, or wrestling wild polar bears off her (crediting an online survival class), she’s kind of an animated icon. Staunton puts the mother in Queen Mother here.
Streaming on Prime Video.
Shelley Long (Merry In-Laws)
Gone are the beers and in is the eggnog with Shelley Long’s turn as Grandma Claus in Merry In-Laws. The story goes that Peter is newly engaged and must introduce his fiancée to the parents — only his parents are Mr. and Mrs. Claus. With Long insisting on a bright-red beret (with a white bauble atop), she embraces the comedic challenges set by the script and plays on the boomer aspect of her character, like fumbling through a video call with her son. Although we get another very dry synthetic wig (can we please find Mrs. Claus a good lace front?), Long is giving sleigh better than most of her peers playing the role. She even asks everyone to call her “mama.” (Thankfully without the “Holla!,” as per Heather Thomson of RHONY.) In one particularly sickly sweet scene, Long asks her future daughter-in-law, “What makes your tongue twinkle and your tummy tickle?” There are some requisite dietary intolerances listed before Long launches into a speech about the magic of making a Christmas treat. Out come the flour sieves and mixing bowls for a class in gingerbread men, as Long starts dancing around and swinging rolling pins while Christmas dance music plays. By film’s end, Long as Mrs. C converts everyone to the Claus cause — including the uptight mother of the fiancée, who gets stupidly high on choc-chip cookies and confides all to Mrs. Claus. Give us a serve, Long!
Streaming on Tubi.
Goldie Hawn (The Christmas Chronicles 2)
While Wagner and St. John did it first, Hawn and real-life partner Kurt Russell did it far better together in 2020’s The Christmas Chronicles 2. Involving a missing “Christmas star” and a rogue elf, the CC sequel sees the overly tanned Hawn join in the stupid festive fun as Mrs. Claus — and eat. Hawn clearly knows the brief for a Christmas movie and relishes the opportunity to play a campy and sexy incarnation of Santa’s mate. There are hammy exchanges with Russell about his antics as Santa and playful moments with adoring elves, like when Hawn poses for paparazzi and jokes, “Look who’s a movie star!” With a kind of I Dream of Genie topknot (and thankfully no wig #wig) and furry red coat, Hawn relishes playing the proxy mother to the visiting children, schooling them on the fact that there is a Mrs. Claus too. It might be “Santa’s village,” but know she designed the whole thing! Hawn might be the only perpetually tanned person ever to live at the North Pole, but this makes no difference. Mrs. C is a linguist too, who can speak fluent “Elvish” — a German-sounding language the elves speak — and isn’t afraid to keep the creatures in check. As the all-important Christmas star gets returned to the Pole, Hawn joins Russell and an army of elves to close the film with “O Christmas Tree.” It might be a saccharine end to some, but it does give some fuzzy feels thanks to its cheesiness and Hawn’s owning the part.
Streaming on Netflix.
Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Santa Claus)
Mother has arrived. Dame Angela Lansbury’s Mrs. Claus remains Yuletide’s greatest onscreen incarnation. In the musical movie Mrs. Santa Claus, Mrs. Santa Claus finds herself facing an identity crisis of sorts — as the old man gives her little time and ignores her business suggestions — so she sets out upon the world to play Saint Nick for a day. “Tell the [Chief], I’ve just gone out for a little spin … around the world!” she cries. There, she finds herself in 1910s New York City, where the toe-tapping musical fun really begins. Lansbury is her element here, where she goes by the nickname “Mrs. North,” begins supervising (a.k.a. unionizing) at a toy factory, and starts mobilizing women to join the suffragette movement. Gone is any thought of returning to the Pole, with Lansbury determined to clean house: organizing a strike for the child workers at the factory (#unionstrong); teaching one girl the magic of kindness through musicals (Rodgers and Hammerstein could never); and playing matchmaker for two young cupids destined for love. Lansbury is an outsize star in this small-size Christmas movie, bringing glorious musical magic and true diva panache — even giving us a glamorous moment donning a red cocktail dress with tulle features. Lansbury puts Mrs. Claus on the movie map — by film’s end, she’s no longer a Mrs. (North or otherwise) but simply our own “Anna.” It’s the greatest Christmas gift you could ever want.
Streaming on Hoopla.
Related