Santa Claus

Santa Claus — also known as Father Christmas or Jeff (TV: A Christmas Carol, COMIC: Holiday Special) — was a legendary figure who distributed presents to good children on Christmas morning under their trees. He played an important part in the Christmas tradition on the planet Earth. While most sources corrobated that Santa was indeed a real figure, there were some accounts that disputed this and claimed that he was a fictional entity.

According to the Thirteenth Doctor, children all over the world believed in Santa, and they all wrote him letters with their Christmas wishes. (COMIC: Holiday Special)

Profile
Santa maintained a workshop where he created toys. It used to be located at the North Pole, but due to the aeroplanes which began flying over it in the 20th century, it became very noisy, so he moved it to the Christmas-land. (COMIC: A Christmas Story) In order to deliver presents to all children in a single night, Santa used time loops and clones of himself. (PROSE: The Man Who (Nearly) Killed Christmas)

He was married to Mary Christmas. (AUDIO: Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa)

He was distinguished by his red and white clothing, known as the Santa suit. (COMIC: Holiday Special)

A young Paul Magrs was once told by his aunts that Santa Claus made more than one annual trip, hence why they had presents to give to Paul a week prior to Christmas. (PROSE: Party Like it's 1979)

History as a myth
According to accounts where Santa Claus were merely a fictional character, this myth was believed to have been based on Saint Nicholas of Myra, a 4th century bishop from Asia Minor. (AUDIO: Better Watch Out, Fairytale of Salzburg)

Father Christèmas of Faction Paradox claimed that the jolly character of Father Christmas was created by Ben Jonson in the early 17th century to mock Christèmas following a failed deal between the two. The Ministry of Insinuation were displeased that the idea of Father Christmas went viral. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

Whether or not he was real, most adult human beings believed him to be fictitious. (AUDIO: Death in Blackpool) For instance, Clara Oswald ceased believing in him at age nine, dismissing him as a "fairy tale". (TV: Last Christmas) According to one account, the reason most people believed him to be a myth was that Torchwood One was intentionally keeping the truth of his existence secret. (PROSE: Trace Memory)

Biography
When confronting the Sixth Doctor while in his final incarnation, Astrolabus, an exiled Time Lord cartographer and astrologer who claimed to be "legend on a dozen worlds", said that Santa Claus had been one of the names given to him over the years, as well as El Diablo, Robin Hood and Zorro. (COMIC: Voyager)

The First Doctor visited Santa Claus in his workshop and helped save Christmas. (COMIC: A Christmas Story)

The Second Doctor warned Santa of a future where the toy workshop spanned over two thousand worlds and the fabric of space was being torn by his time looping. A solution was found involving a fleet of robot Santas and newly calculated, more stable wormholes. (PROSE: The Man Who (Nearly) Killed Christmas)

The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith travelled to New York City in 1822, where they met Saint Nicholas. Clement C. Moore watched them from his window, and then sat down to write Twas the Night Before Christmas. (PROSE: A Visit from Saint Nicholas)

Santa helped Iris Wildthyme save Panda from Mary Christmas. (AUDIO: Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa)

Santa Claus visited Paul Magrs and his Mam in their home on Christmas 1979, to deliver presents, filling the living room. Paul knew that his Mam had done the hard work buying the presents, though he also started to doubt the existence of Santa when he saw a pile of presents ontop of his Mam's wardrobe. (PROSE: Party Like it's 1979) Santa also visited Paul, Jeremy, Panda, and Fester's home on Christmas Eve night, 2006, delivering presents. The next morning, Paul and Fester woke up early and went into the living room, and upon seeing the presents, Fester was sceptical that Santa had visited. This disbelief was dispelled when Fester caught a mouse, and he exclaimed that, in gratitude, he did believe in Santa. (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)

The Ninth Doctor promised to take Dr Lenni Fisk's son to meet the "real Santa". (AUDIO: Break the Ice)

At some point, the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble met him, after a skirmish with Roboforms and snowmen. He replaced the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. (PROSE: Dr. Tenth: Christmas Surprise!)

The Eleventh Doctor helped Santa deal with a group of Roboforms, before he used the TARDIS to help him deliver Christmas presents to various locations, including Amy Pond and Rory Williams' house. After they where done, Santa gifted the Doctor with another new sonic screwdriver. (COMIC: Silent Knight)

A shared-dream version of Santa Claus and his elves Ian and the Wolf, as well as his flying reindeer, appeared in a collective dream shared by the Twelfth Doctor, Clara Oswald, Shona McCullough, Ashley Carter, Albert Smithe and Rona Bellows, who were being fed on by dream crabs. (TV: Last Christmas) He first appeared to the Doctor when he entered his TARDIS, and told him that Clara was not happy with their recent separation. (TV: Death in Heaven) According to the Doctor, Father Christmas represented their subconscious minds trying to break free of the induced dream state which was killing them. He appeared to know things about them, like that Shona liked My Little Pony, and also claimed to have watched over and taken care of everyone sharing the dream "from Christmas to Christmas". The group of six rode on Santa's sleigh over London as they one by one woke up again into the real world. He later appeared again to the Doctor, causing him to realise he was still in a dream and to wake up for real — although as the Doctor and Clara Oswald reunited in the real world and resumed their adventures together, a tangerine, one of Santa's calling card gifts, was seen on her windowsill. (TV: Last Christmas)

One Christmas Eve, the Thirteenth Doctor lent Santa her TARDIS when his sleigh stopped working. (WC: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas)

Impersonations
The Fourth Doctor dressed as Santa and sneaked into the Brigadier's house with Romana II in order to leave him a Christmas present. (PROSE: Special Occasions: 3. Better Watch Out, Better Take Care)

In Newton Aycliffe, the council employed a "Council Van Santa" to go around the streets and spread festivities. There were ETAs printed in the local newspaper. While the older kids threw snowballs at "Santa"'s van, everybody else apprecated "Santa". (PROSE: Party Like it's 1979)

On 24 December 2006, Rose and Mickey Smith encountered dangerous "pilot fish" disguised as Santas. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)

On 24 December 2007, the same robots, now under control of the Empress of the Racnoss, attacked Donna Noble and Lance Bennett's wedding reception. (TV: The Runaway Bride)

On 24 December 2008, the Eighth Doctor, Lucie Miller and Haygoth ran into a drunken man whose job was to impersonate Santa Claus. However, he was fired for being "too old". (AUDIO: Death in Blackpool)

Danny Pink dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas Day in a dream crab-induced dream Clara Oswald was in. When she asked what day it was, he briefly joked that it was Easter and that he was dressed up as "Father Easter". Danny was in reality dead at this point in her timeline. (TV: Last Christmas)

Krampus took on Santa's appearance while under the guise of "Mr. Henderson". (COMIC: Holiday Special)

In popular culture
Santa Claus: The Movie was a film starring Dudley Moore, about Santa and his elves. The film Miracle on 34th Street also featured him. (PROSE: Ian the Elf)

Santa, referred to here as Father Christmas, also appeared in the 1982 animated film, The Snowman, in which he danced with the titular character. (PROSE: The Doctor on My Shoulder)

Behind the scenes

 * Santa Claus and Father Christmas have different origins, and were technically once considered different individuals. However, as in modern day, the character portrayed by Nick Frost in the television stories Death in Heaven and Last Christmas is identified in the closing credits as Santa Claus, and referred to in dialogue in Last Christmas with both names. A Christmas Carol also has the Eleventh Doctor describe the "fat fella" with both names.
 * In A Christmas Carol, the Eleventh Doctor shows a boy a photograph of himself at Frank Sinatra's hunting lodge in 1952 with Santa Claus and Albert Einstein. There is also a third individual who appears to be Marilyn Monroe but is not named by the Doctor. (The Doctor later takes Kazran to Sintra's lodge in 1952, where he accidentally proposes to Monroe.) Curiously, the Doctor refers to Einstein as "the blonde". The Doctor seeming to conflate the two may be a reference to the famous.
 * In An Adventure in Space and Time, Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine) describes the First Doctor as "C. S. Lewis meets H. G. Wells meets Father Christmas".
 * According to writer Steven Moffat, "Everything except the very last scene" of Last Christmas "is a dream" and "[t]he tangerine represents the fact that Santa Claus obviously stage-managed the whole thing to get the [Twelfth] Doctor and Clara back together."

References in invalid sources
A message beginning with "Dear Santa" was present in a room where a child watched (TV: 2016 BBC Christmas ident) the Twelfth Doctor-era Doctor Who episode "Heaven Sent" (WC: The Zygon Isolation) on a TV with their mother. A neon light with an image of Santa in his sleigh was also present on the outside of a café. (TV: 2016 BBC Christmas ident)

Portrayals in other media
Frank Welker voiced Santa on four occasions, in the television specials (1981),  (1991), and  (1992), and in the 2002  episode, Christmas Con Carne. He also voiced a department store Santa in the 1995 episode In Arms Way.

John DiMaggio played the evil robot Santa in various episodes of Futurama.

William Morgan Sheppard voiced Santa in the 2009 Disney animated TV special. He reprised the role in the 2011, as well as in a 2010.

Jim Broadbent has played Santa in film twice: voice only in the 2011 animated film (which also featured Bill Nighy as "Grand-Santa") and on screen in the 2014 film. He also portrayed him in 's 2020 Christmas advert.

Brian Blessed has played Santa at least three times: episode "Christmas" (2012; voice only), the  episode "Pranks and Presents" (2013), and the Danger Mouse episode "The Snowman Cometh" (2015; voice only).

Will Sasso played Santa in the 2012 made-for-TV film, Finding Mrs. Claus.

Hugh Bonneville has voiced Santa twice: in the 2015 animated TV special, and in the episode, How Santa Stole Christmas!

Matt Lucas voiced him in the 2018 animated special Aliens Love Underpants And... Panta Claus.