Santa Claus

Santa Claus — also known as Father Christmas or, according to the Eleventh Doctor, Jeff (TV: A Christmas Carol) — 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.

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 an unnamed planet. (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: The Claws of Santa)

Appearances
The First Doctor visited Santa Claus in his workshop and helped save Christmas. (COMIC: A Christmas Story) However, it was later suggested that this was all in the Doctor's head. (COMIC: The Land of Happy Endings)

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: The Claws of Santa)

Astrolabus claimed to be Santa. (COMIC: Voyager)

He met the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller at Nadir Motorway Service Station in 2008, and he was depressed that people weren't believing in him any more. They took him with Anty Pat to Lucie's parent's home. (AUDIO: Death in Blackpool)

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 Fiona 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. 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)

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: Better Watch Out, Better Take Care)

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

On 25 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)

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)

Behind the scenes

 * Santa Claus and Father Christmas have different origins and are technically once considered different individuals. However, as in modern day, the character portrayed by Nick Frost in 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 the real world Santa Claus is the work of fiction, however in Doctor Who he is considered real (PROSE: A Christmas Story, TV: Last Christmas), this also occured with Spock (COMIC: Assimilation²), Robin Hood (TV: Robot of Sherwood) and Sherlock Holmes. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire, AUDIO: All-Consuming Fire)
 * 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."