Film / Dear Santa

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Dear Santa is a 2024 Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by Bobby Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber) and written by Peter Farrelly and Rickey Blitt. It stars Jack Black, Robert Timothy Smith, Brianne Howey, Hayes MacArthur, P. J. Byrne, Post Malone, and Keegan-Michael Key.

The film follows a young boy who writes a letter to Santa Claus inviting him to come visit… unfortunately the boy is not the strongest speller and mistakenly send the letter to SATAN (Black) who comes to Earth to attempt to use three wishes to tempt the boy into surrendering his soul. The film was released on Paramount+ and digital platforms on November 25, 2024.

Previews: Trailer👁 Image

Not to be confused with Dear Satan, a 2025 Filipino fantasy comedy film with a very similar premise.

Dear Santa, for Christmas, I want these tropes…

• Actor IS the Title Character: Subverted in the trailer: “Jack Black is NOT Santa.” He's also NOT really Satan either, as he is ultimately revealed as the real Satan's half-demon servant, Asmodeus.
• Advertising by Association: The trailer boasts the film as being from “the creators of Dumb and Dumber”.
• As Himself: Post Malone.
• Benevolent Demon: It's worth mentioning that Satan seems to legitimately believe humans are happier when they aren't concerned with their afterlife. By the end of the film, he effectively becomes an Ascended Demon.
• Benevolent Genie: While he could just be a Pragmatic Villain trying to encourage Liam to use all his wishes, Satan not only grants all of Liam's wishes to the letter and spirit, he even throws in freebies to make sure they turn out exactly as he wants.
• Big Red Devil: Well, two of the three. The real Satan is played by Ben Stiller in red makeup.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Satan admits that he will take Liam's soul when he runs out of wishes, Liam asks if he's insane.
  Satan: I prefer "sanity-adjacent."
• The Bully: Aiden, a jerk at Liam’s school who makes fun of Liam and used to date Emma.
• The Cameo: An apparently uncredited Ben Stiller appears as Lucifer, aka the real Satan, the true lord of Hell and the boss of "Satan", whose real name is Asmodeus..
• Curse Escape Clause: While Liam's soul would be forfeit once he makes his three wishes, since at least one wish was selfless, this invalidates the contract and allows Liam to keep his soul.
• Deal with the Devil: Technically an accidental one, since Liam assumes he's cutting a deal with Santa until Gibby points out who he actually addressed the letter to, after the first wish has been made. This is later subverted even further when it's revealed that "Satan" is actually Asmodeus, a low-level half-demon posing as his boss, and demonic contracts for souls are null and void if the human making them uses the wishes selflessly.
• Doves Mean Peace: Fake!Satan's/Asmodeus's last appearance ends with him leaving Liam's room in the form of a dove, highlighting his new goal of using his powers to help others.
• Dude, Not Funny!: After Liam misreads the title of A Christmas Carol as Carol's Christmas, a kid in the back makes fun of him by saying it was written by Dickens Charles. Emma is quick to call her out for making fun of a kid with dyslexia.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed. Satan does understand the concept of kindness primarily as a quid pro quo. So, he doesn't seem remotely surprised when Liam's second wish is to fix Gibby's crooked teeth, but is shocked when Liam doesn't take credit for the result, as he assumed Liam asked in order to leverage it as a favor later on.
• Evil Is Hammy: Naturally, given that he's played by Jack Black, Satan goes full ham in many scenes.
• Genre Savvy: To his credit, Liam is wise to the stereotypical genie tricks after his first wish, once he realizes Satan's intent. When he asks Satan the corn dog vendor for some corn dogs, he is quick to stipulate that he isn't wishing and intends to pay, though Satan says they're on the house regardless.
• Good Feels Good: The fake Satan realizes this after he gets fired and banished from Hell.
• Heel–Face Turn: After the real Satan fires him and banishes him from Hell, the fake Satan, real name Asmodeus, admits to Liam that it felt good to make people happy, and decides to start a new chapter of his life, using his powers to help people, and he brings Liam's brother back from the dead.
• Hollywood Satanism: Liam's parents briefly think he's fallen into this.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In one scene, Satan complains that he's having trouble getting the boy's soul because he's incorruptible.
• Karma Houdini: Aiden suffers no punishment for making fun of Liam and punching him in the face, other than getting a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Liam.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: Due to a lie Liam tells early on, multiple characters think Gibby has cancer.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: After Liam makes his third wish, Aiden makes fun of Liam again, and Liam stands up to him and gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech…and then, Aiden punches him in the face. Then Liam decides to give up and he walks away.
• Never Learned to Read: Justified with Liam, who suffers from dyslexia and has trouble reading, despite being 11 years old in a school where all of his classmates already know how to read. This is best demonstrated when he misreads the title of A Christmas Carol as Carol's Christmas, and when he mails his letter to Santa to "Satan" from the "North Lope."
• Obligatory Joke: At one point, Satan freezes Liam in place when he tries to run away. Liam threatens to scream if Satan touches him, and Satan replies that he wouldn't because he isn't a "trusted adult." He then laughs and apologizes for the joke, admitting that it was low-hanging fruit.
• Oh, Crap!: The movie ends this way. Emma agrees to give Liam another chance because she feels sorry for him after finding out about his brother's death, right after Liam's brother has been brought back to life, which will make him look like a liar.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Liam gives one to Aiden..... who then proceeds to punch him in the face.
• Satan Is Good: "Good" might be a bit of a stretch, but Satan does try to grant all of Liam's wishes to the spirit and letter. Furthermore, when it's revealed that "Satan" is actually Asmodeus, a low-level half-demon, the actual Satan, also called Lucifer, refuses to accept Liam's soul because only one of his three wishes was used for something selfish. Asmodeus even further reinforces this later by revealing that the third wish was invalid anyway, because Liam's parents got back together on their own.
• Selfless Wish: Liam makes two of these wishes: he wishes his friend Gibby's teeth gets fixed and he wishes his parents got back together. This ends up voiding the deal, especially since his parents resolved their issues on their own without "Satan's"/Asmodeus's help.
• Shout-Out:
  • Liam's English teacher has the class read A Christmas Carol and To Kill a Mockingbird, both of which he considers heavily overrated.
  • In his efforts to tempt the boy in the trailer, Satan quotes Aladdin by saying the kid has never had a friend like him. After a moment, he admits the rip-off. To be fair, according to Satan, genies did steal the three wishes gimmick from him.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: After Liam starts acting mean because of Satan’s influence, Emma loses interest in him and tells Liam she dumped her old boyfriend because he was a jerk, and she liked him because she thought he was nice.
• Take That!: When he helps the boys infiltrate the Post Malone concert, Satan can only get Gibby a ticket in the nosebleed section, sincerely lamenting that not even the Prince Of Darkness can get a good deal on Ticketmaster.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After Liam makes his third wish, Satan convinces him that since he’s now destined to go to Hell, he might as well spend the rest of his life having fun by being a jerk. Liam then starts acting mean to all the people who gave him a hard time earlier. Though when Emma loses interest in him because of his newfound attitude, he goes back to being a Nice Guy.
• The Unfettered: Liam briefly experiences this when he thinks he's going to hell. It's worth noting that most of what he does during this period consist of giving totally valid criticism to people with over-inflated senses of importance.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The terms of the deal are that Satan gets Liam's soul once he uses his third wish. Liam immediately hits on the loophole — stop at two — but Satan naturally isn't just going to let him slide that easily.