Santa has made several appearances in games over the years, and can usually be spotted as a wholesome NPC, delivering presents, snow, laughter, and good vibes in general. Not all Santas in games, however, are quite as wholesome. There are a few Santas in video games that are violent, angry, and even terrifying to encounter. If players are looking for a St.Nick with a sinister twist, they'll find him here.
From annoying boss encounters (Gex: Deep Cover Gecko) to a mall Santa driven mad by a zombie outbreak (Dead Rising 4) to an utterly terrifying anti-Santa (Krampus Is Home), players can explore a range of horrible versions of Father Christmas. Never has the line 'he sees you when you're sleeping' felt so sinister.
6 Evil Santa (Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko)
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It makes sense to start a list of Evil Santas with a character named, well, Evil Santa. The Gex games are classic 90s platformers with a loyal fanbase (and it's spawned a collection of excellent memes). Gex is just one of a wave of snarky, super-confident heroes of the genre, but is arguably less popular than his peers Spyro and Crash Bandicoot.
Players will encounter Evil Santa in the one Christmas level the series has to offer—Totally Scrooged. Players must complete 3 missions, including creating ice sculptures, pelting holiday elves with snowballs, and facing up to a less-than-jolly version of Father Christmas. Santa is pretty mean, but defeating him is simple enough. Just hit the presents back at him when he throws them. Job done.
5 Krampus (Krampus Is Home)
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Can we count Krampus as Santa? Technically, Krampus is kind of the opposite of Santa: he's an evil, twisted, demonic version, designed to punish misbehaving children. Krampus is scary enough to send a chill down many a spine, and he appears in the 2019 indie horror gameKrampus Is Home.
The player steps into the role of Sebastian, a teenager waiting anxiously for his parents to come home on a cold winter's night. Quickly, events begin to go downhill. Players must avoid a range of enemies, finding good hiding spots while trying to find a pattern in the AI. Eventually, Krampus emerges. With glowing eyes and sharp teeth, players need to move fast when they spot him.
4 Sadistic Claus (Dead Rising 4)
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If players have ever wondered what might happen to a mall Santa during a zombie outbreak, Dead Rising has the answer. Sadistic Claus, driven insane by the outbreak, kills innocent people and stuffs their bodies with presents, and has a whole army of evil elves to assist him. A pleasant man in general, then.
Players will find him at the Christmas Tree Lot, stumbling into a trap set by the evil Santa and his helpers. He looks intimidating, but defeating him is pretty simple. Just defeat the wave of elves, then stand well back. Dodging his electric axe will be crucial. Pushing him back into the electric fence will cause extra damage. The reward of Sadistic Claus's electric axe is well worth the effort.
3 Santa-NK1 (Terraria)
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A mini-boss that only appears at the Frost Moon event, Santa-NK1 is a kind of half-Santa, half-tank hybrid in Terraria. He's pretty intense to look at, especially when his face rips apart midway through the fight.
Defeating him will reward the player with 350 points during the Frost Moon, but it's a tough battle. He has a chain gun, missiles, and spiked balls, which have a massive damage rate and can cause a real problem if players run into them by accident. Santa-NK1 will send a flood of presents down from the sky, and these can cause some decent damage, too.
2 Santa Clawz (Saints Row 4)
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The DLC How The Saints Save Christmas for Saints Row is enough to warm even the coldest of hearts (not taking into account the demonic Santa, that is). The player must deliver presents, restoring joy to the people and deeply annoying the now-evil Father Christmas.
Defeating Santa Clawz involves a lot of effort: as he gets more and more desperate, he'll convert more people into gingerbread men, which is not ideal. A well-timed Super Jump will see Clawz falling through the air before being impaled on a Christmas tree. Brutal, but effective.
1 Ghost Santa (Phasmophobia)
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This is probably the grossest Santa on this list. The Cursed Possession update added a whole bunch of new features, including a voodoo doll, a summoning circle, a haunted mirror, and an Ouija board. All nice, calming objects to be around.
But the superstar of the update has to be the decaying, ghostly version of Santa. Disappearing and reappearing at random, ghost Santa is scary enough to make anyone jump out of their seat. A sneaky little addition to the already terrifying Phasmophobia, fire it up at Christmas and prepare for a good jump scare.