Don’t put it above Satan to use a child’s disability to trick him into selling his soul.
It all started when the dyslexic Liam accidentally sent a letter to Satan instead of Santa. Well, the devil just couldn’t resist wondering why a child would want to talk to him. So when Satan shows up in Liam’s bedroom to ask, well, let’s just say Liam’s not the best judge of character. He mistakes Satan for the jolly red saint instead!
“Santa” offers Liam three wishes: Whatever his heart desires, “Santa” will grant it. That’s why Liam’s crush, Emma, is so suddenly willing to give Liam a chance.
One wish down, two to go.
Two to go until what, you ask? Ah, well, that’s the concerning part.
You see, Liam eventually does discern that this supernatural visitor is actually the father of lies. Terrified, Liam tries to back out of his remaining wishes, but Satan tells him that since he’s already used the first wish, there’s no backing out of their deal.
The deal’s diabolical bottom line? Upon using all three wishes, Satan takes Liam’s soul to spend the rest of eternity in hell.
Despite all the spiritual flaws in this story, as we’ll see in a moment, Liam does use his wishes (omitting the first one, of course) in a way that help to improve the lives of his family and a friend.
Liam’s parents struggle to maintain a healthy marriage. However, when they are forced to deal with Liam’s devilish partnership, it prompts them to talk through their problems and to rekindle their relationship.
There’s really no way we can explain the theology in this film without spoiling it, so skip this section if you’d like to avoid those revealing details. However, there’s a whole lot to unpack here, so skip at your own risk.
By the end of the film, we learn that Jack Black’s character isn’t really Satan. He’s a low-level demon called a Demogorgon, and he hoped to pose as his boss in order to secure the soul deal with Liam. It turns out that the real Satan (who sits on a fiery throne in front of a pentagram) doesn’t appreciate his underling’s tactics, since tricking the boy under false pretenses makes the whole deal null and void. Still, for ease of understanding, we’ll continue to refer to Jack Black’s character as Satan.
When “Satan” first arrives, he’s confused about why Liam sent him a letter. He claims that he usually gets some manifestos from “wonderfully deranged grown-ups,” but Liam’s letter is a first. But when Satan realizes Liam’s dyslexic spelling mistake, he uses the opportunity to offer the boy a deal: three wishes for anything he wants, so long as it doesn’t change anything from the past.
Satan eventually tells him that after Liam uses all three wishes, he’ll obtain Liam’s soul. And when Liam eventually dies, he’ll spend eternity in hell. However, if Liam doesn’t use all three wishes, the transfer never takes place. Further, the movie implies that all people avoid hell so long as they never trade away their soul.
To prove his power, Satan compels a cat to slam dunk a basketball. We learn that Satan can uses his supernatural influence in a variety of ways: He shows Liam potential futures he can obtain by using his wishes, for instance. He also magically charms Post Malone into befriending Liam, and we’re later told that Post Malone couldn’t remember anything that happened while under the spell. His powers likewise cause a girl to reconsider her feelings for Liam.
When Liam discerns the truth about Satan, he’s rightfully terrified. But he also can’t help but feel pleased with how that first wish (to compel Emma to give him a romantic chance) has benefitted his life. “Just because Satan’s come into my life doesn’t mean I worship him now,” Liam clarifies. “Meeting Satan may have been the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Meanwhile, when Liam’s parents learn that Liam is talking with Satan, they’re rightfully concerned. Neither they nor the child psychologist they bring in to help their son actually believe Liam’s story. That said, it does cause his parents, Bill and Molly, to talk about their own trauma. We learn that Liam’s brother, Spencer, passed away in a tragic accident. And while Bill finds the notion that the devil exists to be ridiculous, Molly wonders if it was the devil who took Spencer from them. “If there isn’t [such a thing as the devil], who took Spencer from us? God? Would God take Liam’s little brother away from him?”
Eventually, Satan realizes that he actually likes doing some good deeds, and he chooses to grant the wish that Liam had originally written in his letter to Santa: to bring his brother back to life. When Liam heads into his home’s living room, he finds that Satan has brought his brother back from the dead, and he’s erased the memories from his parents of Spencer ever dying (apparently going back on his original rule that he couldn’t change the past—or potentially just a plot hole). Satan leaves the film as a sort of “friendly” reformed demon.
In general, however, Satan encourages bad and selfish behavior. He tells Liam that the boy doesn’t actually like being nice to people; he’s just more afraid of how others may think of him if he’s selfish. “I may be Satan, but I’m a keen observer of the human cond-ish,” Satan says.
Elsewhere, Satan also claims that people “demonize” him. He also complains that genies stole his “three wishes” concept from him. Satan appears with horns and the legs of a goat. He tells Liam that he’s staying at a hotel in room 666. When Satan swears to God, he claims that he only does it as a figure of speech. Satan says that everything happens for a reason. “Just ask your God,” he adds.
When Liam gathers the courage to approach his crush, he asks his friend to pray for him. There’s a reference to the seven deadly sins. Someone also refers to a guardian angel, and we later see Satan morph a Christmas tree angel topper to have his face on it—implying that he’s been acting as their guardian angel.
Liam uses his first wish to compel his middle school crush, Emma, to give him a chance. Later, she kisses him on the cheek. It’s not entirely clear if she’s being compelled to do this (at least in part) because of Satan’s influence altering her previous emotions. Still, when later talking about the encounter, Liam claims the two “made out,” and he hopes to kiss her on the lips the next night.
A man and woman kiss. Satan describes a winter night as being “colder than a witch’s t-t.” He also claims that Liam has the world “by the oysters.” Later, Satan admits to having sex with a dog. While nervously attempting to make conversation with Emma, Liam blurts out, “My cat licks her nipples.”
A boy punches Liam in the face. We hear a reference to a child who died in an accident. A man spends an uncomfortably long amount of screen time choking on a snack before it finally goes down.
Satan threatens to compel a hamster to maul Liam so badly that “his own mother doesn’t recognize him.” He also makes a joke about trusted relatives sexually abusing children. “By the way,” Satan says, “we got a lot of those creepy uncle types down where I’m from.”
The s-word is used four times. “A–,” “d–n” and “crap” are all used five times each. “H—” is used eight times. (And to be clear, that figure doesn’t count references to the place.) We also hear “p-ssed” and “t-t” as well as a few strangely crude insults, such as “fudge nuts” and “turd breath.” God’s name is used in vain more than 20 times.
Sixth-grade Liam plays beer pong with adults. Adults drink wine. An incredulous Satan asks Liam if he is high. Satan says Gibby’s teeth are so protruded that someone could “open a bottle of beer on those chompers.”
Satan forces a man to defecate in his pants. “Every time a grown man sharts himself, a demon earns its horns,” Satan says.
Liam lies to his parents, saying that his best friend, Gibby, has cancer; Gibby is compelled to act in accordance with the lie to fool others.
Liam’s parents argue with one another and make verbal jabs to hurt each other. A wife forces her husband to sleep on the couch. Satan describes himself as pro-divorce.
The premise of Dear Santa is simple: What if Satan appeared to a child due to a simple spelling mistake and tempted him to sell his soul for worldly gain?
Merry Christmas, I guess?
Of course, “holly” and “jolly” are two words that won’t be used to describe the film’s Satan. He’s merely out to claim a sixth-grader’s soul using whatever tempting means are necessary. And when he’s not doing that, he’s doing that thing every character played by Jack Black does with his eyebrows.
It’s not Black’s first tussle with the devil and theology, of course. Black battled him in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. He played a faith-adjacent monastery cook-turned-wrestler in Nacho Libre. In both cases, the spiritual components were a means to a joke-filled end. And as it concerns Dear Santa, let’s just say no one broke out their systematic theology books to write this story into existence.
Sure, we can acknowledge that Dear Santa isn’t trying to offer any intentional spiritual comments. The film’s meant to be a comedy, not a theological treatise. The writers would rather play in the kiddie pool of cultural religious caricatures than risk any sort of deep-end plunge.
But despite Dear Santa’s superficial intentions, prospective viewers will nevertheless need to grapple with the problematic worldview it puts forth regardless: namely, Satan’s occasional good-will nature and the problematic scope of his supernatural powers (read our spiritual section for more information on those). According to Dear Santa, Satan’s a bad dude who does ultimately want to steal a child’s soul, but he’s apparently also got principles and just may go out of his way to fix the issues in your and your family’s lives.
But even if you could disregard all of that, I’d wager most people still wouldn’t care for this one. The PG-13 rating restricts this film from family viewing, and it doesn’t seem to be the type of thing that adults would want to watch without their kids to begin with. The crude language and dark jokes certainly restrict that potential audience even more.
In closing, if it came down to a choice between receiving Dear Santa as a present or getting coal in my stocking, I’d choose the coal.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Our weekly newsletter will keep you in the loop on the biggest things happening in entertainment and technology. Sign up today, and we’ll send you a chapter from the new Plugged In book, Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family, that focuses on how to implement a “screentime reset” in your family!
