The Winter Warlock, later simply known as Winter, is the former secondary antagonist-turned supporting protagonist of the 1970 Christmas special Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. He is an immortal hermit with vast magical powers that live on the Mountain of the Whispering Winds, and attacks anyone who dares to come near his territory. Later in the special, his icy heart is melted by Kris Kringle/Santa Claus’ kindness and warmth, leading to him becoming an ally and friend of Father Christmas.
Personality[]
The Winter Warlock starts out as evil, scary, sadistic, cold, fearsome and mean-spirited. He despises everyone, and (judging by how the animals hide baby Kris) is even willing to hurt a baby). He enjoys terrorizing people and keeping up his cruel, monstrous and frightening reputation.
However, after Kris manages to warm his heart, he is shown to be mostly be lonely and insecure, having never received a present or even been shown any love before. As his cold and bitter personality (literally) melts away, he becomes kind, helpful and soft-spoken. He remains uncertain, especially after losing his powers, and doubts himself, but remains a friendly ally. He later would get back his powers and confidence, resulting in him being dutiful powerful, while still heroic and pleasant.
Appearance[]
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The Winter Warlock’s original evil appearance.
Before his redemption, Winter was a frightening and monstrous wizard. He had pure white skin, small black eyes, dark blue circles around his eyes, a large pointed nose that curves downward with large nostrils, sharp pointed teeth, large hands with long, bony fingers, pointed ears, bushy white eyebrows, a long white beard, and shaggy white hair. He wears a long pointed hat resembling a nightcap with a triangular-cut brim, a white robe with large, long sleeves that reaches down to his feet, and long white shoes with pointed toes that curl upward.
After his heart melts due to Kris’ act of kindness, he retains his hat, robe, shoes, beard and eyes. He has fair skin, his long nose is a bit thinner, his eyes are a bit closer, his eyebrows are thinner and less shaggy, his hands are smaller and his fingers are shorter, his hair is more kempt-looking, and he appears to have no teeth.
Role in the special[]
The Winter Warlock’s past is unknown, but it is known that he is an outcast and a hermit, who made his home on the freezing slopes of the Mountain of the Whispering Winds, where he practices his magic spells and destroys anyone who dares to disturb him, unwilling to let anyone pass across his mountain and go into Sombertown or vice versa to Rainbow River Valley.
One day, a baby was left with the cold-hearted mayor Burgermeister Meisterburger, with the parent asking him to care for the child and protect him from the Mountain. But instead of caring for the child, the Burgermeister heartlessly dismisses the child and sends his henchman Grimsley to take the child to an orphan asylum. However, on the way, the child was lost in a snowstorm and blown up to the Mountain. The local animals hide the child with sticks and branches from the watchful eye of the Warlock, then deliver him from the mountain to the Kringle family, who adopt the child and name him Kris.
Many years later, after Kris had grown, he decides to take the Kringle family’s toys to Sombertown across the mountain, as none of the Kringles dared to face the Warlock. Early on during Kris’ first trip to Sombertown, as he, along with his penguin friend Topper, approach the mountain, they briefly encounter the Warlock, who threatens them and warns them to turn away or die. Although they manage to escape, the Warlock vows to get them on Kris’ return trip. Sure enough, Kris eventually makes it to Sombertown and begins giving toys to children. However, he is chased out of Sombertown by Burgermeister and his henchmen, who have outlawed toys. After their escape, as he and Topper make their way back, they are captured by the Warlock’s evil and sentient tree minions. The Warlock then appears to Kris, planning to destroy him.
However, Kris offers the Warlock a gift, and the Warlock decides to indulge him, although he suspects a trick. In spite of this, Kris actually gives him a present in the form of a toy train. The Warlock is so touched by Kris’ kindness that his icy heart melts and his frightening appearance fades, resulting in him taking on a more human-like appearance and turning good. He then insists Kris call him Winter, but wonders how long he can stay reformed. Kris teaches him that changing from evil to good is as easy as taking one’s first step, and Winter reforms.
Winter then becomes a vital friend to Kris, agreeing to help him in his mission to bring toys and gifts to children with his magic, even introducing Kris to the magic crystal snowball, which allows him to see other people. Kris would later use this to find out if children have been naughty or nice. Later, Winter gives Kris land on the Mountain, where he and the Kringles can build a new workshop from which to build his toys and make deliveries to Sombertown easier. Though he admits to feeling crowded, he doesn’t mind as he is now loved.
As time goes on, however, with the melting of his heart, Winter’s powers have vanished and he is no longer magical, even to the point where he is unable to successfully do card tricks. This comes at the worst possible time; when Kris is arrested for smuggling toys into Sombertown by the hateful Burgermeister, Winter and the other Kringles are arrested by the Burgermeister’s trusted lieutenant Grimsley and his soldiers and taken to the dungeon. Winter secretly speaks to Jessica when she comes to his cell, and begins to work with her on how to free him and the other prisoners. He shows her some of his old, powerless trinkets and leftover items, one of which being magic feed corn, a corn that can make reindeer fly when eaten by them. Jessica takes the corn and gives it to Kris’ reindeer friends, who then fly into the prison and free everyone, including an uplifted Winter.
Much time passed, with Kris, Jessica, the Kringles, Topper and Winter still living on the run. Kris would later ask Jessica to marry him, and a grand wedding took place with the Kringles and the animals decorating the trees of the forest in celebration. Winter summons a small amount of magic to light the trees with many colors, creating the very first Christmas trees. The group eventually find their way to the North Pole, where they settle down and build a castle and workshop. Kris (now Santa Claus) decides he must limit his gift giving to one night a year, and choose Christmas Eve. By the end of the special, Winter eventually gets all of his magic powers back, this time using them for good to provide white Christmases and aid his friend Santa for all time.
During the credits, he sees the postman S. D. Kluger delivering letters to Santa and hitches a ride on his mail buggy to visit his old friend.
Trivia[]
- Winter is shown to still have the toy train towards the end of the film, which he holds the toy very dearly.
- Winter is also shown to have a lazy eye.
- During the song “Put One Foot in Front of the Other,” where Winter reforms, he is shown taking what seems to be his first steps. Prior to his redemption, he is never shown walking, but teleporting everywhere. After his redemption, he then walks for the rest of his screen time.
- Strangely in Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, Winter is not seen in any of the flashbacks depicting scenes from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. It is unknown why this is the case, but this is possibly due to the character’s similarities to the movie’s overall villain Winterbolt, which would likely have necessitated a time-constrained explanation as to why the two characters were very different.