SANTA CLAUS TAKES THE YEAR OFF

John Goodman stars as Santa Claus going through a mid-life crisis and takes the year off in NBC movie The Year Without a Santa Claus.

John Goodman gets into the holiday spirit playing St. Nick in The Year Without A Santa Claus which airs tonight on NBC. Santa is having a mid-life crisis fed up that Christmas has become too commercial and fears nobody believes in him anymore so he just takes the year off.

John jokes about the preparation needed to inhabit Santa Claus, and how he had to stay in character despite the warm temperatures on location in Louisiana.

“You over eat for about 40 years and you give your money away a lot. It has to do with marriage, I don’t know. I don’t know, you just use your imagination. I’m in the Christmas spirit all year long. The July part got to me a little bit. We were in Nakadish, Louisiana and I think the temperature outside was about 104 and I’m in this nice fake fur so it got a little toasty.”

An ambitious elf Sparky played by Chris Kattan sees the perfect opportunity to step into Santa’s red suit. Chris talks about how his character master minds taking over the North Pole.

“Santa’s ailing and doesn’t feel so hot. I think he’s getting a little old and I want to keep the toy line going and make some money and make a profit off of it. So I slowly weasel my way into creating what I call the extreme Santa which is sort of a super heroesque Santa Claus, green tight jumpsuit; kind of a cross between Tony Hawk and Spiderman. He flies around on a snowboard and that’s powered by the magic of osmosis. He delivers toys to all the good little girls and boys.”

The Year Without A Santa Claus also stars Delta Burke as Mrs. Claus, and Carson Kressley from Queer Eye for The Straight Guy giving Santa some fashion tips. Watch it tonight at 9PM on NBC.