It's the happiest time of the year once again. Rather than dole out the standard list of the best holiday classics to warm your heart, we prefer to shake things up a bit. First we offered 6 Movies for People Who Hate Christmas, featuring a selection of alternative holiday flicks for those who aren't quite in the spirit.

Today, we take a look at everyone's favorite bearded fat man, Santa Claus. Now we all know that Edmund Gwenn was a wonderful Santa in Miracle on 34th Street, the only actor to take home an Oscar as St. Nick. And actors such as Ed Asner in Elf and David Huddleston in Santa Claus: The Movie have certainly done the red suit justice on the silver screen, but what about those other Santas? The ones that took the legend of Santa in a different direction: Boozing, scaring, kicking, and even killing? Those are the ones we take a look at here.

	Bad Santa Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of Willie, a con artist who works a yearly department store gig with his elf cohort Marcus (Tony Cox), is a legendarily bad Santa Claus. When he is at least semi-sober enough to take requests from the kiddies, he uses foul language and even spits lettuce at a kid and his mother while scolding them for interfering with his lunch break. A social outcast (Brett Kelly) invites Santa into his home for Christmas and Willie shows the first signs of a heart by teaching the kid to defend himself (and by savagely beating the bullies that harassed the kid). As a representation of jolly old St. Nick, Willie leaves a lot to be desired -- but there is at least some hope for the future after he gets out of the joint and back to Mrs. Santa's sister.
	A Christmas Story This department store Santa Claus is more interested in getting to the local bar than bringing joy to the kiddies who've been waiting for an eternity in line at Higbee's department store. When Ralphie chokes under the pressure and agrees to a football for Christmas, he regains his composure just in time to climb back up the slide and demand "An official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time." Unfortunately, Santa tells him that he'll shoot his eye out, just like everyone else. Then Santa firmly plants a big black boot on Ralphie's forehead and gives him a helpful shove down the slide.
	Santa's Slay Even if he weren't the son of Satan, seeing pumped-up pro wrestler Bill Goldberg as Santa Claus would be a pretty frightening image. As this twisted take on the average Christmas tale goes, Goldberg is indeed the spawn of the devil and has been forced to play the good Santa for the last 1,000 years since he lost a bet to an angel. Now his penance is up and he's out to make up for lost time by going on a massive killing spree. So remember, if you are waiting for Santa to come down the chimney with a bag of toys and he winds up looking like a member of the WWE, drop the milk and cookies and run for your life!
	The Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween is Jack Skellington's specialty, so he might want to leave Christmas to the jolly fat guy next year. When Halloweentown's most famous citizen dons the red hat and tries to make the rounds on Christmas Eve, kids and families wind up more frightened than jolly by this slimmer Santa's gift-giving selection. Poor Jack's heart is in the right place, but he's got a lot to learn about the true meaning of Christmas.
	The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause Talk about beating a dead horse. It's not like the first Santa Clause was a particularly good movie, but cashing in a sequel is standard Hollywood practice. After two shameless outings as Santa and countless royalty checks from Home Improvement reruns (an equally terrible television program that lives on in television hell right next to Everybody Loves Raymond), when is enough enough for Tim Allen? This time he's truly hit the bottom of the barrel with this phoned-in performance as Scott Calvin, who is once again called upon to fill in as Santa Claus. This time, there's some plotline about how Jack Frost (Martin Short) is trying to steal Christmas, but it doesn't really matter. This Santa series (and particularly part 3) is more likely to depress families then put them in the holiday spirit.