Fred Claus

As a child, Frederick "Fred" Claus grew up in the shadow of his younger brother Nicholas "Nick". Due to Nick's selflessness and good will, he became a saint, which gave him and his family immortality. Fred's jealousy of Nick and his parents' preference for him cause a rift between the brothers.

In the present, Nick has become the modern-day Santa Claus, delivering gifts to the children of the world. Fred has become a repossession agent in Chicago. Fred lives alone and is friends with orphan Samuel “Slam” Gibbons. After his girlfriend Wanda breaks up with him, Fred is arrested for impersonating a Salvation Army employee in an attempt to raise seed money for an illegal casino plan. Fred asks Nick for bail and seed money. Nick gives him the bail money, but will only give him the seed money, if Fred comes the North Pole to work for it.

Head elf Willie escorts Fred to the North Pole. Nick gives Fred the task of assigning children as ‘naughty’ or ‘nice’ based on their behavior. Meanwhile, efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt from the government agency that monitors activities of supernatural entities like Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy arrives to analyze the North Pole's dwindling performance on a three-strike assessment. After Fred starts a party in the workshop (switching the radio from "Here Comes Santa Claus"—which was played repeatedly—to Elvis Presley's Rubberneckin'), Clyde gives the first strike. Fred attends a dinner with his parents, but their constant appraisal of Nick causes him to storm out.

Meanwhile, Clyde shreds children's letters and arranges for the blame to fall on Fred. The lack of backup copies leads to a second strike. After seeing Slam on the top spot of the naughty list, Fred realizes his bad behavior is a consequence of being bullied at the orphanage (along with some bad advice from Fred) and that Slam is still a good kid. Fred assigns every child as nice.

The brothers get into a fight over Fred's decision, with Nick injuring his back. Unable to now produce enough gifts for every good child, the North Pole falls far behind schedule, leading Clyde to assign the third strike – shutting down the workshop. Fred leaves, taking his money and a gift from Nick. When he gets home Fred finds the gift to be a replica of a birdhouse he had as a child that Nick accidentally chopped down, which caused a bird he named Chirp Chirp to fly away. Realizing his brother still cares about him, he uses the seed money to make his way back to the North Pole.

Fred motivates the elves to make as many gifts as possible in 10 hours. Because of his injury, Nick is unable to deliver gifts. Feeling guilty, Fred decides to deliver the presents (as only a Claus can deliver the gifts). He reminds Nick that most of those kids aren't bad, but good kids going through bad situations, and that every child deserves a gift on Christmas. Fred gets the workshop to quickly make simple gifts so that every child gets a toy. Fred and Willie begin to deliver the gifts but Clyde sabotages their efforts and fires all of the elves. Nick realizes that Clyde was also bullied as a child, which caused him to become troubled. Nick apologizes to Clyde for always putting him on the naughty list and gives him the Superman cape he always asked for as a child.

Disguised as Santa, Fred visits Slam and gives him the dog he wanted for Christmas. Fred tells Slam to become a better person. With every gift delivered, Fred returns to the North Pole while Willie finally starts a relationship with the tall elf, Charlene. Fred and Nick make amends. Clyde starts working at the North Pole with a change of heart. Slam is adopted. Fred repairs his relationship with Wanda. The next Christmas, the whole Claus family is happily reunited, including Chirp Chirp, who now lives in the new birdhouse.

• Vince Vaughn as Frederick "Fred" Claus
  • Liam James as Young Fred
• Paul Giamatti as Nicholas "Nick"/"Santa" Claus
  • Theo Stevenson as Young Nick
• Rachel Weisz as Wanda Blinkowski, Fred's girlfriend and a parking enforcement officer.
• Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Annette Claus, Nick's wife.
• Kevin Spacey as Clyde Archibald Northcutt, an efficiency expert who comes to assess the situation at the North Pole. The film's main antagonist.
• Kathy Bates and Trevor Peacock as Mother and Father Claus, Fred and Nick's parents. Peacock also serves as the narrator.
• John Michael Higgins as Willie, Santa's head elf whom Fred befriends and helps to hook up with Charlene.
• Elizabeth Banks as Charlene, a tall, blond elf with whom Willie becomes enamored.
• Bobb'e J. Thompson as Samuel "Slam" Gibbons, a young orphan boy that Fred mentors.
• Ludacris as DJ Donnie
• Allan Corduner as Dr. Goldfarb
• Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton Jr. and Stephen Baldwin as themselves
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan (cameo) as unnamed man getting parking ticket.

The music score is composed by Christophe Beck, but some of the tracks used are taken from the movie Mouse Hunt, composed by Alan Silvestri. In addition to his role, Ludacris performed a song called "Ludacrismas" for the film. The song also includes some interludes from "Here Comes Santa Claus".

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 25, 2008. The special features includes 25 minutes of deleted scenes and an audio commentary by director David Dobkin. The Blu-ray release includes a music video for "Ludacrismas" by Ludacris in High Definition and also a bonus disc entitled Fred Claus: Race to Save Christmas.

• Official website
• Fred Claus at IMDb
• Fred Claus at AllMovie
• Fred Claus at Box Office Mojo
• Fred Claus at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fred Claus at Metacritic