Klaus (PG), on Netflix
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Caution: spoilers.

This came out in 2019, but I didn't see it until 2025. I'm listing it primarily under "holiday web films", even though I think it barely qualifies as one, and secondarily under "animated web films". I definitely like the animation style, which seems to me almost like CGI, even though it's traditionally animated. But I mean, it looks like CGI that's trying not to look like CGI, if that makes any sense. (On the other hand, I wouldn't say that it's trying to look like any variety of CGI, it just sort of does.) It's an amusing film, with good character development, and an interesting story. It has a unique take on the origins of Santa Claus, and I really liked all the little details of how various parts of the lore came into being. None of it is true, of course, but it's fun to see different explanations than any other "origins of Santa" type of story.

Actually, Santa, or as he's simply known in this movie, Klaus (J.K. Simmons), is the secondary protagonist. The main character is a spoiled slacker named Jesper (Jason Schwartzman), whose father is the Postmaster General in Norway, sometime in the 19th century. Jesper has intentionally flunked out of the Royal Postman Academy, hoping to go back to his life of leisure, living with his father. But instead, his father sends him to the faraway town of Smeerensburg, to serve as a postman there. He must oversee the mailing of 6000 letters by Christmas, before he can return home, otherwise he'll be cut off from the family fortune. The town is on an island, and Jesper is brought there by the ferryman named Mogens (Norm Macdonald), who tricks him into ringing a bell in the center of town. It's actually a battle bell, that summons two clans: the Krums, led by matriarch Tammy (Joan Cusack), and the Ellingboes, led by patriarch Aksel (Will Sasso). The Krums and Ellingboes have been at war with each other forever, and after Jesper rings the bell, he gets caught up in their latest battle, which he scurries to escape. He stumbles into the local school, where he meets a former teacher named Alva (Rashida Jones), who has become a fishmonger, because none of the parents in town will send their children to school (because that would mean children from both clans intermingling). Alva has been saving up her money so that she can eventually move away from Smeerensburg. And at first, she doesn't like Jesper.

Well, no one in Smeerensburg sends letters to anyone, so it seems like Jesper will never be able to meet his father's quota. But eventually he learns of a woodsman named Klaus, who lives alone on a distant part of the island. He goes to Klaus's house, which he finds to be filled with handmade toys. When he sees the large and imposing Klaus, who carries an axe, among other dangerous tools, Jesper runs away. But he drops his satchel, which contained a drawing by a young boy from town. Klaus finds the drawing, and goes to town to find Jesper, whom he forces to deliver the toy to the boy who drew the picture. Jesper is forced to enter the house through the chimney. The next day, other children in town learn about the toy, and they all want to send letters to Klaus, hoping to get toys of their own. So, Klaus and Jesper team up to deliver toys to all the children each night, and it seems like Jesper has a chance of meeting the quota, after all (though he doesn't tell Klaus about this). Not all of the children know how to write, so Jesper sends them to Alva's school, where she grudgingly begins teaching them. After awhile, her passion for teaching is reignited, and she uses her savings to refurbish the school. There's also a young Sámi girl named Márgu, who doesn't speak the language, and whose people live outside of town. Despite the language barrier, she wants Jesper to help her deliver a letter to Klaus, and Jesper gets Alva to help translate. Unfortunately, by this time Klaus had run out of toys, and was unwilling to make any more. So Jesper tries to make a toy for Márgu himself, but Klaus eventually decides to help. And eventually, the Sámi people begin helping make the toys, as does Alva.

The town elders are horrified to find that the children are now playing and attending school together, and plot to get rid of Jesper and Klaus. Tammy and Aksel form a temporary truce, to this end. They discover Jesper's goal, and secretly send out thousands of letters from Smeerensburg, and alert Jesper's father to this fact. Meanwhile, Klaus tells Jesper about his past, including the death of his wife. They also plan to make and deliver more toys on Christmas Eve. (I got the impression this was going to become an annual event, rather than just giving out toys whenever children wrote asking for them throughout the year, but I didn't feel like that point was made adequately clear. At least, I don't think it was ever explained to the children.) Anyway, Jesper's father shows up just as Jesper, Klaus, and Alva were preparing to set out on Christmas Eve, and of course this leads to Klaus and Alva learning that Jesper had, at least initially, just been using them for his own selfish reason. But he had by this time come to truly care about the children, and his friendship with Klaus and Alva, so he decides to stay in Smeerensburg. He still has to work to prove himself to his friends, by trying to stop the townsfolk's plan to get rid of all the toys before they could be delivered.

Well, I won't spoil how it all ends. I feel like I've spoiled too much already, though I have left out some details, throughout the story. But it is a happy ending. And there seems to be a bit of magic that isn't explained, despite most of the movie being grounded more or less in reality (even if a lot of it was over-the-top). It was really nice seeing the relationships Jesper had between Klaus and Alva evolve over the course of the movie, and seeing all three of them develop as characters. And I don't know what else to say, it's just a really fun story.