Just a little speculative ~ headcanon space about St. Nicholas/Kris Kringle/Santa Claus. The man known to many as "Santa Claus" was a primaly Red and White pre-mending planeswalker from either Innistrad or Theros and when his planeswalker spark ignited, he involuntarily planeswalked to the other. Sometime in his life (before or after his ascension) he becomes a cleric of either Avacyn and/or Thassa? (patron saint of sailors and all) and at some point via Theros & Nyx, Nicolaus/Nikolaos gained divine power derived from belief/faith, or a Nyxborn facsimile came into being in Nyx and retained its planeswalking ability. He used his divine powers to commit good deeds around the multiverse, and thus belief in him is at a decent level to continue his good work.

As for his magic, he
knows if you've been bad or good
Has 8 Flying reindeer (elk)
Employs plenty of elves from across the multiverse, perhaps many of Innistrad's elves before they became extinct, and perhaps Kaladeshi elves for their penchant for artifice.
Delivers presents to all good children in one night because of Super Haste
The Krampus may be a demon that Santa was able to create/bring under his control.

Anyone else out there with an MTG-Santa headcanon?

I have an undeveloped set that features a planewalker that starts out as a child orphan and ascends for some yet determined reason and decides to go around planes giving children gifts. He sets up shop on a barren snow plane and summons many elves and gnomes to make toys but it turns out the plane was the site of an ancient battle between demons so he gets possessed and ends up doing evil stuff with his toys. The idea behind the set was going to be second set was s flashback and the third set was an epic battle but wizards stole my idea with tarkir so I put it on hold. Also it had snow and contraptions because yes

I like that he's an example of a clearly character that isn't all about warfare.

Is his affiliation with animals and elves enough to splash or do you think it's the negligible kind of thing like "Chandra being friendly with Nissa, an elf, doesnt make HER Green-aligned." The differenc being Santa's elves don't have much autonomy beyond Santa's wishes, and I'm unaware if there's a symbiosis between Santa & his elves, or if they're no better than elf creature tokens.

Hoping one day it'd be doable to come up with a slew of MTG campaigns with Christmas themes (decorated elemental/treefolk, Geist of Holiday's Past, reindeer with fly speed, filigreed gifts, christmasy elves, angels hovering over sacred trees, etc) and Santa gives off planeswalker vibes.

Santa's . He sneaks into homes in the middle of the night, empirically rules over his isolated, virtually lifeless region, and supports capitalistic, materialistic aspects of what was originally a religious observation, turning it into a secular cult-following.

Here's a transform card for him a la Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer.

Kris Kringle, Home Invader -
Legendary Creature - Human Ninja Spirit
Kris Kringle, Home Invader is unblockable as long as defending player controls a tapped creature.
Whenever Kris Kringle, Home Invader deals combat damage to a player, choose one -

• Defending player creates a 0/1 colorless gift token with "at the beginning of your upkeep, you lose one life."
• At end of turn, transform Kris Kringle, Home Invader.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Santa Claus, Nightstalker
Planeswalker - Kringle
Whenever a creature deals damage to you or a planeswalker or creature you control, put a naughty counter on it.
: Creatures you control cannot be blocked by creatures with naughty counters on them until end of turn.
: Put a naughty counter on target creature.
: Tap all creatures with naughty counters on them. Their controller loses life equal to the number of creatures tapped this way.


Merry Christmas!

I don't know if I could put Santa in any color other than White. He uses incentive in the forms of gifts in order to shape behavior in society, but most other aspects of his character sounds like it would be guesswork.

Oh, at his core, but where does magic come in when he's delivering to the whole world in a single night, fit down chimneys/get into homes, conjure elves, and know when you're sleeping/awake with only mana?

It comes from Black Lotuses he grows in his backyard.
420 SANTA 420

No, he's a character being manipulated by forces.

He's basically Avacyn, except more clueless.

His idea of promoting moral behaviour is through emotional gratification.

Plus The Christmas Tree informs us he has lightning powers, which are strictly

You could explain it away in a multitude of reasons. Maybe he has a surveillance network from his elf army that also helps him deliver packages, maybe he has time magic and can read minds, maybe he uses the Lost Scrolls of Thespodeius to write the reality he wishes into existence. (Note: Lost Scrolls of Thespodeius is not a thing). We don't know how his reindeer fly, we don't know how he enters into chimneyless homes through the chimney, or why he knows who's been good or bad, so like I said, it's guesswork.

Why should I treat this arbitrary fanfic as canon?

Because it's the true holy word

I wouldn't be surprised if he has a MUTUAL pact with some demon known as Krampus (Krampus only childishly punishes naughty children. Even to the extreme of kidnapping/eating, it's still must the naughty children) who knows if he got his powers and absolute longevity from Krampus in exchaange for being the hope and reason to avoid falling onto Krampus' black list, or Santa found a way to overpower him and subjugated him into lowering his range and severity of judgment from default down to his current criteria for punishment.

Well it could be said Santa enchanted them with a white aura spell that grants flying.
Naughty & Nice detection could be white, but "sees you sleeping" I'm unsure. Maybe he's or if is absolutely necessary for shrinking into chimneys.... Honestly, his relationship with elves may be mutual and may not be based on conjuration+command a la other creature summoning, so that removes from his actual magical repertoire.

Santa is obviously .

I don't think the is necessary is it's a "lasso of truth" sort of effect, which is more

How do you "lasso of truth" your way down a chimney?

When he picks a list.