Welcome to the 2025 Heistmas Advent Calendar, a daily drop of pop culture Christmas icons, oddities, and joy. Check back every day from now through December 25 for each daily entry!
Professional wrestling is one of the greatest forms of entertainment. It’s full of over-the-top personas, flamboyant theatrics, and blends reality with fiction in a way that creates some of the most immersive storytelling I’ve ever seen.
Over the years, it has celebrated the holiday season with its own unique twist. You can watch countless clips of Santa Claus being chokeslammed, powerslammed and hit with a Stone Cold Stunner.
But my favourite moment is when Santa Claus was run over by a car.
Okay, let’s back up. It’s Christmas Eve 2012. The biggest wrestling star in the world is John Cena, while one of its biggest villains at the time is Alberto Del Rio. The year before, Del Rio became the first ever Mexican-born WWE Champion. His gimmick was one of a wealthy Mexican aristocrat. He’d wear fine clothes, drive to the ring in a fancy car and be introduced by his own personal ring announcer.
On the Christmas Eve edition of Monday Night Raw, Santa Claus (who is actually Mick Foley, a wrestling legend who has a particular fondness for playing Santa) comes out to give out presents to the audience members. While doing so, he’s hit by Del Rio's approaching car. The former champ and his ring announcer seem shocked, but hey, Santa Claus should have known that’s where the man makes his entrance.
Santa Claus is taken to the back by medical personnel, and throughout the show, we get updates on his condition. Things seem bleak until midway through the show, his heart monitor begins chiming “Jingle Bells” and Santa begins moving his feet. What a miracle!
Santa apparently told Booker T, guest authority figure for the night, that he wanted John Cena to get some revenge on Alberto Del Rio in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight match. The match is full of Christmas shenanigans. There are no disqualifications and wrestlers can open presents around ringside filled with weapons to use on their opponent.
While Del Rio and Cena fought back and forth with steel chairs and fire extinguishers, Del Rio’s ring announcer attacked Cena. But just in time to save the day is Santa Claus, who arrived to knock the ring announcer out, then hit Del Rio with a stocking (an homage to Mick Foley’s Mr. Socko). Cena then hit the Mexican aristocrat with his finisher to win the match and save Christmas!
Moments like this are why pro wrestling rules. It takes a premise that sounds ridiculous, such as Santa Claus gets hit by a luxury car on live television, and treats it with sincerity. It then pays it off with heart, comedy, and a roaring crowd losing their minds over a man in a red suit swinging a Christmas stocking. Wrestling can be absurd, dramatic, earnest, and hilarious all at once. It invites you to suspend disbelief and cheer as the impossible becomes real. In no other medium can Santa get hospitalized, kick out to the tune of “Jingle Bells,” and return to avenge Christmas.
Check back tomorrow for even more Heistmas Advent Calendar Goodies!
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