When I first saw this OVA uploaded to Hulu in time for the holidays, I was looking forward to watching an anime adaptaion of Ken Akamatsu's one-shot manga of the same name. On the bright side, the anime adaptation did keep the original story of the manga, which already had a pretty decent premise for a fresh Christmas story. However, my major gripe with the Original Video Animation (OVA) is its pacing; the story felt too rushed for a holiday special. The first episode needed the duration of at least two 22-minute episodes to properly tell its story. But as a result of the short time, the characters and the storytelling suffer by being underdeveloped and lacking depth. The main message of the story is good too, but it just felt like it was being tacked on in this anime adaptation. On a personal note, I didn't mind the first episode's mention of Christmas being a time to celebrate Jesus' birth; actually, I was rather surprised (in a good way) that a Christmas special in this day and age would have the courage to mention such a thing. However, unlike how "A Charlie Brown Christmas" handled the subject of the true meaning of Christmas, My Santa loses its impact by just rushing through its story and characters. Overall, this OVA misses its big opportunity to be something truly memorable and ends up being something that's just OK. However, fans of Ken Akamatsu may appreciate the OVA a little more due to being able to compare the similarities of certain elements that are a hallmark of Akamatsu's works.
In some of the Ruprecht traditions, the children would be summoned to the door to perform tricks, such as a dance or singing a song to impress upon Santa and Ruprecht that they were indeed good children. Those who performed badly would be beaten soundly by Servant Ruprecht, and those who performed well were given a gift or some treats. Those who performed badly enough or had committed other misdeeds throughout the year were put into Ruprecht's sack and taken away, variously to Ruprecht’s home in the Black Forest to be consumed later, or to be tossed into a river. In other versions the children must be asleep, and would awake to find their shoes filled with either sweets, coal, or in some cases a stick. Over time, other customs developed: parents giving kids who misbehaved a stick instead of treats and saying that it was a warning from Nikolaus that "unless you improve by Christmas day, Nikolaus' black servant Ruprecht will come and beat you with the stick and you won't get any Christmas gifts." and thus I conclude my rant on Christmas traditions