--- title: Gritty Assaults Santa Claus at Flyers Game description: Multiple Santa Clauses were no match for Gritty at the Philadelphia Flyers versus Detroit Red Wings hockey game on Tuesday night. canonical: https://time.com/5483861/gritty-santa/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-19T14:21:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:31.789Z og:title: Santa Better Watch Out for Gritty Because He's Out of Control og:description: The internet freakout is underway because he's taking Santa Clauses down og:url: https://time.com/5483861/gritty-santa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79a8e97c4c253d3c/698941ddfb4eac217a8987db/GrittyFightsSanta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Ottawa Senators v Philadelphia Flyers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Santa Better Watch Out for Gritty Because He's Out of Control twitter:description: The internet freakout is underway because he's taking Santa Clauses down twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79a8e97c4c253d3c/698941ddfb4eac217a8987db/GrittyFightsSanta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Multiple Santa Clauses Were No Match for the Wrath of Gritty > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4f21c756-eb21-41db-8a9e-9020cf600c2c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Dec 19, 2018 2:21 PM UTC  The Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty entertains fans during the game against the Ottawa Senators at the Wells Fargo Center on November 27, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) The Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty entertains fans during the game against the Ottawa Senators at the Wells Fargo Center on November 27, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Bruce Bennett—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Dec 19, 2018 2:21 PM UTC Actually it’s [Santa](http://time.com/4739069/santa-claus-impersonators-real-beard-community/) who better watch out, specifically for [Gritty](http://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/). Since the first evidence of Gritty’s existence in September, the [Philadelphia Flyers mascot’s rapscallion reputation](http://time.com/5460789/gritty-interview/) has been legendary. And he upped the ante during the first intermission at the Philadelphia Flyers game against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia when he took down more than one “Santa.” Gritty was dressed as Kris Kringle himself in a traditional Coca Cola-ad style red velvet suit trimmed with white fur and hat. But some of the goalies skating around the arena were in Santa attire too. And apparently there was room for only one St. Nick in the house. So the wide-eyed furry mascot the color of Tang was filmed chasing down other Santas to bulldoze them, leaving some of his victims face down on the ice. After he crushed his first target, it was clear Gritty was a hooligan unleashed on a war path. He proceeded to body check other Santas, and smack them on the heads with a Christmas wreath prop. No one was fast enough to skate away from Gritty. It may be only Gritty’s first season, but he already introduced us to the sport of Santa sacking on ice. The Flyers won 3-2, and it’s safe to say that Gritty will be on the naughty list for his lifetime. Get a load of Gritty’s latest antics below. > [](https://twitter.com/NHLFlyers/status/1075193576735293440) People were into it. > [](https://twitter.com/mhuertas2012/status/1075383714358747137) > [](https://twitter.com/SamSykesSwears/status/1075313663873937409) > [](https://twitter.com/CDKJudoqa/status/1075223238555389952) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5483861/gritty-santa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5483861/gritty-santa/"},"headline":"Multiple Santa Clauses Were No Match for the Wrath of Gritty","datePublished":"2018-12-19T14:21:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:31.789Z","description":"Multiple Santa Clauses were no match for Gritty at the Philadelphia Flyers versus Detroit Red Wings hockey game on Tuesday night.","url":"https://time.com/5483861/gritty-santa/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","hockey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79a8e97c4c253d3c/698941ddfb4eac217a8987db/GrittyFightsSanta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79a8e97c4c253d3c/698941ddfb4eac217a8987db/GrittyFightsSanta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ottawa Senators v Philadelphia Flyers","caption":"Gritty fights Santa","creditText":"Bruce Bennett—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5483861/gritty-santa/","name":"Multiple Santa Clauses Were No Match for the Wrath of Gritty"}}]}] ```