The sleigh has served its purpose for centuries. It’s iconic, timeless and probably the only vehicle in the world that can claim ‘chimney access’ as a core feature. But every December there comes a moment — usually right around the time the elves start baking stress gingerbread like it’s a coping mechanism — when reality taps Santa on the shoulder and says gently but firmly, “Maybe you need a backup plan.”
This year, that moment is happening in a workshop on the edge of the North Pole (Arjeplog comes to mind), where the sleigh is on a lift and a mechanical elf is making the face you only make when you’ve just discovered a problem where the words “structural” and “seasonal” appear in the same sentence.
Santa Claus is trying to keep it light. He always does that. He jokes that the sleigh is “still stuck tight,” even though it squeaks like an old door in a haunted house. The elf doesn’t laugh. Instead, he points to a clipboard and begins to read out the polite version of the truth: The runners are worn out, the steering is vague, the brakes are basically wishful thinking, and the reindeer have gotten to the point where they’re wondering if “overtime” is an actual term or just another Christmas myth.
Santa Claus sighs. “So, what do you recommend?” The elf smiles because he’s been waiting to say it all year.
“BMW.”
The non-negotiable: xDrive
Not a classic either. Not a nostalgia choice. Not something that sounds like thunder, announcing itself to every sleeping child and every suspicious neighbor with a doorbell camera. If Santa wants to do this right in 2025, he’ll need something quiet, modern, fast, that feels effortless, and competent in weather conditions that go from Arctic ice to Florida rain in the same hour.
He needs xDrive. It’s non-negotiable. Santa’s route is not just one street, but all streets. It’s the slippery driveway that’s never shoveled, the dead-end street polished to a shine by the freezing rain, and the mountain village where the snowplow is a rumor passed down from generation to generation. Rudolph can still lead, of course, because tradition counts, but Rudolph also deserves a year in which his job is to navigate, not pull.
The pick for 2025: The new BMW iX3
And so Santa Claus ends up in the driver’s seat of the new BMW iX3.
It’s the kind of choice that makes sense once you stop thinking about 1997. The iX3 is an SUV, which means it fits the job description before you even get into the technology. It has the attitude, the practicality, the “I can do this all day” energy. But it’s also the first big taste of BMW’s Neue Klasse era, meaning it brings with it the subtle feeling of entering the next decade before everyone else has even found the key.
Why electric, not combustion?
Now the obvious question is the one Santa’s traditionalists would ask first: Why the iX3 and not an internal combustion engine car? Why not something with a big, hearty engine note that feels like a Christmas choir warming up?
Because Santa Claus doesn’t need any noise. He needs swimmers.
When you drive the new iX3, you’ll feel the uncanny feeling that electric vehicles do so well – effortless, smooth and quietly fast, as if the vehicle is gliding across the earth’s surface rather than trudging through it. This is the closest a modern car can get to the feeling of a sled doing what it’s supposed to do: gliding along with ease, unfazed by the chaos beneath it, so that the speed feels like magic rather than effort. Driving a combustion car can be exciting, but it can also be tiring. It vibrates, it rattles, it always feels like it’s working. The iX3 feels like it just…moves, as if the laws of friction were optional when you have instant torque and smooth power delivery on your side.
It’s also the kind of speed that won’t wake the baby, won’t scare the dog, and won’t trigger the neighbor who hears a slight noise and immediately checks the safety lining. In this sense, an electric SUV is not just logical. It’s almost poetic. Santa Claus has always been a stealth operator. The sleigh bells are great for movies, but when you’re trying to move through the world unnoticed, silence is the real superpower.
The Santa Claus test: space for the bag
The other thing Santa needs is space, and not that vague marketing space where manufacturers claim that a suitcase will fit perfectly if you turn it three times and take the wheels off. Santa Claus actually needs usable space, a kind of hold that doesn’t balk when you throw in a sack that appears to contain an entire toy store’s inventory. The kind of room that can hold oddly shaped boxes, last minute gifts, and whatever weird “just in case” gear the elves are forced to bring because someone saw a survival video once and now no one feels safe without a backup plan.
Sure, an iX5 or iX7 might be better, but Santa will have to wait a few years for that.
Pit stops, no fuel stops
Then comes the recharging, and that’s when Santa’s schedule starts to resemble motorsports more than holiday tradition. Santa Claus doesn’t make long stops. He makes pit stops. A moment here, a moment there, just enough time to inhale two cookies, nod respectfully to the milk, and disappear like a caffeinated ghost. The idea of wasting time at a gas station never fit into the mythology. Charging feels quick and targeted.
A cabin that helps, not one that demands
Inside the iX3, Santa Claus can actually work. Not in the sense of “I respond to emails,” but in the sense of “This night is long and my back is not made of reindeer leather.” Santa doesn’t need a cockpit that requires a tutorial at 2 a.m. He needs comfort that keeps him fresh, a cabin that stays calm when the world outside looks like a blizzard simulator, and technology that supports the mission rather than turning it into a user interface. And the panoramic display and navigation could help him make his deliveries even more efficiently.
The funniest thing about the ending is that none of this feels like Santa betraying tradition. It feels like Santa is doing what he’s always done: quietly adapting to keep things running. The sleigh is not dead. It is seasonal. It will be back, polished and proud, once the elves complete the repair process, which they claim is “definitely to spec.” But for 2025, when the world is louder, cameras are everywhere, and the weather is more unpredictable than ever, Santa’s backup plan needs to be something that feels modern without losing the magic.
So yes, this year Santa is swapping the sleigh for a BMW.
He drives the iX3.
Of course, Rudolph still leads.
He just doesn’t have to pull.
