released direct-to-video (as were the next two films), concludes the Billy/Ricky storyline, and follows Ricky as he stalks a clairvoyant blind woman on her way to visit her grandmother for Christmas Eve.

The fourth film, Initiation (1990), departs from the killer Santa storyline, centering on a feminist cult in Los Angeles, California who are planning a ritual sacrifice.

After leaving the nursing home, Billy witnesses his parents get murdered on a rural road by a criminal dressed in a Santa Claus suit.

Placed in an orphanage and separated from his infant brother, Billy is abused by the Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin) and grows increasingly disturbed.

As an adult, Billy gets a job working at a toy store, where the holiday season triggers post-traumatic stress disorder over his parents' death.

In Part 2 (1987), Ricky, now 18 years old, has been incarcerated in an insane asylum for murdering his girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend, suffering from similar psychosis due to a traumatic upbringing.

While relaying his story to a psychiatrist, Ricky escapes from the asylum and murders a Salvation Army Santa Claus, stealing his costume.

(1989) picks up six years later, after Ricky (Bill Moseley) has been in a coma from his wounds; a transparent dome has been affixed to his head so that repairs can be made to his skull.

Initiation (1990) deviates from the "killer Santa" plot and the slasher film genre, following a Los Angeles journalist, Kim Levitt (Neith Hunter) who finds herself enmeshed with a witch cult who worship Lilith.

Fima (Maud Adams), a bookstore owner, is the leader of the cult, who plans to draw Kim in and initiate her with a ritual sacrifice on Christmas Eve with the help of Ricky (Clint Howard), a transient who works as her henchman.

Silent Night (2012) is a loose remake of the original film, and follows Aubrey Bradimore (Jaime King), a police officer in a small town who is hunting a serial killer dressed in a Santa Claus suit who has embarked on a killing spree on Christmas Eve.

Her supervisor, Sheriff Cooper (Malcolm McDowell) helps her track the killer, who has murdered a series of the town's residents, including children.

At its East Coast premiere at the Interboro Quad Theater in The Bronx, New York City, over 100 picketers stood outside in protest of the film, singing Christmas carols and holding signs.

[26] On December 1, 2009, Parts 3–5 were released on DVD in North America for the first time in a three-disc set by Lionsgate, who had acquired the licensing rights from LIVE Video after its dissolution.