Christmas movies are supposed to offer a carefree escape from the mad dash of the holidays. They're light, uplifting, holly and jolly delights. Disney's The Santa Clause — starring Tim Allen — was all of those things. However, the movie allegedly wound up costing some parents a lot of money and added stress in the late '90s.

In the movie Allen plays a divorced toy salesman named Scott Calvin who becomes Santa Claus after accidentally offing the big guy on Christmas Eve. It's a wild concept, but it proved to be a hit. The movie boasts a "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was the first of a trilogy.

Originally released in 1994, The Santa Clause is still a Christmas classic today. That being said, one scene has been cut from the movie.

The scene in question is a brief interaction between Scott and his ex-wife Laura Miller (Wendy Crewson). In it, Miller hands Scott a piece of paper with her new mother-in-law's phone number written on it. That way Scott has it in case he needs to get in touch with any questions about their young son.

Only he's not all that interested in playing nice with his ex.

"1-800-SPANK-ME," Scott sarcastically quips upon accepting the piece of paper. "I know that number."

Check out the scene in question below:

While his catty response perfectly summed up Scott's relationship with his ex-wife, it proved to be troubling with parents once the movie was released on tape in 1996. The joke may have flown over their kid's heads, but they still tried to call the phone number anyway.

This is where it gets bad. The issue was that 1-800-SPANK-ME was the number for an active sex hotline, according to CBR.org.

An archived story from The Seattle Times that was originally published in 1997 details the plight of two families who racked up hundreds of dollars in bills after their kids called the hotline. Whoops...

It was unclear if the number was created before or after The Santa Clause was released. Either way, it wound up being costly for parents and traumatizing for unsuspecting children.

One of the dads involved wanted Disney to recall the already sold VHS tapes of the movie and re-release it with the scene edited out.

While that's not exactly what happened, CBR.org noted that the scene was cut from later releases. That includes its most recent release on Disney+.

Now it only exists on the oldest VHS tapes and forevermore on YouTube.

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