On December 15, 1968, at Montreal Forum, a much-remarked incident occurred when spectators threw snowballs at a man dressed as Santa Claus during the intermission of a Montreal Canadiens game. The game that night, against the Boston Bruins, ended in a Canadiens defeat, and the crowd’s mood was sour. Accounts from contemporary newspapers and later histories of the Forum describe fans pelting the Santa figure with snow and occasionally other small objects as he attempted to distribute gifts or make a public appearance during the break. The episode has entered local hockey lore as an example of the intense and sometimes unruly atmosphere at NHL games in Montreal during the 1960s. The Forum was renowned for passionate, exacting supporters whose high expectations could quickly turn to vocal displeasure after poor team performances. Throwing objects on the ice or at intermission performers was not unique to that night—stadium crowd behavior in mid-20th-century professional sports was generally more permissive by today’s standards—but the image of snowballs hitting Santa captured public attention because it juxtaposed holiday cheer with fan hostility. Sources from the period (English- and French-language press coverage) give broadly consistent outlines of the incident but vary in detail: some describe dozens of snowballs, others emphasize boos and verbal jeering in addition to projectiles. Later retellings in books and articles about the Canadiens and the Forum sometimes amplify elements of the story, which has contributed to its reputation as an emblematic moment rather than a single, precisely documented act of malice. There is no reliable evidence that the man dressed as Santa was seriously harmed; the episode is remembered primarily for its symbolic contrast and for the questions it raised about crowd control and stadium decorum. Context helps explain how the episode unfolded. The late 1960s were a period of intense local identification with the Canadiens; expectations ran high and patience ran short. Snow brought into the arena by fans or tracked in on boots provided convenient ammunition; security and arena management practices of the time would not have matched modern protocols. The incident occurred during an era when sports journalism often treated such crowd episodes as colorful anecdotes rather than subjects for sustained investigation, which accounts for some of the variation in reporting. Historians and sportswriters who reference the 1968 snowball episode generally place it among other Forum stories that illustrate both the fervor of Montreal hockey fans and changing norms about spectator behavior. Over time the anecdote has been cited in discussions about fan entitlement, the mythos of the Canadiens, and evolving standards for arena safety and entertainment. While the moment is often recounted with a wry tone, historians caution against reading it as uniquely representative of Montreal fans’ character; it is better understood as one notable instance within a broader culture of passionate sports spectatorship. Available records do not support dramatic embellishments: the event was not a riot, nor is there credible documentation of serious injury. Instead, it remains a vivid, if somewhat brusque, cultural snapshot—an example of how a civic ritual (a hockey game during the holiday season) could produce a minor but memorable collision between festive imagery and the raw emotions of competitive sport.