Jack Clayton can only escape after his partner in crime Harry Zordich messes up a Christmas sales department store robbery in a Santa suit. Stuck in a rural small town, he finds himself forced to accept a menial job under the alias Oscar Burton as Santa in Sarah Gibson's nursery. Jack relaxes when invited in their home and proves a good substitute father for Sarah's frustrated fatherless daughter Noelle. Widow Emily Sutton's nostalgic Christmas shop completes his nostalgia, and becomes crucial when his ex-con cahoot turns up to plan a bank robbery. Sarah's admirer keeps warning the sheriff against 'Oscar', who meanwhile teaches the town how to fight off competition from the city mall.
Based on the true story of Marion Shergold and her son, Craig, an eight-year-old English boy who had a brain tumor. Several events convinced Marion that God was leading her to a cure for Craig and that the get-well cards he was receiving had the power to keep him alive, so she launched a worldwide campaign to break the Guinness record for receiving the most get-well cards. At the time, the world record seemed an impossible 1,000,265, but Craig received over 350 million cards from all over the world. Against the advice of her doctors, Marion followed one of those cards to America for Craig's miraculous cure.