It's Christmas Eve and like every other boy, Tom Hobbs is counting down the minutes to presents and parties. But when his pregnant mother is taken to hospital. Tom is packed off to the only relative without holiday plans. At his Aunt Em's there are no paper chains or even a cracker to be found. Tom can't hide his disappointment. He sets off to find his own Christmas tree, and on his quest he travels back to a Christmas-card vision of a Victorian Yuletide and meets a host of fantastic characters including The King Of The Night, a trio of rather grumpy fairies, and Father Christmas himself. With a little help from his new friends Tom has a more exciting Christmas than he could have ever imagined.
In this Derek Jarman version of Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan drama, in modern costumes and settings, Plantagenet king Edward II hands the power-craving nobility the perfect excuse by taking as lover besides his diplomatic wife, the French princess Isabel, not an acceptable lady at court but the ambitious Piers Gaveston, who uses his favor in bed even to wield political influence - the stage is set for a palace revolt which sends the gay pair from the throne to a terminal torture dungeon.
