After the death of his parents, 10-year-old, Jackson Mayhew (Culkin), moves in with his Aunt. But when he befriends an elderly man (Cronyn), he begins to suspect that the old man is actually Santa Claus.
An Alaskan town is in danger of destruction by a mystical snow globe that appears on a family's doorstep, wrapped like a Christmas gift, and causes deadly "natural" disasters in the real world, while simultaneously occurring in the globe.