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At the movie's start, Griffin (Joe Mantegna) is training to be a Santa Claus. He starts talking to another prospective Santa, and through flashbacks we see how his marriage started falling apart. His wife Ellen (Jean Smart) is seeing someone else. Because neither one wants to give up their daughter Zoe (Jordy Benattar), Griffin and Ellen try to continue living together. One day Frank sees an attractive woman signing people up to be Santas. Donna (Kari Matchett), who has a son Gabe and has split up with her husband, sells cosmetics but takes children's pictures with Santa at Christmas. Frank keeps busy at his job designing databases, but he tries this job to make himself feel better.Once the movie returns to the present, Griffin's experiences as Santa turn out to be ... interesting. Some kids are holy terrors. But there are touching scenes of nice kids getting their picture taken by Donna. Griffin's first meeting with Gabe doesn't turn out very well. Gabe doesn't believe in Santa and makes his opinions about Griffin very clear.Griffin attempts to keep his family together, and also tries to help Donna, but of course he gets a little too close to Donna, even though he claims they are not dating. This is somewhat risqué to be called a family movie. Two lesbians (one pretty, one goth) sit on Griffin's lap and announce they are getting married. Griffin says some very un-Santa like things while wearing the costume. One Santa is a lesbian. Griffin has fantasies and nightmares, some of which get quite naughty. In his nightmare about Ellen's relationship, there are even subtitles.Charles Durning, playing Ozzie, the teacher of the Santa class, makes a wonderful Santa himself, and you could almost believe he is the real thing. Kari Matchett is quite charming as Donna, and Zoe is adorable if rebellious.The other major actors were good too.Overall, I enjoyed it.
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