The Magic Snowflake

Beatrice Lovejoy quietly oversees the North Pole mail and keeps Tim-Tim from peeking into the Workshop. A little boy writes to Santa asking for a remote-control flying bug and posts the letter toward the far North Pole. Tim-Tim, a curious Inuk boy, pockets the mail briefly, but Beatrice holds firm to keep him from seeing the inner workings.

As Santa prepares to begin his rounds, Beatrice reminds him retirement awaits in Sydney, Australia. In a ceremonial moment, Santa hands the robe and hat to Nicholas while Beatrice and the elves cheer him on as the new Santa. Nicholas steps into the workshop, reading the boy’s letter and feeling the heavy weight of his new role.

Nicholas watches Beatrice guide Tim-Tim on a careful tour of the workshop, despite his own initial discomfort. Beatrice persists, eager to foster curiosity rather than suspicion. Santa watches from a distance, uneasy about the changes in the workshop.

On a flight over the North Pole, Santa grows more worried about Nicholas’s influence on the workshop. Beatrice steadies him, reminding that goodwill must stay front and center. The sense of unease hints at deeper changes to come.

The Victorian Santa watches from the shadows as modern toys threaten to push aside timeless play. He senses Beatrice’s unease and plans to nudge the workshop toward his bricks-based vision. The tension between old and new sets the stage for conflict.

A simple attempt at a remote-control flying bug spirals into a fiery bee that damages the workshop. Beatrice and the elves react, and Nicholas confesses his role, while Tim-Tim’s image returns to Nicholas’s thoughts. Angry, he urges Tim-Tim to leave and retreats through Rufus’s door, leaving Beatrice to face the consequences.

Beatrice rings the emergency bell to summon Waldorf and the Council of Retired Santas as the melted magic snowflake alarms everyone. They set out to confront the strange happenings at the Daffodil Orphanage, where Director Ratchet refuses Santa’s offer to help. The warmth of the North Pole briefly returns when a soft noise in the orphanage leads Santa back to the workshop.

In the workshop basement, Nicholas discovers the melted snowflake and shares his worries with Beatrice and Santa. The Council of Retired Santas arrives and Santa explains that Nicholas suffers from a form of Grown-up-itis, a blockage of full magic. They decide to have the Victorian Santa temporarily take over the workshop to buy Nicholas time to heal.

Randolf accompanies the boy on the advent calendar doors, revealing glimpses of past, present, and future. The doors show choices and responsibility, with door 24 pulling Nicholas toward a vision of becoming a stern corporate executive. The journey centers on the bear mountain as a focal point for understanding the past.

Solange Folichon, the Eskimo Village shaman, guides Nicholas toward doors that unlock his history. She explains that he must seek door 3 near the bear mountain to uncover a crucial moment. Tim-Tim’s mother, the Shaman, anchors Nicholas to a deeper truth: to heal the present, he must understand the past.

Beatrice questions the logic of a bricks-based toy factory while the Victorian Santa pushes his modern vision. He isolates Beatrice in a toy production room and presses forward, while Santa, Ratchet, and Zoe search for a way back to the workshop. The tension between bricks and timeless play threatens Christmas magic.

Rufus and Waldorf accompany Nicholas toward bear mountain as the power of the snowflake stirs the air and the spirit fairies appear. The bear reveals door 3, and Nicholas steps into a memory from age three—the moment his teddy bear first came into his world. He realizes the teddy bear was a toy given by Santa himself.

Back in the present, Santa regains perspective and sees the bond between Nicholas and his teddy. The memory helps Nicholas understand that Grown-up-itis can be cured by embracing the heart that makes Christmas possible. Nicholas hugs his younger self’s teddy and returns it, stepping forward with renewed purpose as he travels with Rufus and Waldorf to Tim-Tim’s igloo, where the Shaman congratulates him.

Nicholas invites Tim-Tim to visit Santa’s Workshop and apologizes for his earlier anger. He explains the whole adventure to Santa, but Victorian Santa locks them in again, this time with Tim-Tim inside the room. Nicholas uses a pencil as a lock pick to begin unlocking the door and paving a path to healing.

Nicholas crafts a remote-control butterfly, arming it with a pencil-as-lock-pick to open the door and free everyone. He chases the Victorian Santa with Waldorf and persuades him to rethink his approach, and remorse replaces arrogance. The butterfly’s magic revives Nicholas, and the team speeds the sleigh with butterfly-wings to finish worldwide deliveries just in time.