Eight-year-old Tess is convinced that if she believes and stays aware of the magic around her, she will meet Santa Claus on Christmas Eve of 1958, when she will thank him for his gifts and ask him to use his magic to cure her best friend's father of cancer.
Santa Claus decides that he wants to see the sring flowers and Easter time, so he orders a mail-order suit and travels incognito, but the children recognize his beard, nose and twinkle.
Presents Clement Moore's classic poem about a man who catches Santa going about his work on Christmas Eve, accompanied by illustrations by American watercolorist Holly Hobbie.