Angela and Wayne Fox ( Jennifer Beals and Rick Roberts) could not be more self-absorbed, workaholic parents. Their young children Hannah and Toby long for intimacy and family life the way it used to be. How improbably perfect that one night – without warning – Santa Claus crash lands into their home. Santa has a bad case of amnesia, so with the fate of Christmas resting in their hands, the Foxes will have to put other lives ahead of their own for a change in order to restore Santa and Christmas, just in the “Nick” of time!
Single mother Ryan (Tricia Helfer) has just about given up on dating after her divorce, happily accepting her young son as the most important man in her life. That all changes when Ryan's brother Owen (JT Hodges), also feeling unlucky in love after a bad breakup, swaps his home in their small North Carolina town with New York City adman Sean (Mark Lutz). Ryan feels an instant spark with her new neighbor, but Sean, who signed up for the temporary home swap after a proposal gone wrong, is out of his comfort zone in his new rural surroundings.
Jennifer Cullen (Brooke Burns) is a single, working mom who has become somewhat of a Scrooge when it comes to the Holiday season. Even her six-year-old son Brian is having trouble believing in Santa Claus. When Jen’s Uncle Ralph (Henry Winkler), a retired police officer, comes to visit for Christmas, he brings along a new friend, a nomad and Jack-of-all-trades named Morgan Derby (Warren Christie). The two met on a flight, and Morgan’s plans to continue on to Denver are cancelled when he finds out the city is completely snowed in. Jen is wary of the stranger, but at Ralph’s request, agrees to let him stay the night. She warms up to Morgan, especially when she sees how he interacts with Brian. Uncle Ralph approves of Morgan, too, but Jen’s boyfriend Richard isn’t nearly as receptive. Meanwhile, Morgan has started to really like Jen, but if she can’t manage to make Christmas about anything more than business, Morgan will be on his way to Denver, and she’ll have missed the opportunity that was right in front of her. Uncle Ralph has done what he can to keep Morgan around, but it’s going to take something more than that to get him penciled into Jen’s long-term plans. Jen just needs to learn “how to do Christmas,” and it turns out Morgan is the perfect one to teach her.
In celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the USA, four¬time Emmy® nominee and two¬time Golden Globe® nominated actress Patricia Richardson (“Home Improvement”) stars with Jessalyn Gilsig (“Glee”) and Bailee Madison (“Just Go With It”) in the Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere, “Smart Cookies.”
