Logline

When a little girl's family is torn apart by tragedy, a mysterious stranger teaches them to cherish what they have before they lose it all. 

7-year-old Olivia struggles to cope after watching her little brother Cole drown right before Christmas. Emma, her mom, takes Cole's death very hard and acts indifferent toward her daughter, making Olivia think her mom blames her for the tragedy. Steve understands how his wife feels, but Olivia needs them to be there for her.

As Christmas rolls around, Olivia wants things to be normal again but Emma doesn’t feel she can move on without her only son. As a good father, Steve tries to give Olivia what she needs from both parents and fails. Emma is a dark cloud hanging over the household that prevents them from healing.

One day while walking in the woods behind her house, Olivia comes across a mysterious stranger with a resemblance to Santa. She chats with the friendly stranger named Nick and discovers that he is homeless with a little shack in the woods. Olivia takes a strong liking to the kind man and invites him to come home with her.

That doesn’t go over well with her parents. They know nothing about Nick but in the spirit of Christmas, Olivia convinces them to let him stay. Nick even offers to do chores around the house. 

While Steve wants to dislike the jolly man, he finds that difficult. Nick volunteers at the local soup kitchen and at a children’s home, bringing joy to the kids who are forced to live there. A young Brianna was recently orphaned, her parents being friends with the Krandalls. Forced to live in the home, she is very unhappy and wants to move in with Olivia, but Emma just can’t bear it. 

Emma does her best to tolerate Nick but she seethes with jealousy over his relationship with her daughter and makes him leave. When Olivia finds out, she runs out into the cold and snow to find him. While searching for Olivia, Emma runs into Nick and starts to realize he’s not the bad guy after all. They find Olivia on the ice where her brother died and it cracks under her weight. Emma makes a daring rescue attempt and saves her daughter.

On Christmas morning, Steve goes to the children’s home and brings Brianna back with him to spend Christmas with familiar faces. A few gifts are a mystery to the family. Having grieved over losing family pictures and videos of their family in a house fire, she receives a box with those things in tact, making her suspicious over Nick’s true identity. As she watches Brianna fitting into their home, she realizes allowing her to stay doesn’t mean she is replacing her lost son. It just means their family will be complete again.