LOGLINE:
When female psychic Alex Sinclair (Jennifer Finnigan) pays Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) a surprise Christmas visit, the two work together to solve the mystery of one very lost and confused Santa.

SYNOPSIS:
Minutes after Johnny and Bruce (John L. Adams) arrive at the Smith home bearing an enormous Christmas tree, Johnny’s female psychic friend Alex Sinclair pays an unexpected visit. When she confesses she has no plans for the holiday, Bruce and Johnny invite her to join their extended family dinner.

As Johnny and Alex embrace, they morph into a shared vision of an angry Santa pointing a gun at Johnny and firing. Snapping back to reality, the two are disturbed and confused by what they’ve seen.

After setting up the tree, Johnny and Alex head to the toy store to get a popular video game for JJ (Spencer Achtymichuk). When they arrive, however, they encounter a crowd of last-minute shoppers and are informed by a store employee that the game is sold out.

As a disgruntled customer brushes past Alex, she sees the crowd turn into an angry mob. But Johnny’s point of view reveals the disappointed crowd leaving quietly. Not yet ready to give up hope, Alex initiates contact with a soccer mom through a dollar bill and learns of another store that may have the game.

Racing over, they find an old man (Tim Henry) in a maroon tracksuit and beat-up Santa hat, standing outside the store holding a pillowcase like a toy bag. As Johnny waits for the last game in stock, Alex suddenly hears a plea for help from the “Santa” on the sidewalk. Three young boys surround the old man and grab his bag. Leaving the coveted game behind, Johnny chases the boys to a rundown pawnshop.

Meanwhile, Alex helps the man to Johnny’s car and is taken aback by his gruff manner. Surprisingly, he’s at a loss when she asks for his name. Johnny returns, having lost the boys in the chase. When Alex hands him a set of keys that fell out of the old man’s bag, Johnny is thrown into a vision of the man in a pin-stripe suit being chased by cops.

Later at the Smith home, Sarah (Nicole deBoer), Walt (Chris Bruno) and JJ are trimming the tree as Johnny and Bruce arrive home with “Santa” in tow. Santa devours the food Sarah brings him and amazes everyone by correctly guessing what JJ wants for Christmas.

Meanwhile, Walt, Alex and Johnny try to find out who the mysterious man really is. Hoping something will trigger a memory, Johnny, Alex and Santa head back to the pawnshop. The clerk lies when they ask him about the kids and Santa recognizes a pooka shell necklace in the display case as his own. The two hold the necklace, which triggers a vision of a younger Santa (Stephen Spender) from the ‘70s wearing it. In the vision, a man enters the room and the two have a confrontation about a woman Santa was paid to find.

Back in the present, Alex buys the necklace for Santa and they leave the store. Curious about the man, both psychics grab him by the shoulders, hoping for a vision, but nothing happens. They drive around the neighborhood and spot one of the young thieves on a tire swing. Alex tries to approach the boy (Zak Ludwig) to talk, but the boy takes off running.

When Johnny and Alex trap him, Santa spies his watch on the boy’s wrist. As the two hand the watch back to Santa, they share a vision of him posing as a blind man outside a bank. An armored car pulls up and Santa proceeds to pull out a gun, rob the guard and escape in a shower of bullets.

Johnny and Alex bring the boy, Michael O’Leary, back to the Smith house. Johnny asks Walt to watch him and Santa while he and Alex try to find the other two boys, Michael’s brothers. They follow a lead to a rundown tract home where Alex is hit with a vision of a woman in black, sobbing. The woman suddenly grabs Alex’s hand and begs her to watch over her boys.

Back in the present, Johnny kicks in the door to find a nearly empty house. On a coffee table, they discover a box of bullets, which triggers a vision of the two older boys in the alley next to the pawnshop. Wearing ski masks, they approach a drug dealer to sell him a gun. To demonstrate that the gun works, the oldest boy tries to shoot at a parked car, but the weapon explodes in his hand.

Snapping out of the vision, the two psychics realize there’s still time to prevent this tragedy. As they near the pawnshop, they see the events from their vision beginning to unfold.

But before the boys can make contact with the dealer, the police, including Deputy Roscoe (Bill Mondy), surround him. The boys ditch the gun in a trash can and as they back away down the alley, they bump into Johnny and Alex. The boys claim to have found the gun in the bag they stole from Santa. As Johnny hands Roscoe the weapon, the boys try to escape. Johnny succeeds in grabbing Mitchell (James Willson), the middle brother, but the oldest, Matthew (Sam Laird), gets away.

Back at the Smith home, Mitchell, Michael and JJ play video games while Alex watches Santa channel-surf incessantly. In the kitchen, Johnny finds Walt, who tells him that the boys’ mother died four months earlier, and there is no sign of the father.

Johnny goes back to the tract house and corners Matthew when he returns. Matthew tells him that their mother had taken him and his brothers away from their father and that after she died, they decided to search for him since social services was going to split them up. Matthew shows Johnny a photo of their father, which clearly triggers a vision but Johnny makes no mention of what he’s seen.

Back at Johnny’s home, Alex has a revelation when she sees that Santa, who is watching a movie on television, is speaking the lines of the leading man word for word. When Johnny returns to the house with Matthew, Alex pulls him aside to reveal that their mysterious “Santa” is actually the actor Nigel Hughes, the leading man in the movie Santa was watching.

Nigel starts to remember that he was on his way to a retirement home where he was going to play Santa and give out old movie memorabilia. He recalls that he must have fallen and hit his head because the next thing he remembers is fighting with the young boys. A fedora hat from Santa’s pillowcase, which was returned by Matthew, sparks a vision in Alex and Johnny of Nigel filming a scene in a gangster movie, confirming that he is, in fact, an actor. The old man apologizes sheepishly for having caused so much trouble.

As the group sits around a perfectly decorated tree, “Santa” makes an appearance and hands out gifts to JJ and the boys. Surprisingly, Alex’s gift for JJ is the coveted video game he wanted. Johnny tries to get her to reveal how she got hold of this prize, but to no avail. She, in turn, is overwhelmed when Johnny gives her exactly what she wanted, a new watch. Finally, the group sits down to a feast, which has been painstakingly prepared by an exhausted but proud Bruce.

Just then, the doorbell rings, and Reverend Purdy (David Ogden Stiers) comes into the dining room, accompanied by the O’Leary boys’ father. The boys rush to embrace their long lost dad and the group gathers to celebrate the best -– albeit strangest –- Christmas anyone can remember.

Sitting down at the table, Johnny says grace and thanks everyone for being a part of his life. Suddenly, JJ notices that it has started to snow and everyone races outside to enjoy it. Inside, Bruce enters the dining room to present the main course with a flourish, only to find no one there.