Cubelles, Tarragona, Spain, Christmas 1985. Five friends make an unexpected discovery in the forest: a woman disguised as Santa Claus trapped in a deep hole dug in the middle of nowhere.

It's Christmas Eve and Judy Emerson is told there's no such thing as Santa. Determined to prove her family wrong, she sets an elaborate trap and successfully captures Santa Claus himself. But her parents think the jolly old elf is a burglar and have Santa arrested.

A wedding planner looks to persuade her mother not to marry a man she's only known for a brief period of time, until an unexpected development forces her to re-examine her feelings.

Romance ensues when a small town vintage store owner leaves instructions in her will for inventory to be distributed as Christmas gifts, her out-of-town niece seeks help from a handsome local in identifying recipients from the clues provided.

Contemporary screenwriter Lucy Hardgrove is hired to pen the remake of the holiday classic His Merry Wife!, which was shot at the renowned Biltmore Estate. Taking a tour of the grounds, she accidentally knocks over an hourglass, transporting her back in time to 1946, right when His Merry Wife! is being filmed.

It's Christmas Eve and Nan receives some unexpected visitors, in the form of Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. In this comic retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Nan is shown the error of her ways, but is it too late for her to swap her Scrooge-like misery for some seasonal goodwill?

Perfume saleslady Melody Parris feels like her life is in neutral. Her stick-in-the mud boyfriend won't commit and she gets passed over for a promotion at the store where she works. She decides to make a Christmas list. After it's deposited in Santa's mailbox at the store, she starts getting everything she wanted, but it doesn't always turn out as she expected.

Tom Lane is the star columnist for the media conglomerate owned San Francisco Sun newspaper. The company is thinking about increasing Tom's exposure by producing a new television show around him. Liz Madison is the advice columnist for the little read community newspaper, the Marin County Voice, which is a throwback to gentler times. Besides their journalistic occupations, one other similar aspect between Tom and Liz is that they are both currently single, with their friends and family doing whatever they can to find that special someone for their personal life. On November 2, the staff at the Voice learn that the Sun ownership has bought their newspaper, with the probable goal of folding it into the operations of the Sun. If this move does happen, the staff at the Voice will lose their jobs. To fight back, Liz decides to change her column to an editorial espousing the meaning of Christmas and the newspaper to the community...

Newspaper reporter Rebecca Chandler, who feels she got no fair chance to prove her worth in her thee years career, looks forward to a Hawaian holiday with her fiancé Ryan, but instead of a ring he brings her- walking orders, he found better. So she accepts again to be the bachelor on duty in the Christmas season, and write the annual romantic non-news feel good-story, once more about the elusive Secret Santa in small-town Hamden, where the Christmas spirit it said to last all year. Bad luck follows her from Indianapolis: her car breaks down, she can only get lodgings in a home for the elderly without Internet, and nobody wants to help her unmask the secret Santa. Soon she guesses it must be the only rich philanthropist, but the popular Mr. John Martin Carter doesn't grant her an interview and isn't tricked either, in fact meets her at the worst repeatedly without her knowing him...

Trish and her six-year-old niece, Patsy, make their living by picking pockets. But when they try to take advantage of holiday shoppers with fat wallets, they run into a little snag - a department store security guard named Bert catches them in the act. The store owner wants them arrested, but decides to wait until Christmas is over. To ensure they don't make a run for it, he entrusts their care to Bert. With jail on the horizon, Trish and Patsy are scared for their future. But as the holiday nears its end, it looks as though a budding romance might just save them after all.

A smug executive enjoys the perfect life - until he loses his job, and finds himself working at a burger joint. Now he's falling behind on his bills, and if something doesn't change soon, his family could lose everything by Christmas.

Among the 'Oogappels' families, things get pretty stressful this Christmas and it is a feast of recognition. Erik and Chris actually want to skip the holidays for a year. Fabie faces a major disappointment and Carola and Marcel are rocked by a shocking event during Christmas dinner. Tim and Dina's mood also leaves something to be desired, after a Christmas party at Tim's work gets out of hand. The grandparents know exactly what is going on and, as always, make razor-sharp comments: the more we do our best to push away anything complicated or negative, the greater the chances of violent explosions.