Have you ever wished there was a Santa Claus origin story?  No?  Regardless, Netflix decided to make one, titled A Boy Called Christmas (2021).  If you ever have the . . . um . . . chance, yeah, we will go with “chance,” to watch it, you will quickly get what is going on here.  If you are like me, a committed and practicing Catholic, some of what is presented will be confusing.  There is a nebulous connection between Father Christmas and St. Nicholas of Myra, and I am not here to untangle how this happened.  Please feel free to do your own research on the matter.  One thing I would point out is that Myra is in Turkey, and our story is set in Finland.  Also, St. Nicholas lived in the third and fourth centuries whereas this takes place . . . well, sometime after that, I guess.  I doubt what I have to say about any of this will make it any clearer, but here we go.

Never mind what I said about Finland in the previous paragraph, for the moment, on whatever century in which the events take place.  A Boy Called Christmas starts in modern London with the supposedly horrible Aunt Ruth (Maggie Smith) coming to watch the three children of Matt (Joel Fry), who is called away on urgent business on Christmas Eve.  Because their mother is recently passed away, they need a babysitter, but they think Aunt Ruth is the worst.  The fact that she sits them down to tell them the eponymous story does not improve their opinion.  Anyway, our title character is actually named, unsurprisingly, Nicholas (Henry Lawfull), though his mother (who is also dead) used to call him Christmas.  This is not random, but we will get to that in due time.  For now, he lives with his father, Joel (Michiel Huisman), in what might as well be the North Pole.  Sorry, Finland.  They are poor, and dad’s work as a woodcutter does not bring in much money.  Joel wants more for his family, though Nicholas says that he is content.  The boy’s kindness extends to a mouse Joel wants to kill when they find it in their one room cabin, but Nicholas rescues and names Miika (voiced by Stephen Merchant).  Nicholas then proceeds to attempt to teach the rodent to speak.  Do not bother looking through your rolodex of Christmas traditions for anthropomorphic mice.  You will not find this reference.  Anyway, one day the king of Finland (Jim Broadbent) calls his subjects to the castle in order to give them a mission.  Noting the difficult times in the land, he asks that they mount a quest to Elfheim, the fabled city of elves, to bring back hope.  The people are hoping for a healthcare system, better food distribution, or higher wages, but no, they will have to settle for the possibility of hope.  Back home, a neighbor of Joel and Matt’s comes to request that Joel join them in taking up the king’s mission, believing that they will be rewarded handsomely upon completion.  Joel leaves Nicholas with his Aunt Carlotta (Kristen Wiig), who really is cruel, and dad’s hat.  That head covering, by the way, is another major clue that this is a Santa origin story.  After Aunt Carlotta boils into a soup a doll made from a vegetable by Nicholas’ mother, he decides to leave.  He has a destination when he notices a map to Elfheim sewn into the cap.  Further, he believes that he will find his dad and this will make everything right.  So, this kid trudges deeper into the frozen tundra.  He receives help along the way from Miika, who finally figures out speech, and a reindeer he befriends after he removes an arrow from its rump.  Given that it is Donner who is usually mentioned first, I would have expected that to be the name he gave the antlered creature.  But no, he goes with Blitzen.  I suppose Rudolph would have been too obvious, and what to do with the nose?  I digress. Together, they make it to where Elfheim should be, but cannot find it.  Succumbing to the cold, Nicholas is saved by Father Topo (Toby Jones), an elf, who finds Nicholas near death.  Father Topo revives the human boy, and then shows Nicholas how to see Elfheim, which takes belief.  Unfortunately, things in the land of the elves are not as they should be. Christmas, a holiday unheard of by humans but celebrated by the elves, has been banned by their new leader, Mother Vodol (Sally Hawkins).  She has enacted this new law, also doing away with any related merriment, because the humans have kidnapped Kip (Rishi Kuppa).  Joel is implicated in this crime, though Nicholas refuses to believe it.  He volunteers to find his father to prove Joel’s innocence, but Mother Vodol locks Nicholas in a tower with a troll.  You know, trolls and Christmas. . . .  Anyway, luckily also trapped in this cell is another common Yule Tide creature (ahem), a mischievous Truth Pixie (Zoe Colletti), who saves him from the troll and helps him escape.  I promise, I am not making this stuff up. Once more on Blitzen’s back, Nicholas tracks down the men Joel is traveling with, and finds Kip locked in a cage. Nicholas confronts Joel on the matter, who is shamed into helping his son get away with Kip.  The fact that Nicholas figures out how to make Blitzen fly helps, too, as does Joel sacrificing himself so that his son can return to Elfheim.  Once more in the elf town, Nicholas surprises its residence by showing them Kip alive and well.  Nicholas then proposes to have the elves make a bunch of toys, thinking that it will satisfy the king’s request.  Yet again, Mother Vodol seeks to spoil the cheer until she notices Nicholas’ locket of his mother.  Mom had apparently visited Elfsheim as a child and befriended Mother Vodol, and this reminder restores her good opinion of humans.  Thus freed, Nicholas goes to the king, and together they deliver the presents to the children of Finland.  Matt’s kids are satisfied by the tale, and he gets home soon thereafter, allowing Aunt Ruth to walk off into the night.

At the end of A Boy Called Christmas, it is suggested that Aunt Ruth is the Truth Pixie.  This only added to my confusion.  Does that mean the kids are part pixies, or that Aunt Ruth is hundreds of years old?  I have already mentioned another puzzling aspect with not understanding how this could relate to St. Nicholas.  Again, I am not going to go to go down that research and theological rabbit hole.  Instead, I will talk about more approachable matters.  Like many Christmas movies, this one says some great things that make sense in a Catholic context.  My favorite here is when Father Topo tells Nicholas that in order to see Elfheim, the boy must believe.  Put differently, seeing is believing.  Still, the Bible does say in John 20:29, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”  Jesus says this in response to the Apostle Thomas, who, after the resurrection, refused to trust that the Lord had resurrected.  Jesus had done as He said He would, but the disciple needed to physically touch the Savior.  Yet, there are other parts of the Bible that speak to a sort of “sight-beyond-sight,” for lack of a better phrase, that fits better with what the movie says.  Later Christian thinkers have put it perhaps a little more distinctly, such as St. Ignatius of Loyola, who said, “For those who believe, no proof is necessary.  For those who disbelieve, no amount of proof is sufficient.”  The movie, like others of its ilk, ties this theory to the existence of Santa Claus.  Yet, Jesus and St. Ignatius’ words echo through the centuries.  We celebrate Christmas because it signifies the dawn of Hope, which is a big theme in the film, but for the whole world, for all time, not just Finland whenever this takes place.  Once more, my apologies to my Finnish brethren.  All of humanity could not literally be manger-side for this event, then or now, but our reverence gives us a vision of that momentous occasion.  That can be just as powerful.

There is nothing morally wrong with A Boy Called Christmas.  It is rated PG, after all.  It is, once more, like many other Christmas movies, completely shorn of its Christian roots.  Outside of this, I suppose that it could all be based on a Finnish legend of which I am unaware.  I know it was originally a book, so maybe that took from that country’s lore.  In any case, I am not willing to Google it.  In the meantime, this can be enjoyed, if you are in the mood for a strange tale.