- After a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy's, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.
- At the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the actor playing Santa Claus is discovered to be drunk by a whiskered old man. Doris Walker, the no nonsense special events director, persuades him to take his place. He proves to be a sensation and is quickly recruited to play Santa at the main store. While he is successful, Doris learns that he calls himself Kris Kringle and he claims to be the actual Santa Claus. Despite reassurances by his doctor that he is harmless, Doris still has misgivings, especially when she has cynically trained herself, and especially her six-year-old daughter, Susan, to reject all notions of belief and fantasy. And yet, people, especially Susan, begin to notice there is something special about Kris and his determination to advance the true spirit of Christmas among the rampant commercialism around him and succeeding in improbable ways. When a raucous conflict with the store's cruelly incompetent therapist, Granville Sawyer, erupts, he finds himself held at Bellevue where, in despair, he deliberately fails a mental examination to ensure his commitment. All seems lost until Doris' neighbor, Fred Gailey, reassures him of his worth and agrees to represent him in the fight to secure his release. To achieve that, Fred arranges a formal hearing in which he argues that Kris is sane because he is in fact Santa Claus. What ensues is a bizarre hearing in which people's beliefs are reexamined and put to the test, but even so, it's going to take a miracle for Kris to win.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
- One of Doris Walker's responsibilities at Macy's is to organize the famed annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which marks the official start of the Christmas season. She is a realist, that attitude toward life due to her own failed marriage not being the fairy tale she envisioned it would be. She has taught her impressionable six-year-old daughter, Susan, the same thing. Susan does not believe in make believe or the "fantasies" associated with Christmas, such as Santa Claus. At the last minute, Doris is forced to hire a replacement Santa for the parade, not knowing anything about him besides him looking the part. He is such a success that she hires him to play Santa in the main store for the remainder of the Christmas season. It isn't until he becomes an invaluable addition to there, including coming to the positive attention of Rowland H. Macy himself, that Doris learns that he calls himself Kris Kringle and truly does believe he is the real Santa Claus. At this point, Susan, witnessing things she can't explain rationally, begins to wonder if he is who he says he is. To protect herself and the store, Doris, without telling Kris what she is truly doing, makes him go through a psychological evaluation through the store's therapist, Granville Sawyer, who wrongly believes he's God's gift to his profession. Because of their antagonism toward each other, Granville tries to have him committed, which leads to court proceedings as to his sanity. Doris' neighbor, Fred Gailey, who is attracted to her, takes his case, in part to be close to her, but also to help him who he believes is just a kindly and harmless old man. Fred's defense is to prove that Kris is Santa Claus. In the process, he wants more than anything to make both Doris and Susan believe in faith, for Doris again and for Susan the first time in her life.—Huggo
- An old man going by the name of Kris Kringle fills in for an intoxicated Santa Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He proves to be such a hit that he is soon appearing regularly at the main store. When he surprises customers and employees alike by claiming that he really is Santa Claus, it leads to a court case to determine his mental health and, more importantly, his authenticity.—Jwelch5742
- Doris Walker, a no-nonsense Macy's executive, desperately searches for a new store Santa Claus. She hires Kris Kringle who insists that he's the real thing. But he has many skeptics like her and her six-year-old daughter, Susan. So he goes to court to try and prove it. Is he the real Santa Claus?—Kelly
- When her Santa Claus (Percy Helton) shows up drunk, Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), an organizer at Macy's department store in New York City, asks an elderly gentleman with a long white beard (Edmund Gwenn) to replace him in the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. After making an impression, the elderly man takes a job playing Santa in Mr. Shellhammer's (Philip Tonge) toy department. While at his job, the elderly man sends parents to other department stores, even nearby Gimbel's if Macy's doesn't have the best bargain on particular toys. One of the pleased Macy's customers (Thelma Ritter) and other housewives and mothers that are bringing their children to the store to see 'Santa' compliment the store for "putting Christmas spirit over commercialism." At first uneasy, Mr. R.H. Macy (Harry Antrim) loves the new policy because it improves the store's image and consequently, increases profits. Mr. Gimbel initiates the same policy in his store.
Meanwhile, Doris is revealed to be a divorcee who is raising her 7-year-old daughter Susan (Natalie Wood). They are both befriended by their neighbor, a promising young lawyer named Fred Gailey (John Payne). However, he is disturbed by Doris's cynicism and she has taught Susan to believe only in reality and common sense. Susan doesn't believe in any fairy tales, fantasies, or even Santa Claus. Fred takes Susan to meet the new Macy's Santa. Susan is impressed by his real whiskers, his friendliness, high intelligence, and his ability to speak in other languages, most notably to a young Dutch girl whom he talks with and sings Christmas songs in the little girl's language. Afterwords, Doris tells Fred to tell her confused daughter that the man is not really Santa, but he insists that he is Kris Kringle, the name that the old man tells Fred when they first meet. Doris begins to worry that the elderly man, Kris Kringle, is slightly insane. After tracking down where the old man lives, Doris meets with Dr. Pierce (James Seay) who runs the Long Island old-age retirement home where Kris lives and he assures Doris that Kris is harmless.
Kris and Susan become pals. He gets her to use her imagination. Hoping Kris will have the same influence on Doris, Fred invites him to share his apartment as his roommate. Kris agrees to move in with Fred temporarily because he considers Doris and Susan a 'test case'. If he can't convince them to believe in him, the Christmas has lost its meaning. Susan confides in Kris that all she wants for Christmas is a house like the one she has a picture of so she and her mother can move out of their apartment in Manhattan for a suburban neighborhood. Susan tells Kris that if he can get it for her on Christmas, she'll believe he is really Santa. At the same time, Kris pushes Fred to court Doris in which they start dating and slowly fall in love.
When the neurotic Mr. Sawyer (Porter Hall), Macy's conniving and scheming psychologist, depresses Albert (Alvin Greenman), a kindly young Macy's worker by attempting some amateur psychiatry, Kris confronts Mr. Sawyer in his office over him harassing Albert for no reason and when Sawyer gets more confrontational, Kris bops him on the head with his walking cane. This is witnessed by a few employees. Sawyer pretends to be badly hurt and insists and Kris be taken away to Bellevue Hospital to the psycho ward. When Kris is whisked away by the floor manager and taken away to Bellevue, Sawyer lies to him that Doris has agreed to send him to the asylum. Kris becomes so depressed that he intentionally fails his written sanity test and is committed. When Fred visits him there after learning the truth, Kris feels badly, but he cannot get released.
Fred defends Kris in a highly publicized trial. Worried about his career, Judge Henry X. Harper (Gene Lockhart) decides not to rule that there is no Santa Claus. Still, Judge Harper goes along with the D.A. Thomas Mara (Jerome Cowan) that Fred must provide "authoritive" proof that Kris really is Santa. All seems lost.
Susan writes Kris a letter, using the courthouse address, saying she is sorry about him going through this ordeal and that she really believes now that he is Santa Claus. Doris adds to the letter that she believes him too. Kris receives the letter and is cheered. A postal worker (Jack Albertson) who delivers the letter, and is aware about the trial, decides that the dead-letter office can get rid of thousands of letters addressed to Santa by sending them to the courthouse and to Kris in open court. These letters delivered by various mailmen in court which Judge Harper agrees that this is the needed proof, from an authoritative agency of the U.S. government, that Kris is Santa Claus, and dismisses the case allowing Kris to walk free. Afterwords, Doris, Susan and Fred congratulate Kris but he tells them that it's Christmas Eve and that he will be busy all night.
At a Christmas party the next day at the retirement home on Long Island, Susan doesn't get the present that she wanted. She mouths off to Kris and tells him that she does not believe he is Santa. Doris, who now thinks she likes Fred, tells Susan to have faith even though it goes against common sense. Fred, Doris and the sad Susan, who repeats "I believe, Ibelieve," drive home to Manhattan. During the drive, Susan suddenly jumps out of the car while it's at a stop sign when she sees the house from the picture and runs inside. It's for sale. The confused Fred and Doris agree to buy it for Susan's sake. They will get married for a spring wedding the following year. In the final shot, they both notice Kris's cane by the fireplace.
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