A kid who hates Christmas gets pulled into Santa's factory and has to answer the question nobody asks: what's Santa actually for? The movie trusts you to sit with that premise without explaining it to death. What could have been saccharine instead becomes quietly devastating, watching Noel realize that Christmas was never about her father's presence, it was about what she chose to do with his absence. The film's brief enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome, but long enough to break your heart in the specific way only Christmas stories can.

Eleven-year-old Noel dreads Christmas. Since her parents divorced three years ago she has lived with her father, who is tied up at work every Christmas, and she cannot spend the day playing with her school friends. On a lonely Christmas Eve, her usual elevator ride home opens onto a vast factory that belongs to Santa Claus. Santa has turned his operation into a corporation, Santa Company, whose motto stresses speed, reliability and secrecy as it takes orders and quietly delivers first-rate gifts to children. Noel makes new friends there and sets off with them by sled to deliver presents in this fantasy film.