On his way to a luxury resort for the Christmas holiday, banker Charles Benson's car breaks down, so his family gets stuck in Nowhere, Colorado, a sleepy town which seems to be dying since its mine closed. Son Nolan befriends the grumpy old former toy shopkeeper, and pushes the charmed grump to become the naturally perfect Santa in the Christmas pageant his mother helped organize despite the disheartened mayor. Charles gets stuck in the mine with the mechanic, whom he befriends, and ends up as the real Christmas benefactor.