Honest widower Joel works his tail off in their Finnish forest home to provide for doting son Nikolas, who even gets to keep mouse Miika as pet. When the king assembles the able men calling for adventurers to bring some hope back to the gloomy realm from the High North, Joel partakes and calls his wicked sister Carlotta to mind Nikolas, but the parasite exploits and practically chases boy and mouse. Nikolas sets out to find father, delighted to learn Miika can talk and help him befriend a moose, on whose back, having freed him from an arrow, they reach the mysterious northern paradise he believes depicted and sketched a route to on heirlooms from his late mother. Nothing is to be found where it leads, until a local teaches him you must believe hard enough to enter the magical village of Christmas fans. However it's in the grim grip of a wicked sorceress who bans all fun, drawing on paranoia since a local couple's kid son Kip was abducted by men. Nikolas escapes from the dungeon and discovers it's the doing of his father's rough adventurous band's doing. They free and return the boy, but Joel has to sacrifice himself to enable the magical sled to take flight. Nikolas invents the Christmas presents and gets the king's blessing.—KGF Vissers