Christmas Story

[Hellcat]

No, this isn't a review of that movie A Christmas Story. Rather this is a review of Christmas Story, the English dub of the Finnish movie Joulutarina.

Christmas Story tells what is a familar story at this time of year. How Santa Claus became Santa Claus. There's many versions of the story, of course, though the most common theme lately has been the mantle of Santa Slaus being passed down from father to son or from one individual to the next. It's happened in The Santa Clause, Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus, Mr. St. Nick, Call me Claus, and various others. But there's an older theme where the story of Santa begins with an orphaned child. We can see this in the Rankin and Bass special Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the film adaptations of L. Frank Baum's The Life and adventures of Santa Claus. In both versions of the theme we see an infant whose been abandonned grow up to become the red suited gift giver.

But Christmas Story departs from these stories within the orphan theme by introducing us to a young seven year old Nikolas, his father and mother, and his little sister Aada. The movie begins with his parents and Ada setting out to a neighbor's as Nikolas stays behind to finish carving a present for Aada. But his family fails to return home and the following day a couple men from the village arrive at Nikolas' house to inform him that their foot prints in the snow were followed out onto the ice until they vanished in an open hole in the ice. Appearently they were unable to tell where they were going and all three fell through the ice, leaving Nikolas an orphan.

The entire village holds a meeting to decide what to do with Nikolas, deciding that each family will let him into their home for one year. For six years this works well, with Nikolas each Christmas carving toys for the children of all the families who have cared for him over the years as well as for little Aada whom he misses. But come the sixth year the village suffers from an early frost and a lack of fish in the lake, forcing a new meeting to be held to decide what to do with Nikolas. To everyone's surprise, Iisakki (sounds like it's pronounced Issac in the English Dub), a man who clearly hates childern and is not even a part of the village, offers to take Nikolas in. Iisakki is a carpenter and on his way into the village that day happened to see one of the toys Nikolas had carved, he offers to take the boy in to become his apprentice.

At first it seems Nikolas' life has taken a turn for the worse as Iisakki seems as much a bully to him as he is his new master. He renames Nikolas brat, being as he views all children as brats, and destroys his father's carving knife. But we learn he isn't as cold hearted as he seems. When he learns that the carving knife had belonged to Nikolas he appears to show signs of remorse and then when he learns Nikolas is carving toys for the children of the village at night he allows him to continue doing so rather than forcing him to stop. He even helps him deliver the toys, eventually explaining his reasons for hating children coming from the death of his wife and his two sons running away after her death. Seeing children reminds him too much of how his life used to be, which seems to hurt him enough that he treats children poorly to get them to keep away from him so he can't be hurt like that again. But in helping Nikolas deliver the toys his feelings towards the boy changes and he comes to raise him as if he were his own son, with Nikolas coming to view him as a second father.

The years go by and the village grows up. Nikolas and Iisakki are helped in their task by Emil, the son of the first family Nikolas stayed with when he was first orphaned amd his best friend. Emil provides Nikolas with a list of names of all the children in the village and where they live. When Nikolas comes into the village to get the list one day Emil has a surprise for him. He and his wife have just had a daughter three months back they have named Aada, apparently in honor of Nikolas' sister. Nikolas is quite pleased by this discovery and returns home only to face the opposite end of the spectrum. Iisakki sons have returned and have decided how they treated their father was wrong and that he should come and live with them. Nikolas must now face the loss of the man who has come to be like a father to him. But as his parting gifts to Nikolas, Iisakki leaves him his home and workshop, and the means to begin his ultimate dream. Other the years Iisakki had saved all the money he'd made selling furniture and anything else he made as a carpenter.

Nikolas plans to use the money as a means of making children happy, not by buying wood from which to carve toys from. No, he's got plenty of trees to do so with. Instead, he will use the money to support himself as he does nothing but carve toys for all the villages and towns around him. When he tells Emil of his plan, Emil reminds him that his horse is much to old to possibly carry out such a task leading to Nikolas purchasing a team of reindeer to pull his sleigh and a red suit with which to get the deer to obey him. And so he begins delivering toys to the children in all the towns and villages, refusing to acknowledge his accomplishments publicly as he wants things to be a secret.

This secrecy nearly costs a young life, however, when Aada, certain he is indeed the one bringing the toys, sets out to disprove the stories being told among the village children. Emil arrives on Nikolas' route to inform him what had happened and Nikolas borrows some clothes, sending the deer and his red suit home, so as to join the search for Aada and keep his secret. But the search proves fruitless as a blizzard makes it impossible to find the girl and all believe she has perished. Disheartened he returns home to find her sleeping in his bed. She explains how she found the sleigh with his suit in it and the deer brought her safely back to his house. Feeling he at least owes Aada the truth, Nikolas admits his secret to her and shows her the workshop. He then returns her to the village, where they both drop little Aada's gift into the lake as he has been doing for his sister since before her birth. Aada agrees to keep his secret and does him one better by telling the children she found the gift bringer but that it's an old man dressed all in red rather than Nikolas.

Thus begins a friendship with his best friend's daughter that will last the rest of his. He shares her joys with her, such as when she comes to tell him she's getting married and laments her losses such as when Emil passes away, She, and later her husband, come to help him wrap and address the presents he delivers, for a few years longer. They even name their eldest son after him.

Finally comes a time when Aada feels he's getting to old to keep delivering presents and doesn't wish to loose him. She gets him to promise to one final Christmas and waits for him to pick her up in the morning as has become their tradition. But her wait becomes too long, forcing her to wonder if something has happened. Finally the sleigh arrives, but no sign of Nikolas. She returns with it to his house and still no sign of him. Aada, dejectedly, returns to the village with his final present to his sister knowing somehow that they will never see Nikolas again. She even scolds her husband the following year for trying to carry on Nikolas' tradition in a way he would not have approved of. But that night she is awakened to the sound of someone leaving a gift on the doorstep. Discovering a sled she knows that somehow Nikolas is carrying on his tradition even after he's passed on.

The movie ends with Aada and her husband and son delivering Nikolas' final gift to little Aada. As she turns, Aada hears the familar sound of Nikolas' voice. Sure enough, there he is in the sky, his sleigh being drawn by a team of reindeer as he waves and smiles at his friend, letting her know he carries on the tradition even in death of delivering toys to the boys and girls. Ada and her family watches happily and a bit amazed as Nikolas flies off on his yearly mission.

This is the kind of movie that could very easily become a family tradition once you've seen it for the first time. I find it quite difficult myself not to cry at various parts of the movie or turn away from it as a whole. To be quite honest since it is a dub, I don't know how much Christmas Story differs from the original Joulutarina. But if you have children, especially young children, then I suggest you try finding this movie. It is certainly worth adding to your DVD collection and is a heart warming tale for the season. Perhaps it will become a family tradition for you to watch it year after year as I'm sure it will for me.