ABOUT SANTA AND PETE
It's the first Christmas without Grandma and a difficult time for the family, until Grandpa (James Earl Jones) decides to share a story with his ten-year-old grandson Terence.
AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR SANTA AND PETE
December 5, 1999 | CBS
CAST & CREW OF SANTA AND PETE
Director: Duwayne Dunham
Writers: Greg Taylor, Christopher Moore, Pamela Johnson
Cast:
James Earl Jones as Grandpa Nicholas
Hume Cronyn as Saint Nick
Flex Alexander as Pete
BRAN'S MOVIE SYNOPSIS
The movie kicks off with Santa doing Santa stuff. Checking that list twice. Looking at a globe to see if anything's changed. You know the stuff.
We meet Grandpa Nicolas decorating his house for the first Christmas since his wife passed away. His daughter Cassie shows up with her husband James and son Terence and they all start to decorate the tree. Little Terence pulls out a Santa ornament. Grandpa insists there's one more ornament in there that goes with Santa. Sure enough, there is one more ornament of some random dude. Terence is like who is this? Grandpa Nicolas is like well have I got a story for you.
Before Santa was Santa, he was Saint Nicolas, a Christian Bishop and Patron Saint of Children who would travel around, giving presents to children. One day he is arrested by the Spanish government who suspect he is actually a spy and their concerns only grow when they discover that he carries around a book called The Book of Life that has a ton of names in it and stuff about each of those people. Gotta be honest...sounds like a spy.
While in jail, he meets a guy named Peter who is shocked when this old dude knows his name and knows that he wants to travel the world. When Pete finds out that he's St. Nicolas, they spend the night talking, and Pete decides to bust St. Nick out.
They become partners and years later they decide to head to the New World. Before they leave they are approached by a dude who wants them to find someone named Elizabeth Van Olden to give her an engagement ring and a promise to join her as soon as he can.
Santa and Pete are shocked to find out that the New World is not the perfect paradise they had heard about. People are too busy to celebrate Christmas and there's hostility between the settlers and the Native Americans.
There's no open lodging for the famous Santa and Pete, so they're forced to sleep in a barn for the night where they find a little girl named Marlene. She tells them that she lost her parents while they were building a cabin in the woods. Santa promises that they'll find her parents and Pete is like whoa that's a big promise.
Santa and Pete meet with the governor to ask for help finding Marlene's parents. He tells them that the Native Americans took them and he's planning an attack. So that's not great.
On Christmas Eve, they travel by carriage and reindeer to go visit the Dangola family, including Janet who Pete thinks is FINEEEEE.
On the way back, they are stopped by the Native Americans. They say they've been waiting for the man with the white beard to fulfill the prophecy. Santa requests they return Marlene's parents and they give Santa a bright red coat.
Santa and Pete begin delivering presents and find that the village boot boy has made Nick some black leather boots.
Arriving at the governor's house they realize there are no traditional wooden clogs to put gifts in and end up going down the chimney and leaving gifts in stockings instead. They also meet the governor's maid, who turns out to be Elizabeth Van Olden, and after giving her the engagement ring she gives Nick a bright red hat.
Returning to the Dangola house, the Native Americans appear with Marlene's parents. The snow starts to come down super heavy and they're now unable to navigate the snow in their carriage. Maria's husband, Big Manuel, replaces the wheels with runners, transforming it into a sleigh, now with 6 reindeer. As Santa and Pete leave, the sleigh suddenly lifts into the sky and they fly away into the night.
Back in the present, Terence wakes up in the middle of the night and finds that the Book of Life is in the living room. He finds his name inside and finds out that he is related to Pete. But when he tries to tell Grandpa Nicolas, the book disappears and he cannot remember anything he read. Classic Santa.