So what happens during the I Believe in Santa ending? Although the film adds to the usual sappy holiday movies list, the most affectionate aspect of the family feel-good movie is that it leads with the real-life couple of John Ducey and Christina Moore as its picture-perfect onscreen pair as well. In addition to the two, the movie also stars Violet McGraw, Lateefah Holder, Matthew Glave, Sachin Bhatt and others.
With the story coming straight from Ducey’s pen, I Believe in Santa‘s vision was directed by Alex Ranarivelo and released on Netflix on December 14, 2022 with a runtime of 90 minutes.
Netflix describes the plot of the movie as follows:
CAROLS. COCOA. COOKIES GALORE. TOM’S ALL-IN OBSESSION WITH CHRISTMAS IS LISA’S NIGHTMARE. CAN THEIR BUDDING ROMANCE FIND A SWEET MIDDLE GROUND?
-I Believe in Santa Ending Explained Contains Spoilers-
I Believe in Santa Ending Explained: Do Lisa and Tom Get Their Happy Ending?
After what looks like a break-up between Lisa and Tom following their heated conversation surrounding the issue of believing in Santa or not at the former’s house, they stop seeing each other for a while. During this time, Lisa discloses that Christmas was completely ruined for her during her childhood as she’d found the Barbie in her parents’ closet before they gave it to her when she was seven years old. When she talked about it with them, they simply went ahead and returned it and blamed her for ruining her own holiday.
Ever since then, her Christmas spirit had been turned down and being Tom, going all out obsessing over the same holiday and prioritising it over her and Ella, reminded her of the same painful memory. After that, Tom attends all the successive events lined up on their calendar either alone or with his friend, Assan. In Lisa’s absence, he realises how much she meant to him, and that she’s more important than his vehement beliefs about ‘Christmas magic’.
Lisa on the other hand, continues to be stuck in her slump and fails to complete her article while missing the relationship she’d built with Tom and Ella. However, with Ella’s sled race coming up, she can’t keep her silence forever. Although she calls her friend first, despite Ella urging her to call Tom, Sharon takes her to his place eventually.
There, the three gather all the craft pieces together to start building the sled. In the meantime, Ella is consumed by the bright visuals of Christmas decorations at Tom’s house, which reawakens his spirit as well. Back at Lisa’s office, she confronts her boss for assigning her the article in spite of being well aware of her feelings about the holiday. He comes clean that he never wanted a generic write-up, which is why he selected her for the task and encourages her to find the words she hadn’t been able to put together yet.
Later, she visits Assan and asks him about how he was making sense of all the things Tom had to say. He reassures her by saying that even though it’s hard to keep up with him, he’s the only true friend he’s ever had who could look beyond his religious beliefs and not categorise him as something that he never was. And so, it eventually became easier to accept Tom’s thought process as well because he didn’t want to judge him on the basis of the one thing everyone else deemed ‘crazy’ about him.
With the race in sight, Tom finishes building the sled on his own, seeking inspiration from the quintessential image of Santa’s sled. On the D-day, they all arrive at the race venue and Ella, Tom and Lisa enter the contest as a family despite their differences. The Christmas miracle comes through as they win the challenge after going through with the most thrilling sled ride ever. They earn the trophy they deserved and speak up about the morals they’ve learned through their run together since the beginning.
Tom finally admits that the magical spirit of the holiday only works its wonders when we spend time with the people we love. Moved by his words, Lisa also takes a stand and claims that Tom’s idea of Christmas has made her believe in its beauty again, and that it’s not restricted to inflexible traditions. She realises that Tom made the efforts for Ella’s race not because of Christmas, but because he truly loved Ella and her.
Reconsidering everything they’ve been through, they patch up and put their cards forth. Lisa assures Tom that she won’t find faults in him for tapping into his “childlike wonder” that we so often forget about upon growing old, whereas Tom pops the big question by getting down on his knee and proposing marriage to her, and showing his ultimate Wishlist for Santa listing down the following pointers – 1. Lisa 2. Elsa.
When she says yes, Ella can’t hold herself back and her faith in Santa is renewed as well, as she divulges her actual wish for Christmas – both of them getting married – which obviously came true. Lisa also turns in her touching Christmas article and the couple makes peace with their differences while respecting them, and guaranteeing each other that they won’t get in the way of how they feel for each other.
I Believe in Santa is now streaming on Netflix. You can read our review of the film here.
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