This is 90s New York. If I ever go to NY at Christmas time - THIS is what I want to see. That house. The 90s winter/Christmas clothes. Ah, I want to live in this world. And what would a Christmas movie be without jazz and swing Christmas music while your characters walk around a department store?

Oh, the humble Christmas film. There's always a pretty simple beat that it follows. But isn't that the point? Isn't that why they work and what they're for this time of year? The idea of debating the existence of Santa Claus is an engaging one. I've said once before that it elevates the film beyond a feel-good holiday movie and engages on a philosophical level, allowing us to delve into our own experiences of Christmas and what the Santa Claus figure means to us. I even found myself questioning how I'd handle the subject with my future kids.

McDermott is charming, Wilson plays Susan as a mystifying and refreshing young girl, and Perkins is an emotionally hardened and complicated Mrs. Walker who provides some character development. Attenborough is the literal star of the show as someone who I truly believe actually was the real Santa Claus and that's where he is now.

I was surprised that this film clocked in at nearly 2 hours as there's not much action or hijinks driving the plot forward. So it's pleasantly surprising that the story doesn't weigh heavy and in fact builds welcomely, as we join the characters on their introspection of the idea of Kris Kringle being the real Santa, arriving at the finale where you wonder why you ever doubted that it wasn't true.

Aside from the slightly off-putting focus on a commercial department store being the platform for the ideals of a family holiday which shouldn't really be about monetisation (although, I should that there are instances such as Kringle sending parents to the best place to buy the toys, which do attempt to counter-balance this), the film works so well as a sentimental and classic Christmas film and has John Hughes undeniably all over it!