"Joulutarina" (original title) - Christmas Story (2007)

Movie Trailer (<----click)

Nikolas is a young boy who lived in the Laplands (Sweden) hundreds of years ago with his mother and father and baby sister Aada. Aada becomes ill and their parents are forced to take her to seek medical help. Young Nikolas is left home alone while his family braves the harsh Lapland winter elements to help his sister. Eventually some of the nearby villagers come to see Nikolas with the sad news that his family will not be returning. The village takes orphaned Nickolas back to the village to discuss his fate. They come up with a plan that each family in the village will take Nickolas into their homes for one year at which time he will move onto the next home. When he turns thirteen Nickolas goes to live with a crabby old man, Iisaaki who forces Nickolas to work very hard doing various house chores and woodworking projects. Nickolas has a yearning to thank the families who took care of him for all of those years so he secretly (hiding late at night from Iisaaki) begins making toys for the children of the village and leaving them on their doorsteps at night at Christmas. It soon becomes his annual tradition. As the village grows larger he is forced to find new ways to make and deliver the toys. He also gets the aid of some unlikely partners.

Joulutarina (Christmas Story) is a very heart-warming story about the beginning of St. Nikolas and the traditions we honor today this time of year. It's the story of how Santa became Santa. It is a good movie for the whole family though I imagine you would have trouble getting young children to stay interested until about half-way through when the red suit and reindeer some along. Since the movie was originally for Finnish audiences the lips do not follow the voices so don't think that the voices are out of sync. The dialog was redone to English with the voices of people such as John Turturro (one of my favorite actors).

I cannot recommend this movie enough for Christmas viewing. It may be because I have been in a holiday funk lately and I have a cold now and I needed an little nudge to get me in the Christmas spirit - this helped a lot. I am gonna go out on a Christmas tree limb and give this movie 5 North stars! It is on Netflix as an instant view...watch it for Christmas!!!!! Excellent family film.