Tiffany Baxter, a bit of a workaholic, is launching a new campaign to help her advertising firm’s biggest client, Kirazon Toys, connect with families in need. But the “bold” new online ad, while loved by Kirazon CEO Jeff Crane, tanks in the public – going viral in a bad way – receiving backlash because it’s seen as an anti-Santa ad. Tiffany is worried that the big promotion she was expecting is now on the line.
Needing to share her troubles, Tiffany goes drinking with her best friend Amber, who surprises Tiffany with the news that she’s just gotten engages and is going on a celebratory cruise with her fiancé. The bad part about it is that she will not be around to help Tiffany avoid Christmas this year – a holiday that is painful to Tiffany since her Dad left Christmas morning when she was just a child. When Amber realizes that her trip also means she’ll have to miss her volunteer commitment to the big social program “Secret Santa” – which helps families have a Christmas who would otherwise have to go without – which she supports every year, Tiffany sees an opportunity. Why can’t she herself take Amber’s place? Amber reminds Tiffany she’s not exactly the Christmas type, but Tiffany convinces her friend she can take over the project and get involved with the needy families. Tiffany believes this will have the added benefit of helping her come up with a new idea for a more heartfult campaign for Kirazon to save her job and her promotion.
The charity’s organizer is widower Grey Johnson, whose son Brandon is also not a fan of Christmas. Over time, Tiffany gets to know them, helps Brandon come out of his shell and slowly begins to appreciate why Grey cares so much about the holiday. As Tiffany gets more deeply involved with Grey during her Secret Santa project, the foundation’s anonymous donor suddenly passes away without leaving provisions for Secret Santa in her will. Now, the foundation needs $50K or they will have to cancel Christmas for all of the families in need.
Meanwhile, Tiffan’s boss, Melanie Stone, is pushing her hard for a new Kirazon ad to pitch to Jeff Crane at their annual Holiday party. And once Tiffany sees the footage from Secret Santa’s Elves Letter Writing Event, she knows she can create something meaningful. The only problem is getting Grey to consider the idea because his late iwfe created the foundation with the idea of one anonymous personal donor. So Grey won’t even consider bringing a corporate sponsor on board.
Even as Tiffany is torn between wanting to excel at her work and wanting to be the right woman for Grey, he inadvertently discovers that Tiffany created an ad with the Secret Santa footage without his permission (though it was actually created by her work rival Kendall). He believes Tiffany has been fooling he and his son, that she’s not intent on philanthropy but instead is an ad executive who Grey feels was essentially using him and his son to get a promotion – and it all starts to fall apart. It will take an incredible Secret Santa event to fix this and create a Christmas miracle for all involved…