Cash-strapped actor Byron Nichols takes a job as Santa Claus in a department store and feels his career is heading for oblivion. But he quickly discovers that the role demands more than acting skills as he becomes involved in the lives of the people around him.

A lively cast of characters including a struggling theatrical agent, a girl with a past, a dypsomaniac pantomime director, an enigmatic Asian store executive, a New Zealand soap starlet and, of course, loads of children make this a Christmas he is unlikely to forget.

Roger Jones' novel is an entertaining and nostalgic read with some surprising twists and elements of tragedy in the tradition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.