My favourite Miracle on 34th Street is the 1994 version starring Sir Richard Attenborough.
This feel-good classic tells the heart-warming story of a young girl’s desire for a fully functional family, complete with a father and a baby brother. The girl, Susan, confides in Kris Kringle, the kindly old man who is acting as the grotto Santa in the department store managed by her mother.
Kris Kringle, however, believes he is the genuine Santa Claus and this devotion to the cause makes him very popular, leading to record profits for the store. This annoys rival retailers so much that they try to discredit the so-called Santa, leading to a court case in which Kringle and his lawyer try to prove that he is the real thing.
It’s a charming film and a delightful window on a long-vanished world of decency and trust.
On the surface, the big question posed by the film is whether Kris Kringle is indeed Santa. Yet there is more to the plot than meets the eye. At the heart of the film is a discussion of faith: here about Santa Claus but ultimately about something much deeper.
The female lead is a woman whose failed marriage has taught her that in real life fairy-tales go sour. She is cynical and disillusioned and has passed that scepticism on to her 6-year-old daughter who, openly scornful of fantasy and imagination, tries to live entirely by logic and reason.
That disbelieving view is challenged by Kris Kringle and eventually mother and daughter come to believe.
The film sets up two opposing positions. On the one hand we are shown how sceptical, rational thinking can lead to a loss of imagination and hope. On the other we see how faith and imagination can bring the possibility of hope, generosity and love.
Many people believe that Santa manages to get down chimneys to bring presents. Perhaps. What I do know is that if you are prepared to open your heart and mind even the tiniest amount to God, he will enter in and bring the greatest of gifts.
