Richard Attenborough stars in this remake of the 1947 classic, telling 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 (Mara Wilson), confides in Kris Kringle (Attenborough), the kindly old man who is acting as the grotto Santa in the department store managed by her mother (Elizabeth Perkins). Kris Kringle, however, believes he is the genuine Santa Claus and this devotion to the cause makes him very popular indeed, leading to record profits for the store.

This annoys rival retailers so much that they try to discredit the so-called Santa, leading eventually to a court case in which Kringle and his lawyer try to prove that he is the real thing.