~ ~ Short Synopsis ~ ~
ACT I
Tommy wants to believe in Santa, but after hearing his friend’s parents tell weird Santa stories, he’s doubtful. So he stays up on Christmas Eve and to his surprise, he meets Santa. (In a dream). Tommy is transformed into a Santa believer, and discovers his preaching ability by recruiting all his friends into his Santa Club.
ACT II
Conflicts arise with the Easter Bunny believers, which escalates into a ‘rumble’ on Halloween, where they're ambushed by the Easter kids dressed as ghouls. Tommy retaliates by leading the Santa kids to steal all their toys on Christmas Eve, and wait for Santa to turn up to prove them right.
ACT III
Instead, they're caught by the Easter kids, which wakes up their furious parents who join in the riot. Tommy prays for Santa to return and save them, which he does, but only when the fighting knocks Tommy unconscious. In a spectacular vision, Santa explains his ‘secret’; that he he lives inside us, inspiring us to be ‘Secret Santas', to spread peace and goodwill to all. Tommy wakes up and explains this epiphany to the townsfolk, which stops the war, and brings the magic back to Christmas.
~ ~ Long Synopsis ~ ~
Drunken Elf musicians play an odd Overture, and SANTA (an animated hologram) introduces the audience to story time. He 'miraculously' knows the kid’s names, and funniest naughty or nice stories, (supplied by their parents) but loves them all without judgement. He asks if anyone has doubts about him, and starts the story.
A ‘happy village’ parody, where the neighbors gather to sings carols, like Santa Returns, where "Santa must be true, because we all believe.” But TOMMY, a funny, mischievous, English boy smells something fishy, and asks his mother MRS JONES how Santa knows his sins. She says he reads Tommy’s mind through his knee at the mall, which creeps Tommy out. He overhears his black friend SPOON’s Dad say Santa is black, and his hispanic friend CARLOS’s parents scare Carlos with Santa’s evil twin Krampus. Even his asian friend MING half believes.
Tommy feels like the misfit in the asylum, so he sings Bah Humbug to convince his friends that Santa’s doesn't exist. He publicly asks his mom for proof, but she says he needs to have faith, leaving a lonely, defiant Tommy determined to stay up and prove he’s fake.
Mrs Jones sends Tommy to bed for laughing at his friends, but then realizes she’s the liar, and chats with the parents in the audience about why they tell these stories. She goes to bed and Tommy comes out, and recruits the kids in the audience to help him prove if Santa exists or not. To Tommy’s astonishment, Santa turns up (in a dream) and sings Christmas Spirit while tap dancing with his reindeer to prove he exists.
Tommy sincerely apologizes to his friends, and sings We’re Believers to announce he’s a now born-again Santa believer after meeting him. He wants to hear their stories so Carlos says he saw Krampus, Santa’s evil twin, which scares Ming. Spoon says he met black Santa, which Tommy suggests was a great tan. Ming meets Santa in her fantasies, and says Rudolph’s a unicorn. They have fun forming a club, and writing the bible, and Tommy discovers his gift for preaching by recruiting all the kids with a big gospel number.
It’s Easter’s Eve and Tommy’s mixing up miracles with superpowers, so Mrs Jones tells Tommy the Easter Bunny is just a pagan story about spring and making babies, which makes him even more curious. But she’s reluctant to have ‘the talk’ yet and maintains the lie about storks. Tommy goes to the playground where Carlos vividly describes meeting the Easter Bunny who sings It’s Eggs about the importance of giving and consent to be ‘friendly’. But Tommy rejects the Easter Bunny, forcing Carlos to form an Easter Club which almost half the kids join, dividing families, including Carlos’s.
Ming sees this disaster and privately tells Tommy the girls will form a Fairy Club if he rejects them. He’s torn, he wants to keep members, but Dad said fairies aren’t in the bible. Ming sings The Fairies to describe seeing a ‘forbidden love story’ between a fairy and a human boy that grown ups couldn’t see because “they’ve forgotten how to see magic” She kisses him, and Tommy realizes that’s why fairies aren’t in the bible. But Carlos is furious he accepts fairies, and stops sharing eggs. So Tommy and Spoon steal them.
The parents discuss the stealing and ‘clubs’ problem, and Ming’s asian parents say tell the truth, but the other (Christian) parents don’t want to spoil Christmas. They sing and laugh at the kid’s sing Silly Ideas, until they realize they came from the parents, and all they can agree on is cancelling the clubs.
It’s Hallows Eve. The hapless parents try to stop the fighting, but it only pushes it underground. Carlos challenges Tommy to a ‘rumble’ tonight when the parents can’t see them. Tommy accepts because they have more members, and they all sing We’re Right - a war song about ‘fighting for peace.’
But the Santa kids are ambushed by hideous ghouls and monsters with mirrors instead of faces who sing Halloween Nightmare - “You create all your demons, and we are yours.” The next day Carlos humiliates them again, saying parents buy the Santa presents, and they’ll keep pretending to believe in Santa to keep getting them. The Santa kids are outraged and decide to steal their their presents on Christmas Eve, and wait for Santa to return to prove them right. Only Ming objects.
Christmas Eve. Mrs Jones puts Tommy to bed fretting he’s a fanatic, but Tommy replies she told him about Santa. She bites her tongue and leaves, but tells Mr Jones they must stop lying about Santa after Christmas. Tommy overhears this as he’s sneaking out, and is devastated. He sings sadly that Santa’s Dead, and he’s just one kid among billions, on a planet among billions, and there’s no one up there who cares.
Ming turns up to stop Tommy but he tells her his Mom says Santa’s a lie. She asks if meeting Santa felt real to him, and Tommy realizes he’s not smart enough to think of Santa’s wisdom, so he must be real, even if it was a dream. He apologizes because she was right all along and, and she kisses him. Santa kids with stolen toys turn up, but so do the Easter kids, with baseball bats. The Santa kids retreat to the treehouse and Tommy offers to give the toys back, angering Spoon who still think Santa’s going to turn up. But Carlos attacks noisily to wake the parents, who also join the riot. Dawn hits and Tommy yells “Santa, why have you abandoned me?” and jumps out of the tree onto Carlos knocking them both out. Cut to black except a bewildered Tommy when Santa appears and sings Secret Santa that explains his secret. He’s a spirit living inside us, inspiring us to give peace and goodwill to all, and recruits Tommy to join the Secret Santa ‘crew’ too. Then Santa shows Tommy the kids fighting, which Tommy justifies it with: “They only believe in the Easter Bunny.” Suddenly the Easter Bunny appears and explains that she’s in the crew too, and Santa says it’s time to wake up.
Tommy and Carlos both awaken saying they just met Santa and the Easter Bunny, and apologize for being dumb. They stop the riot, and explain what they just saw which blows everyone mind’s. They give the toys back, and sing an updated reprise of Santa Returns. Santa ends by recruiting the audience to be Secret Santas too.
Then the bands, DJs and dancing starts . . .