All I want for Christmas is Chanukah

What if Santa had a crisis of conscience and realized he just had to deliver presents to all the little Jewish boys and girls too, or he's discriminating? That was the brainchild of Seth Gold, a brilliant writer yet a coward at heart. When he was contracted to make a Chanukah TV Special by the highest rated Network, he had to overcome his fear, learn to stand up for himself and along the way discover his own Judaism. A character driven, feature length comedy, at times reminiscent of Elf, we watch the TV Special at the same time as we watch the TV Special being made. While in production Seth's fear has him ducking and dodging obstacles but learning to confront them too with the help of friends he makes along the way. Mixed messages don't make it easier as his TV Special stirs up the controversy Seth feared. Enthusiastic feedback like, "This is a great statement!" greets him as often as angry outbursts like "You can't steal Santa!!" But Seth isn’t the only one struggling. Santa has obstacles too as his elves both assist and resist in making this vision come to life. And Mrs. Clause? Forget it! She is not going to let this happen and stands in Santa’s way, every step of the way, with purpose and determination. Seth and Santa both ride an emotional rollercoaster of pride and fear as they separately ask themselves, "why did I put myself in this position?" We find Santa where we always do early in the season; Macy's on 34th street. When little Barry hops on Santa's lap and asks for a hospital grade nebulizer to save his father, Santa doesn't seem to know him, not even his name. When he asks for the nebulizer on Chanukah, suddenly Santa gets it. He finds himself explaining that he simply does not deliver toys on Chanukah. This leads to tears and those tears lead to a deep moment of self-reflection for Santa. Santa was this boy's last hope to save his dying father. Something isn't right. Back in the North Pole Santa can’t sleep. He spends all night in the office of his workshop trying to make sense of this dilemma. In the morning he discovers that the lamp he burnt all night is still burning, but with no oil. No oil? Santa knows it’s a sign and he resolves to make his vision a reality. He calls the elves together and announces that they are doubling production! “We’re going to spread love and joy to a whole new group of children, by delivering presents this coming Chanukah!” Jaws drop. But it’s not that simple. Luckily for Santa he has an ally in his shop manager Preston who helps Santa navigate around the determined Mrs. Clause at every turn. And Seth Gold is lucky to have an ally in his director, Richard Thompson who is determined to get this show made, shooting in secret locations, making preemptive moves to foil the powerful forces out to stop them which includes none other than Joseph Herman, Vice President of Programming, who approved the script without even reading it! But the director can’t protect Seth form his own wife, Sara who is convinced that this hair brained scheme is going to get them kicked out of town. “Seth will never work again!” Seth’s father and son are behind him, but neither is brave enough to take on Sarah. Why, she’s as determined as Mrs. Clause. Seth seeks support from Rabbi Skolnick who surprises Seth by making him explore himself. Why he isn’t a devout Jew like his wife Sara, why his name was clearly truncated to Gold by his forefathers and what’s the true story of Chanukah? My idea for this script was initially just the Santa story itself. But I was so scared to actually sit down and write it because the concept upsets the apple cart. It threatens tradition and it begs wrath by potentially offending two major religions. Plus, I'm not Jewish, so who the heck do I think I am? Meanwhile, I felt at the same time that a script like this would be so bold that people would be truly intrigued, and audiences would find that they just had to watch. This was the kind of project that would get noticed. Thus, I confronted my own fear and resolved to move forward. I decided to cowrite the screenplay with my talented partner, Steve Goldberg as he takes his Judaism very seriously and that truly enhanced the script. I also reworked the concept to be told from the writer's perspective. I had so much material from my own self-doubt around this work in real life. You write from what you know, and I knew this struggle. The script is already written, formatted and one hundred and fifteen minutes. Script and / or Story Treatment available upon request.