The Essential Necessity of Imagination
While certain a movie taking place during Christmas, it is less a movie about Christmas than it is about the value of imagination. Boiled down to its essentials, its follows a narrative that tracks the redemption of a woman so blindsided by how reality doesn’t line up with fantasy that she is determined to raise her daughter without an imagination. The failed marriage which has left Doris a single mother almost certainly started out as a fantasy of happily-after-ever that was shattered by grim reality of falling for a man cut out to be neither husband nor father. The miracle which takes place in the movie is the successful redemption of both mother and daughter as both learn to believe in the potency and consequence of what isn’t—or at least may not—be real.
The Power of Positive Thinking
The movie strongly suggests that positive thinking is a vital component in getting what you want. In fact, the movie more than hints that the only reason Susan is granted her wish for a house is because she never gave up believing it was possible: her mantra of “I believe, I believe…it’s silly, but I believe” while seated in the car is directly linked to wish that coming true. Likewise, Fred becomes the most famous lawyer in the world because he never wavered in his chuckleheaded belief that he could actually win the case. Had he not believed, he would have remained an anonymous drone in just another New York law firm. Take to the logical extreme, this theme is finally manifested in the court ruling itself: Kris is Santa Claus because enough of the right people believe he is Santa Claus.
The Commercialization of Christmas
Admittedly, the film is muddled to the point of ambiguity in its exploration of this theme. The makers very strongly want the film to be a condemnation of commercialism by having characters bemoan that aspect of the modern-day celebration of Christmas. At the same time, however, although it may be many other things as well, it is a 96-minute commercial for Macy’s. Beyond the fact that the movie begins by promoting the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, it goes on to become of the few Christmas movies primarily set inside a store. The film's Santa Claus is shown posing for pictures with the owners of two rival stores shaking hands rather than with elves and by riding in a float through New York City rather than in a reindeer-powered sleigh. The commercialization of Christmas expressed by some characters is thus directly at odds with the inescapable fact that the imagery of the Christmas season is persistently presented within the context of a shopping-based holiday.
