Random Acts of Christmas

As a single mother to eight year old Oliver, Sydney Larkin, a Chicago-based freelance journalist, is trying to be supermom, although she does have help on the personal side by her mother, Lauren Larkin, and the professional side by having an exclusive association with BCN-TV News, which Sydney would like to be more permanent. Lauren's strength as a reporter is an ability to spot the unusual or unique in any story. In this, the Christmas season, Sydney's association with the station is in jeopardy when she is in competition for the one permanent open job with other freelancers, most specifically her rival Andy Cooper, who has a more cutthroat attitude than her, and as BCN's news editor, Perry, questions Sydney's story choices in Sydney preferring those humanistic stories as opposed to hard hitting news, which generally garner bigger ratings. Perry assigns all the freelancers what appears to be the biggest story of this Christmas - the reporter getting the story first who will probably be offered the permanent spot - the story namely to discover the identity of the city's Secret Santa, who has been carrying out grand and very expensive gestures of seasonal cheer, only leaving calling cards at each unannounced event solely with the words "Secret Santa" on them. At one of those events upon which she stumbles, Sydney believes she comes across the Secret Santa, he ultimately identifying himself as just another freelance reporter, Cole Howard. They decide to partner on this story in discovering any future acts of the Secret Santa. What Sydney does not know is that her first instincts were correct in he, truly named Colin Hauer, is the Secret Santa. Colin's intention with Sydney are admiring her life goals and seemingly being able to carry them out, much like his own mother did, and believing the closer he keeps her to his breast, the more he can control the story. In working with "Cole", Sydney is able to see the true story as Colin intended, which is not to discover the identity of the Secret Santa as most news organizations are focusing. In the process, Colin and Sydney start to fall for each other. A future for them is placed in jeopardy as Sydney will eventually have to learn the truth, which is worse if she discovers it on her own before he is able to tell her - in either case she bound to question her own journalistic instincts in not being able to see the Secret Santa standing right next to her - or if another reporter, like Andy, breaks the story, especially as it may have appeared that Colin had a financial motive in being one the most successful, albeit spotlight-shy, Christmas ornament manufacturers in the country.—Huggo