Marii to Santa

Despite being Santa Claus' apprentice, Nicholas is quite terrible at his job. He cannot fly reindeer, and he is awful at interacting with children—two aspects that are essential to his career goal. Being assigned to Japan this year, Nicholas' Christmas Eve does not get off to a good start when he crashes his sled and injures his reindeer in the process.

As luck would have it, Nicholas is found by four-year-old Marina "Mari" Momose, spending the night alone while her parents are working. Having to wait for his reindeer to recover its strength, he tries to entertain the girl but finds that nothing seems to make her smile. Refusing to relent, the apprentice Santa decides to do everything he can to make sure Mari has a very merry Christmas.