The king's plea is a desperate one: "I'm asking you to go to the very edges of our kingdom and bring back a spark of magic to give us hope." For Nikolas, the son of a woodcutter, it signals the start of an epic journey through snowy wastes. His companions are a talking mouse and a reindeer called BlitzenThe German word for lightning.; together they face freezing weather and a scary adversary, the Elf Queen.

Tomorrow is the first day of December, when many people open the first window of their AdventThe season leading up to Christmas. The word derives from a Latin verb meaning to arrive. calendar and start to think seriously about Christmas. Films play an important part in creating a festive atmosphere, and this year sees the arrival of one that could become as much of a classic as The Snowman.

A Boy Called Christmas is based on a story by Matt Haig, a writer from Brighton. After suffering depression, and writing a book about it, he decided to go to the opposite extreme and create a tale about a happy time of year.   

Haig did not believe his story would reach cinemas: the rights to his first book had been sold to Brad Pitt, but no movie materialised. Only when he visited the set of A Boy Called Christmas in PragueThe capital of the Czech Republic, situated on the River Vltava. did he accept that the tale might be enjoyed around the world.

Nikolas is nicknamed Christmas because he was born on Christmas Day. He sets out to find the mythical kingdom of Elfhelm - but when he eventually reaches it, he discovers that he is far from welcome, because an elf child has recently been kidnapped by a human. The only way he can win their confidence is by rescuing the elf child; as a reward, they will help him create Christmas as we now enjoy it.

In England, records of Father Christmas go back to the 15^th Century. He was associated with singing and feasting among adults to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

The 17^th-Century Puritans, however, disapprovedAs well as objecting to people having fun, the Puritans believed that Christmas was a Roman Catholic tradition. of Christmas. For 15 years, from the mid-1640s, they banned its celebration, both in churches and in people's homes. In response, their opponents promoted Father Christmas as the symbol of an earlier, happier, Royalist age.

After the Restoration, the old Christmas customs were revived. Mummers' playsActed out in villages throughout England, they originally used mime rather than spoken dialogue: "mummer" has the same origin as "keeping mum"., in which Father Christmas was one of the characters, became very popular. By the 19^th Century, however, people were lamenting the decline of the season's merriment.

That changed thanks to writers like Sir Walter ScottA Scottish writer whose best-known novels include Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. and Charles Dickens, whose book A Christmas Carol was hugely influential. In America, Clement Clarke Moore's poem A Visit from St Nicholas - drawing on the Dutch tradition of Santa Claus - cemented the idea of Father Christmas as someone who brought presents for children on Christmas Eve. The first known letter from a British child to Father Christmas was sent in 1895.

Some claim that Christmas today is just an excuse for materialism and over-indulgence. But A Boy Called Christmas sends a more positive message: there is magic in the world, and humans need to connect to it to become better people.

Some say, yes: the greatest gift human beings possess is imagination, which takes us beyond the limitations of ordinary life. Nothing captures our imaginations more effectively than Santa Claus. As one character in the film says, "Nikolas showed the world anything can happen".

Others argue that we live in a world dominated by science and technology. There is no room for magic except in stories, which do not serve any useful purpose. Santa Claus is only relevant to our lives if he brings us a microscope or a book about coding.