
It Nearly Wasn't Christmas(1989)
Feeling unneeded, a disillusioned Santa Claus (Charles Durning) quits Christmas. Through the selflessness of a little girl looking to reunite her parents for Christmas (and the help of his bumbling chief elf, Philpot (Bruce Vilanch), Santa and the child travel across America and Santa discovers that people really do need him and care about other people.
Movie: It Nearly Wasn't Christmas
Top 6 Billed Cast
Jennifer Baxter
Laura Baxter

It Nearly Wasn't Christmas
HomePage
Overview
Feeling unneeded, a disillusioned Santa Claus (Charles Durning) quits Christmas. Through the selflessness of a little girl looking to reunite her parents for Christmas (and the help of his bumbling chief elf, Philpot (Bruce Vilanch), Santa and the child travel across America and Santa discovers that people really do need him and care about other people.
Release Date
1989-12-01
Average
2.5
Rating:
1.3 startsTagline
Genres
Languages:
Keywords
Recommendations Movies

A Christmas Story Live!(en)
A live broadcast of the Broadway hit "A Christmas Story: The Musical" in which Ralphie wishes for nothing more than a Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas.

Family Film(cs)
A couple embark on an early vacation. Left alone, their children cut loose until the boy gets caught for skipping school and things take an unexpected turn. Boasting exquisite camera work, the film is also unforgettable for its wholly original ending.

LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales(en)
Poe Dameron and BB-8 must face the greedy crime boss Graballa the Hutt, who has purchased Darth Vader’s castle and is renovating it into the galaxy’s first all-inclusive Sith-inspired luxury hotel.

Transformers: The Last Knight(en)
Humans and Transformers are at war. Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth. Saving our world falls upon the shoulders of an unlikely alliance: Cade Yeager; Bumblebee; an English Lord; and an Oxford Professor.

Smosh: The Movie(en)
An embarrassing video of Anthony surfaces online right before his fifth high school reunion. The Smosh dudes then race to pull down the clip before it blows Anthony's chances of reconnecting with his teen crush Anna.

Transformers: Age of Extinction(en)
As humanity picks up the pieces after the battle of Chicago, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history…while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from Cade Yeager, Optimus Prime and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet.

Jennifer Lopez | All I Have(en)
"Jennifer Lopez: All I Have" was the first concert residency by American entertainer Jennifer Lopez. Performed at Zappos Theater (formerly The AXIS Theater) located in the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the residency began on January 20, 2016 and concluded on September 29, 2018. The show has received critical acclaim for its production and Lopez's showmanship. The residency grossed $101.9 million after 120 shows, making it the sixth highest-grossing Las Vegas residency of all time, and the top residency by a Latin artist.

Meet Me in St. Gallen(tl)
The story of Jesse and Celeste who meets at an unexpected time in their lives. They then realize their names are the same as the characters in the popular break-up romantic comedy, Celeste and Jesse Forever.

Penguins of Madagascar(en)
Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.

Veronica Mars(en)
Years after walking away from her past as a teenage private eye, Veronica Mars gets pulled back to her hometown - just in time for her high school reunion - in order to help her old flame Logan Echolls, who's embroiled in a murder mystery.

Avengers: Age of Ultron(en)
When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Tomorrowland(en)
Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as "Tomorrowland."

Backlight(en)
Several characters who are each at critical stages of their lives are strangely impelled towards an uncharted lake in the middle of the desert where they all have the opportunity to save each other.

Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King(en)
A documentary filmmaker interviews the now-famous Trevor Slattery from behind bars.

Transformers: Beginnings(en)
On their home planet of Cybertron, the Autobots and Decepticons are involved in an explosive battle over the coveted AllSpark. With the fate of the universe at stake, the Autobots send it far from the reaches of the ruthless Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. But there are even more surprises in store when it crash-lands on Earth.

Spanish Affair(es)
Rafael, a Seville citizen who has never left the Spanish region of Andalucia, decides to leave his homeland to follow Amaia, a Basque girl unlike other women he has known.

The Bourne Supremacy(en)
A CIA operation to purchase classified Russian documents is blown by a rival agent, who then shows up in the sleepy seaside village where Bourne and Marie have been living. The pair run for their lives and Bourne, who promised retaliation should anyone from his former life attempt contact, is forced to once again take up his life as a trained assassin to survive.

Pacific Rim: Uprising(en)
It has been ten years since The Battle of the Breach and the oceans are still, but restless. Vindicated by the victory at the Breach, the Jaeger program has evolved into the most powerful global defense force in human history. The PPDC now calls upon the best and brightest to rise up and become the next generation of heroes when the Kaiju threat returns.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days(en)
It's summertime, and Greg Heffley is looking forward to playing video games and spending time with his friends. However, Greg's dad has other plans: He's decided that some father-son bonding time is in order. Desperate to prevent his dad from ruining summer vacation, Greg pretends he has a job at a ritzy country club. But Greg's plan backfires, leaving him in the middle of embarrassing mishaps and a camping trip gone wrong.

Back in Time(en)
Cast, crew and fans explore the 'Back to the Future' time-travel trilogy's resonance throughout our culture—30 years after Marty McFly went back in time.
Similar Movies

Scrooged(en)
Frank Cross is a wildly successful television executive whose cold ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the love of his life. But after firing a staff member on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his actions and right the wrongs of his past.

The Ref(en)
A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.

Little Women(en)
With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.

Babe(en)
Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mum, Babe realises that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hoggett knows it. With the help of the sheep dogs, Babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be.

Sandbar(en)
In this freewheeling dark comedy, a haunted Marine spends one crazy day with his estranged son.

A Town Without Christmas(en)
In the small town of Seacliff, Wash., a child's letter to Santa Claus captures the nation's attention. When the little boy, Chris, writes that he wishes to leave this world so he will no longer be a burden to his divorcing parents, a race begins to find him before he harms himself.

Scrooge(en)
A musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic ghost tale starring Albert Finney.

A Garfield Christmas(en)
Garfield, Jon and Odie go to Jon's family farm for Christmas, where Garfield finds a present for Grandma.

Millions(en)
Two boys, still grieving the death of their mother, find themselves the unwitting benefactors of a bag of bank robbery loot in the week before the United Kingdom switches its official currency to the Euro. What's a kid to do?

Olive, The Other Reindeer(en)
After mis-hearing a radio broadcast about Santa canceling his Christmas trip due to an injured reindeer, Olive the dog decides to travel to the North Pole and volunteer to be a replacement. Unfortunately, Olive must deal with an evil postman who's tired of handling all the extra Christmas mail. Will Martini the penguin be able to help Olive realize her dream?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer(en)
Sam the snowman tells us the story of a young red-nosed reindeer who, after being ousted from the reindeer games because of his glowing nose, teams up with Hermey, an elf who wants to be a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius, the prospector. They run into the Abominable Snowman and find a whole island of misfit toys. Rudolph vows to see if he can get Santa to help the toys, and he goes back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. But Santa's sleigh is fogged in. But when Santa looks over Rudolph, he gets a very bright idea...

The Year Without a Santa Claus(en)
Feeling forgotten by the children of the world, old St. Nick decides to skip his gift-giving journey and take a vacation. Mrs. Claus and two spunky little elves, Jingle and Jangle, set out to see to where all the season's cheer has disappeared. Aided by a magical snowfall, they reawaken the spirit of Christmas in children's hearts and put Santa back in action.

Tokyo Godfathers(ja)
On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town(en)
A postman, S.D. Kluger, decides to answer some of the most common questions about Santa Claus, and tells us about a baby named Kris who is raised by a family of elf toymakers named Kringle. When Kris grows up, he wants to deliver toys to the children of Sombertown. But its Mayor is too mean to let that happen. And to make things worse, the Winter Warlock lives between the Kringles and Sombertown.

Monster High: Howliday Special(en)
Draculaura has a fright idea when her dad lectures her class on human holidays! She convinces the Monster High students that it's time for their own holiday - a Howliday! But, the students have different, competing ideas for the howliday, causing chaos. Now the ghouls must use their abilities to unite the students with the message: Holidays are about family and togetherness.

That Joyous Eve...(nl)
The story of three torn apart families on the verge of Sinterklaasavond, the Dutch equivalent of Christmas Eve.

A Very English Christmas(en)
Christmas in the English countryside wasn’t on Kate’s meticulously planned festive calendar until her half-sister Amy, who was brought up in England, announces her plan to get married on Christmas Eve. Kate teams up with Amy’s co-Christmas market owner Dylan to bring order to this whirlwind wedding, but will Kate find her own love in the heart of England this Christmas?

Merry Magic Christmas(en)
As Christmas nears, a financial advisor starts seeing a recurring number: 624. It’s the time she wakes, an address, the change at a Christmas shop. She’s told the number is from a Christmas angel to help make her heart’s secret wish come true. A numbers person, she calls it a statistical coincidence. But when she discovers the number’s meaning, she finds love.

Christmas by Your Friends(da)
Mads' father’s company is too small for a proper Christmas tree party, so Mads decides to arrange his own for himself and his best friend. But arranging such a party is easier said than done. It involves theft, intrigue and deception. Can Mads overcome the difficulties, or will there be no Christmas tree party?

Christmas Cottage(en)
Inspired by the picturesque paintings of Thomas Kinkade, The Christmas Cottage tells the semi-autobiographical tale of how a young boy is propelled to launch a career as an artist after he learns that his mother is in danger of losing the family home.