An American Christmas comedy film. It was directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum. Starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Ed Asner and Bob Newhart, the film centers on Buddy, a human who was adopted and raised by Santa's elves. He learns about this and heads to New York City to meet his biological father while also spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics in the process. On one Christmas Eve, a baby boy at an orphanage crawls into Santa Claus's sack and is unwittingly transported back to the North Pole. When he is discovered at the workshop, the elves name him Buddy after the brand label on his diaper, and Papa Elf adopts and raises him. Buddy grows up at the North Pole, believing he is an elf and accepted by the elf community, but due to his human size, he is unable to keep up with the other elves and demoted to the demeaning job of toy testing. When Buddy overhears that he is a human, Papa Elf explains that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells and given up for adoption. Susan subsequently died, and Walter, who now works for a children's book publisher at the Empire State Building in New York City, is unaware of Buddy's existence. To Buddy's horror, Santa reveals that Walter is on the naughty list due to his callous and unscrupulous demeanor, but suggests Buddy could help redeem him. Buddy promptly travels to New York and finds his father at work, but Walter misinterprets him as a dysfunctional christmas-gram messenger and has him kicked out of the premises. Inspired by a sarcastic remark from a security guard, Buddy heads to a local Gimbels department store, where the manager mistakes him for an employee. At the store's Santa Land, he meets Jovie, an unenthusiastic employee with whom he is instantly smitten. After hearing that Santa will be at the store the following day, Buddy jubilantly decorates Santa Land overnight. When Buddy realizes that the Gimbels Santa is not the real Santa, he unmasks him and causes a wild tumult in the store that lands Buddy in jail. Walter reluctantly bails him out and takes him to a doctor for a DNA test, which confirms that Buddy is in fact his long-lost son. The doctor convinces Walter to take Buddy home to meet his stepmother Emily and twelve-year-old half-brother Michael. Walter and Michael are put off by Buddy's odd behavior, but Emily insists that they care for him until he "recovers." Michael warms up to Buddy after Buddy defends him from a gang of bullies in a snowball fight, and Michael encourages Buddy to ask Jovie on a date. During the date, the two fall in love. Walter's boss, Fulton Greenway, citing the failure of the company's most recent book, has laid down a hard deadline for a new book by Christmas Eve, so Walter and his team try to hire best-selling children's author Miles Finch. Buddy interrupts a meeting between Walter's team and Finch to boast of his newfound love and mistakes Finch, who has dwarfism, for an elf. Buddy unintentionally insults Finch and pesters him into losing his temper, attacking Buddy and walking out on Walter, who snaps at Buddy for ruining the meeting and harshly disowns him. Heartbroken, Buddy leaves a note for Walter, Emily, and Michael and wanders about the streets, lamenting that he does not fit in anywhere. On Christmas Eve, after finding Finch's notebook full of ideas, Walter and his team scramble to create a book to pitch. Greenway is prepared to hear the pitch, threatening to fire Walter if he cannot come up with one, when Michael, who found Buddy's note, arrives and informs Walter that Buddy is gone.