Nicolas is like any other little 8 year old boy. He can’t sit still and wants to take advantage every day of this amazing chance that has been offered to him. He’s a bright and curious child who asks endless questions. Naturally serious, he is often tempted to follow Father Christmas when he gets carried away. He ends up doing this during the moments when he forgets the huge responsibility that his future career implies. Santa regularly seeks to loosen up his young apprentice. First of all, because he feels that life should not be taken so seriously, and secondly because life is so much more fun when you have someone to share it with, and finally because, with an accomplice, he’ll be able to clear his name more easily with Miss Moneypenny.
Nicolas has no memory of his parents. They disappeared when he was still a baby. The only memory he has of them is a photo preciously kept in a metal box under his bed. His life in the orphanage was far from the world of Charles Dickens. The children were well treated and despite sad little moments, understandable in the circumstances, overall, Nicolas was happy there. He always had the feeling that something amazing would happen to him one day but was far from realising his real destiny! Nicolas’ life totally changed the night of his 8th birthday when Humphrey, the elf, came into his dormitory.
Our hero has fifteen years in front of him to learn the trade and become, one day, the new Father Christmas. His days are spent in the office (filing and receiving letters), the factory (helping the elves, quality control for the toys) or in the training room (huge chimney, flight simulator for the sledge). But in order to improve his general knowledge and in the same way that children who work in cinema or theatre go to school in the morning and work in the afternoon, Nicolas is enrolled in the little Eskimo school on the ice-bank. In some ways, he’s the “new boy” in the class, the one who arrives in the middle of the school year. The teacher helps him to integrate as best she can but the cultural differences and the gap between Nicolas and his environment sometimes create confusion and misunderstanding. Having said that, Nicolas can always count on his friends Nic-Nac and Tim-Tim, fellow students, to teach him the traps, tricks and surprises of this country of ice and snow. In exchange, he sometimes drags them along on his night-time adventures to the other end of the world, showing them that a world without ice exists.
Santa and Miss Moneypenny represent the family group that Nicolas, an orphan, has always dreamed of, with a herd of elves for brothers. Father Christmas is, for him, a sort of fantasy uncle or grand-father figure who makes him laugh a lot. If Santa seems to act like a “big child” at times, it’s to make Nicolas laugh. However, if a difficult situation arises, the wise old man knows how to assume his responsibilities. In fact, on top of the customs and to do with Christmas, the main message that Father Christmas wants to pass on to Nicolas is his own philosophy in life: you have to take things seriously but with lightly and good-humouredly.