It's 1952 and summer vacation looms, full of possibilities. When best friends Josh and Billy find an old, collapsed cabin in the middle of the woods, they decide to search the rubble for treasure. They look for weeks and eventually find a chest buried within the cabin's foundation. But instead of treasure, it's filled with old journals that belong to Wendell, a Christmas elf who came to town fifty-six years ago with Santa but fell off the sleigh and was lost. Josh and Billy begin reading through the journals in hopes of unearthing a clue that will lead them to the elf. Soon, the entire town learns about their discovery, and now everyone wants to help find Wendell. Locating him turns out to be an easy task compared with what they face next: finding the magical gold chain, that when reconnected to the watch, will allow Wendell to become an elf again and live forever. With a blizzard quickly approaching, the whole town pitches in to help get Wendell home before it's too late!