Heaven forbid, but imagine that Father Christmas has developed a fixation for a Saddam Hussein type and is threatening to cancel festivities.

His Revolutionary Guard takes the form of mutated, giant toy soldiers and every little boy and girl across the world is on his naughty list.

How has this grim state of affairs been allowed to happen, you cry.

Well, the reason we're in this pickle is that Santa Claus Scott Calvin (Allen) has returned home just when things were getting busy - to chase a bit of skirt.

He's been told that if he doesn't get a wife by Christmas Eve, then a process of de-Santa-fication will rob him of his beard, belly and job.

While he is out looking for a wife, whizz-kid elf Curtis (Breslin) creates a surrogate Santa who, unfortunately, has begun displaying symptoms of megalomania.

This is a children's movie that doesn't attempt the difficult trick of trying to appeal, Shrek-style, to both kids and adults alike.

But, for a sequel, it displays enough invention and original wit to keep the ankle-biters from getting under mum and dad's feet.

Santa's toy workshop has the look of Liberty's, and is peopled by a winning crew of kids with a weakness for the sort of woollen headware favoured by Scandinavian hippies.

Neat scenes include a party of glum teachers whose Christmas bash is enlivened by Santa doling out antique toys from their childhood.

However, it's Scott's attempt to come clean about his real occupation during his courtship of prim headmistress Carol (Mitchell) that raises the biggest laugh.

"There's something about me you should know," he tells her in the understatement of the year.

Tim Evans