Annie can't believe her eyes! The "Santa" in the mall looks so much like her grandfather's friend, Simon. A Jewish Santa? Annie lines up to get a closer look - and ends up "placing an order". Simon Greenbaum, flat broke, has taken the job at the Winter Castle to earn a few dollars between jobs. And after all, with his long white beard, he looks just like Santa already. "Don't breathe a word to your Zaideh that you saw me here," he says. "If you don't tell him that I'm a Santa Claus, I won't tell him what you asked for. It's a deal?" When Annie's parents find out, however, that she has placed an order with Santa for a Christmas tree, they are disappointed and tell her that she must learn to be her own person and stand up for her beliefs in order to earn the respect of others. Meanwhile, Annie wants to help Mr. Greenbaum and comes up with a plan. But to carry out her plan, she must reveal his secret. What will she do?

New Year's 1955 is coming up fast, and eleven-year-old Vivian is determined to buy a snazzy new diary. The diary is soon put to good use, as Vivian must untangle the web of problems in her life, including a stolen keepsake of her grandfather's and her constantly arguing parents. Does her grandfather suspect her when he realises one of his greatest treasures is missing? Does her father really mean it when he says he's leaving? Compelled to do everything in her power to keep her family together, Vivian, a natural trouble-magnet and her own worst enemy, must work through these humungous problems.