Jonathan Taylor Thomas stars as a college student Jake Wilkinson attending school in California, Pasadena College, who has hardly ever been home for Christmas.A few days before Christmas Eve, his father offers to give him a vintage 1957 Porsche if Jake is home in by 6:00 p.m. Christmas Eve (when the family has dinner) in New York. Jake prepares to go; however, a group of bullies leave him in the middle of the desert dressed as Santa Claus. The bullies were supposed to get a cheat list from Jake, but their leader Eddie Taffet (Adam LaVorgna) prevented it, unbeknownst to his friends, to get Jake out of the way and claim Jake's girlfriend Allie (Jessica Biel) for himself. While Jake is stuck in the California desert, Eddie is giving Allie a ride to the Big Apple. Now, Jake has only three days to make it to Larchmont, New York if he wants the car and Allie.
He stumbles upon a few obstacles such as a thief who is driving kitchen goods to his dealer near New York so Jake hitches a ride with him, unbeknownst to him that the man is a thief. A police officer pulls them over for speeding and becomes suspicious of them, so Jake lies and says that the man is his elf and they donating the goods to the childrens hospital. The police officer offers for them to follow him since he is heading in the same direction. At the hospital the children remind Jake, the thief and the police officer about the importance of family, and the thief decides to win back his girlfriend who is headed in the opposite direction. The police officer buys Jake a bus ticket to New York.
Meanwhile Allie and Eddie are heading for New York and decide to stay at pretend village hotel and are caught kissing under a mistletoe on camera by Jake, hesitant to speed the bus up he uses a cooler and a week old meat sandwich saying that it is a liver which is for a little girl at hospital, he finds the village and Allie and Eddie's room, he sees Eddie walk out of the shower in a towel and assumes that he had slept with Allie (he didn't, Allie made him sleep in a sleeping bag), Jake and Allie eventually make up but Jake blurts out that Eddie prevented him from getting his dad's car. Upset that Jake that had come there to get the car and not herself (which he actually did), she replaces his seat on the bus and leaves.
Jake and Eddie drive and Jake tells Eddie that he will go home and win Allie back and get the car, jealous that Jake will get Allie Eddie throws Jake out but is soon arrested. Jake decides to enter a Santa Clause race to win the $1000 prize to buy a plane ticket to New York. He meets a nice man who he beats and wins the prize. But on his way to the airport he learns that the man is actually the Mayor who uses the prize money to buy presents for the needy. Jake reluctantly gives the money to the mayor and calls home. Jake's sister arranges for a plane ticket for Jake but he is not granted the ticket since he has no photograph identification. So he decides to stow away in a dog kennel in a cargo plane.
When he reaches New York he apologies to Allie and receives his dad's car and makes it home in time for dinner.
