TV REVIEW : ‘In Nick of Time’ for a Yule Treat

Santa Claus seldom appears in Christmas movies except inside department stores or standing outside them with a bell and a collection pot.

But the genuine St. Nick is with us tonight in the woolly, cheerful guise of Lloyd Bridges in NBC’s “In the Nick of Time” (9 p.m., Channels 4, 36 and 39).

We first meet Nick--that’s what Santa prefers to be called--at his toy factory in the North Pole. It’s by far the best scene in the story, wondrous and magical, teddy bears and little cars tumbling off computerized assembly lines.

But an elf has made an accounting error and Nick learns that his 300-year tenure is up. He has only a week to find a replacement or Santa will lose his magical powers.

His search takes him to New York City, where he blends right in. It’s the week before Christmas and guys in stuffed red-and-white suits are all over the place, triggering some odd encounters in Maryedith Burrell’s whimsical teleplay.

We have such a fixed image of Santa Claus that it seems an easy role for an actor. Not so. Bridges’ Kris Kringle, rumpled and slender instead of roly-poly, is next-door accessible but so magnetic and humanly fallible that characters flock to him.

Among them is a moonbeamy Rastafarian transient (Cleavon Little) and a high-powered newspaper editor (Alison LaPlaca) who’s protecting the job of a cynical, burned-out star reporter (Michael Tucker).

“In the Nick of Time,” directed by George Miller, is a seasonal souffle, light and winsome.