A Dennis the Menace Christmas

The film opens with 6-year-old Dennis Mitchell and his elderly neighbor, George Wilson, each waking up and performing their individual morning routines, up until the point where Dennis's shoelace gets caught in the pedal of his bicycle and he crashes into Mr. Wilson as he goes out to get the newspaper. This all turns out to be a bad dream by George.

It's Thanksgiving and a pageant is being held at Dennis's school. George is forced to attend because his wife, Martha, is bringing a pie for the contest there (as she won last year's). Backstage, Dennis and his rival, Jack Bradley, who is always racing Dennis on their bikes and calling him a loser. Jack says Christmas is stupid and Dennis argues that it's not, but luckily, the pageant starts before a fight breaks out.

The play starts off roughly at first because Jack's father David (the rival of Dennis's father Henry) encourages him to steal the spotlight, but everything's soon running smoothly, until Dennis notices the live turkey's water bowl is empty and goes to refill it, accidentally leaving the cage door open. The turkey gets loose on stage, and when Dennis tries to catch it, he tips over the table with the pies for the contest, catapulting them onto Mr. Wilson as he tries to flee.

As a result of the catastrophe, even though David sold the school a new insurance policy, a new clause is introduced, the "Dennis Clause", meaning whoever possesses it is absolved from paying for Dennis's disasters. Unable to do anything, the principal forces Dennis's parents to pay for the damages.

Dennis's parents tell him that he has to start taking responsibility for the trouble he causes. Dennis offers to work off his debts, but realizing that could only lead to more chaos, his parents flatly tell him no.

Christmas approaches and Dennis wants a new bike for Christmas. Knowing this, Jack challenges him to a race on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, Mr. Wilson is in a bad mood during the holidays and refuses to put up any decorations. At the gift exchange, Dennis picks Mr. Wilson's name.

Dennis's mother, Alice, takes a job at the department store to make extra money, but is forced to take Dennis with her after the babysitter cancels. Dennis tries to occupy himself by making a giant ball of bows at the wrapping station, but when an old lady unknowingly sits on his creation and then walks off with it stuck to her back, Dennis follows her and attempts to retrieve it, resulting in the lady swinging at him with her umbrella and unintentionally destroying the Santa's Village display. Alice subsequently has the Wilsons babysit Dennis, much to Martha's delight and George's dismay.

Dennis tries to figure out what to get Mr. Wilson for a present, and his Secret Santa doesn't drop many hints. While Mrs. Wilson is at the store, Dennis wanders through the house looking for ideas (and causing his normal wake of destruction), but when he stumbles upon Mr. Wilson's stamp collection and thinks he's getting letters ready to mail. He proceeds to put the stamps all over the envelopes, and by the time Mr. Wilson discovers what's happened, Dennis has ruined several of his rare stamps, including one that Mr. Wilson had long been hunting for and only recently found. Infuriated, Mr. Wilson demands $10,000 from Dennis's parents as compensation, stating clearly he has the Dennis Clause on all of his insurance policies.

Upset about making Mr. Wilson mad at him, Dennis offers to pay for the stamps, but his parents assure him that he is not a bad boy, he just misunderstands once in a while. Wishing Mr. Wilson was just as understanding, Dennis decides to give Mr. Wilson the Christmas spirit as his Secret Santa present.

Dennis starts by taking Mr. Wilson shopping for Christmas gifts, and after their shopping spree is done, Mr. Wilson does start to cheer up - until Dennis trips him and causes him to injure himself.

While Mr. Wilson is recovering at the hospital, Dennis and his friends steal Jack's Christmas tree (unintentionally, of course) and bring it to Mr. Wilson's house. They accidentally break a window while getting the tree into the house, and Mr. Wilson is shocked to find the tree in his living room. To make matters worse, when David finds the tree missing, he calls the police, resulting in Mr. Wilson being arrested for the tree theft.

Dennis comes over the next day shortly after Mr. Wilson is bailed out. He bakes cookies for Mr. Wilson while Mrs. Wilson is out, and when he sees them, his mood actually improves. Unfortunately, Dennis used a lot of unusual ingredients, and Mr. Wilson suffers a medical emergency from the cookies, and has to go to the hospital again to have his stomach pumped.

Dennis once again takes advantage of Mr. Wilson's hospitalization and rigs up Christmas lights on Mr. Wilson's house, positive it will be enough to give Mr. Wilson a change of heart. But he does a poor job, and when the display turns on that night, it sparks, sets the house on fire, and incurs another debt for the Mitchells.

Dennis makes one last attempt to cheer up Mr. Wilson. He tracks down the Santa from the mall incident and asks him to surprise Mr. Wilson by going down his chimney. But the Santa gets stuck in the chimney and when Mrs. Wilson lights the fireplace, the house fills with smoke. Mr. Wilson has the Santa arrested, and even though Dennis makes a card for him as a last ditch attempt to smooth things over, Mr. Wilson is so angry he tells Dennis the one thing no child wants to hear - that there is no such thing as Santa Claus.

However, the Santa Dennis hired actually turns out to be an angel. He escapes from the police and returns to Mr. Wilson, telling him he needs to change his beliefs, and a "Christmas Carol" trip follows.

The Angel takes Mr. Wilson back to his childhood, where young Georgie goes to visit his neighbor, Mr. Newman (Template:Walter Massey) and excitedly tell him about the fishing rod he wants for Christmas. While busying himself around the house, Georgie finds Mr. Newman's model boats and puts them in the bathtub, when he accidentally breaks the handle and floods the room. The Angel shows that Mr. Wilson was like Dennis himself when he was a child.

The Angel then takes him back to the present, and Mr. Wilson sees Dennis's parents do not have enough money for presents as a result of having to hand over so much money to the Wilsons in order to pay for the house and the stamp collection. They have to sell the house to pay off the debt and Dennis has lost hope in Christmas since he won't get the bike and calls himself a menace since he upset Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson also notices how depressed his wife is because she really wants to celebrate Christmas, but due to her husband's hatred for the holidays they are unable to. Mr. Wilson soon realizes he must put an end to his grinchy attitude.

Finally, the Angel takes Mr. Wilson to the future, where it is bleak and the atmosphere requires SPF 800 sunscreen because of global warming since 2019. The Wilson house is abandoned since Dennis and the Mitchells aren't here and after Mrs. Wilson died, Mr. Wilson died alone, and Dennis is shown to be old, lonely, childless, friendless and having a dislike of Christmas (and, in the process, repeating what Mr. Wilson said to him — and other kids — about Christmas). Dennis grew up to be Mr. Wilson and twice as bad hating Christmas as Mr. Wilson ever did. Mr. Wilson realizes that what he had said was not true. It is the final epiphany that convinces Mr. Wilson to change his outlook on Christmas and makes him vow to celebrate Christmas with others.

Mr. Wilson then wakes up to find himself back in the present, and spreads his Christmas joy around the neighborhood; Dennis wakes up the next morning with a tree loaded with gifts. Mr. Wilson helps Dennis's parents with finances, forgets about the debt and says he knows a couple of people to repair his house. He talks to Dennis and cheers him up with holiday joy (while also apologizing to him for what he had said) the bike he always he wanted. Mr. Wilson and his wife have a big Christmas tree in their living room and his childhood fishing pole was purchased online. The Dennis Clause is subsequently voided, solving the Mitchells' financial problems. Dennis races Jack on his new bicycle, and though he loses, Jack realizes he was also wrong about Dennis, and they become friends.

The film ends with the Angel sitting on a roof reflecting on how much he loves happy endings before popping back to the North Pole, and the kids riding their bikes before Dennis accidentally crashes into Mr. Wilson, ending the film.

• Maxwell Perry Cotton as Dennis Mitchell
• Robert Wagner as George Wilson
• Louise Fletcher as Martha Wilson
• Godfrey as Bob the Angel
• China Anne McClain as Margaret Wade
• Kim Schraner as Alice Mitchell
• George Newbern as Henry Mitchell
• Jake Beale as Joey McDonald
• Isaac Durnford as Jack Bratcher
• Heidi Hayes as Gina Gillotti
• Jack Noseworthy as David Bratcher
• Elliot Larson as Georgie

• A Dennis the Menace Christmas at IMDb