'Twas the Night

'Twas the Night
Promotional advertisement
Written by	Jim Lincoln Dan Studney Jenny Tripp
Directed by	Nick Castle
Starring	Josh Zuckerman Brenda Grate Bryan Cranston Jefferson Mappin
Theme music composer	Craig Safan
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Kevin Lafferty
Running time	84 minutes
Distributor	Buena Vista Television
Release
Original network	Disney Channel
Original release	December 7, 2001 (2001-12-07)

'Twas the Night is a 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie released in December for the Christmas holiday. Disney Channel has aired the film every year sometime in December.

A troubled and irresponsible man named Nick Wrigley (Bryan Cranston) was hacked by some group of criminals who are looking for a bank account code to Nick's boss. The criminals Bill (Jeff Geddis) and Harry (Sandy Robson) manage to find his apartment and start beating him for the Internet scam he pulled on them. They tell him they want their money by Christmas or else they will have their enforcer Eliot (Jung-Yul Kim) beat him up. Bill and Harry leave and Nick decides to run away. Nick is leaving the building when Eliot sees him leaving and chases him. Nick manages to escape when he runs to a North Pole stage where kids meet Santa Claus. He steals the costume for Santa Claus and walks to the bus stop in disguise and goes to his brother's house.

Meanwhile, the house's mischievous 14-year-old Danny Wrigley (Josh Zuckerman) welcomes his uncle because he has a better relationship with him than any other person in his family. Danny's father (Barclay Hope) however is less than thrilled to see his older brother, while his wife (Torri Higginson) welcomes Nick. Danny's parents, both doctors, are called into the hospital and reluctantly leave Nick to look after their three children. After receiving a threatening E-Mail from Bill and Harry that they are currently tracking him down to get the money out of him, Nick ends up having to unleash a virus to throw them off his trail. On Christmas Eve, Santa comes to the house with a device that can freeze time, in order to put the family's presents under the tree unnoticed. An object hits the device, time goes back to normal, and Nick hits him unconscious. They decide to deliver Santa's presents. While Nick is delivering the presents, unbeknown to Danny he is stealing from the houses. When Danny finds out that Nick is stealing he feels betrayed and goes back home in Santa's sleigh.

Meanwhile, Danny's younger siblings, Kaitlyn (Brenda Grate) and Peter (Rhys Williams) found an unconscious Santa (Jefferson Mappin) on the floor of their living room. He wakes up and convinces them that he is Santa. They find out that Danny and Nick stole the sleigh and presents and Santa says that Danny will be on the naughty list forever. When Danny comes back he apologizes to Santa, but the sleigh is broken.