Anxious to earn extra money to buy Christmas gifts for the children in his tenement building, elderly pensioner Charles Dooley takes a job as a bell-ringing street corner Santa Claus. He is unaware that his "employers" are actually swindlers who keep the funds for themselves, and he does not learn the truth until he goes to collect his pay on Christmas Eve. Desperate to keep from disappointing the children to whom he has promised gifts, he takes the money he has collected and uses it to buy the presents. Captain Braddock and Officer Seidel initially suspect that Dooley may be complicit in the swindle, but they learn the truth when they go to his tenement building to arrest him and find Dooley dressed as Santa Claus and giving much-appreciated gifts to the children and their parents. Captain Braddock realizes that he will be in the unenviable position of arresting "Santa Claus" on Christmas Eve unless he can somehow legitimize Dooley's well-intentioned actions.
—Sam Spear