Continuity mistake: In court, the camera shows Susan to judge her reaction to the lawyer talking, and she is sitting upright in her seat. It then changes to Dori, who is sitting right next to Susan. If you look in the bottom left hand corner however, you'll see that Susan is no longer sitting upright, and is instead leaning on Dori. There would be no time however for Susan to lean on her mother in the time the camera takes to move to another shot.
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the film, when the drunk Santa falls off the parade float, you can see a sack full of presents on the back of the float. In the next shot, when people are lifting the sleigh off him, the presents have disappeared.
Continuity mistake: When drunk Santa knocks the sleigh off the float, you see the band members scatter. When the sleigh falls to the ground, there is nothing near it. In the next shot, the cymbal that clatters to the ground is right next to the sleigh, when it wasn't in the previous shot.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Kris and Susan are in Susan's bedroom talking about Christmas presents, the pillow behind Susan has a flowery border on the right. When Susan climbs out of bed to fetch her picture, the border is on the left. When she gets back in, the border switches back from left to right. (00:44:15)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Mr. Bedford shows the money clip to the judge, the bill shows the full "In God We Trust" when Mr. Bedford looks at it. In the previous shot the clip shows all money folded in half so we should not be able to see that text from the fold in the bill.
Continuity mistake: When the drunk Santa is talking with Mr. Duff in the bar, he puts his Santa hat down on the table. Two shots later, the hat is gone. It returns towards the end of the scene.
Continuity mistake: Susan's bang is significantly above her eyebrows when she watches the parade at Bryan's house. That same evening during Thanksgiving dinner, it touches her eyebrows.
Answer: The original Dutch girl was a World War II orphan. That wouldn't make sense in the newer remake. And why wouldn't a Santa know sign language? It would seem more common than Dutch.