Santa should be worried. A recent trip to Grafton Street brought us past the Disney store, outside which a huge crowd gathered. We approached, and the younger daughter cried out, "Happy snowman!" Ah. Frozen.

My two girls joined the crowd and gazed at the windows. Olaf, the aforementioned happy snowman - it's a song; if you don't know, you don't need to - was present in several guises, including as a moving figure. It was, I thought, like Switzers' Christmas windows, which provided the magic of my mid-1970s childhood.

My girls were wide-eyed at the snowy spectacle of Frozen brought to life, and it was pretty cute to see them run inside to pet the nose of Sven, Frozen's Rudolph. Inside the shop, Let It Go was on a loop and grown adults sang along mindessly, but word-perfect.

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The shop in which Frozen merchandise far outnumbered anything else was pretty exciting to me, too, as I reach the end of a year-long immersion in all things Anna and Elsa. And, albeit silently, I sang along with Elsa's 'free-at-last' anthem with the best of them. This may become what Christmas is about, or Christmas 2014, at least. Frozen toys are at the top of most-wanted lists; Disney has re-released the film into cinemas; Poundland in the UK sold out of Frozen merchandise within 10 minutes, and the elevated price of Frozen dress-up outfits was not deterring Irish parents.

I wonder if somewhere, someone is rubbing their hands together with Disney-villain glee at how their plan worked out: Frozen has achieved world domination; part of me wonders if Frozen was created by an algorithm, such is the extent to which it has everything that not only a little girl wants, but, to a great extent, what parents want for their little girls, too.

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In case you've been living in a cave, or have absolutely no contact with the under-10s, this is the deal. Anna and Elsa are sisters. Princesses, obviously. Elsa has the power to freeze things, and when she hurts her little sister Anna, she locks herself away for all of their childhood and then, later, banishes herself to an icy kingdom where she can never hurt anyone again. Cue Let It Go, a song about leaving the past behind and being immune to hurt and pain, but overlooking the fact that this cuts you off from love, too.

The millions of little girls who know this song by heart might not fully grasp the subtleties, but their amazing mimicry of Anna's high-emotion arm-waving and head-shaking suggests that her defiance speaks to them on some instinctive level. Which works wonders on parents who worry about where their little girls will get their self-worth, and how they can help to boost same, before they're unleashed on Instagram.

Then, basically, and because she simply won't let her go, Anna goes in search of Elsa and sisterly love conquers all. Yes, there are romantic subplots, but they're not what matters. What matters is the girls, and this is what works for children and parents alike. Kids aren't into Disney movies for the adult notions of my-handsome-prince love. They care about kids' relationships with each other, and they love Anna and Elsa taking charge of their lives without interfering adults.

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For the parents, it's craftier again. So Anna and Elsa have impossible, improbable bodies - huge eyes and tiny noses, super-skinny limbs and tiny waists - but their self-worth lies in sisterly love, not any pesky prince, and they tell little girls to be brave and strong and assertive.

Honestly, if it wasn't so cute and catchy, you'd have to hate the unabashed manipulation of an entire generation, who will be around this Christmas in their Frozen PJs, playing with their Anna and Elsa dolls, and singing along to the soundtrack. The red and white of Santa and Christmas - admittedly foisted upon us by Coca Cola - is being usurped by the pale blue of Frozen, and, humming Let it Go like our mantra, we're blithely going along with it. Happy snowman is right.

Sunday Independent