The House Without A Christmas Tree - Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis

The film takes place in fictional Clear River, Nebraska in 1946. 10-year-old Addie Mills, a lonely girl behind her large horn-rimmed glasses, lives in a plain, ordinary house with her widowed father James and her loving grandmother. Her mother had died shortly after she was born, and this builds resentment in her father, who wonders why his beloved wife had to die rather than their tiny, sickly baby. His only interaction with Addie seems to be in frequent corrections of her. Since his wife's death, there has never been a Christmas tree in the Mills "home," although Addie has constantly challenged this omission. Finally she wins her class Christmas tree in a school contest—which she wins using a guessing technique she learned from none other than her father—and brings it home for her first Christmas with a tree. James promptly orders the tree to be removed. His mother speaks up, reminding him that the house belongs to her; he responds by threatening to take Addie and clear out, leaving her alone in the house. In the middle of the night, Addie sneaks out and removes the tree, to deliver it to the only one of her classmates who also goes treeless at Christmas. (This is mainly because her family is more economically-troubled—and larger, teeming with children who would be thrilled to finally have a tree.) At last James rethinks his position and comes home with a tree and several boxes of ornaments—everything but a star. James goes up to the attic and brings down just such a star as he had not brought home, one much more magnificently-made than the one Addie had made for her prize tree, out of tinfoil that "everybody" saved and collected back in his day, such as from chewing-gum wrappers. When Addie admires the star her father shows her, he reveals that her mother had crafted it especially for her much-longed-for first baby's first Christmas. Then he lifts her up and they place her star on the tree. Viewers are led to believe that this begins their improved father-daughter relationship and they will finally start to grow closer. The show ends with the voice of Addie speaking as a grown woman: her dear grandmother has died and she has moved to the big city, but returns every year for Christmas with her father, who always has a Christmas tree ready for her to hang her star.