Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That's just what Luther (Allen) and Nora Krank (Curtis) have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they'll skip the holiday altogether, despite the fact that they're usually the most fanatical about it. They might as well, since it won't be the same without their daughter, who's away in the tropics. They get the idea to JOIN their daughter in sunny paradise as a surprise, and thus, theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty; they won't be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they aren't even going to have a tree. But when their daughter surprises THEM by cutting her trip short and returning home for Christmas, there's a mad scramble to prepare themselves to have the traditional Christmas fanfare on extremely short notice.