A Lonely Girl Reaches Out to Her Father in The House Without a Christmas Tree

I have always been very fond of Christmas movies and specials, but this year I am becoming aware of how many I have missed over the years. Last night, I watched The House Without a Christmas Tree, a 1972 television special that my boyfriend Will especially likes. About an hour long, it deals with a small family striving for a Christmas miracle of which the titular tree is only a symbol.

It’s 1946, and 10-year-old Addie (Lisa Lucas), a precocious girl with spectacles and long, braided brown hair, decides that she would really love to have a tree this Christmas, even though she is reluctant to admit how much this long-neglected tradition tugs at her. She lives with her practical but warm-hearted grandmother (Mildred Natwick), who is the most attentive adult in her life. Addie also receives support from her sweet-natured fifth-grade teacher, Miss Thompson (Kathryn Walker), which makes her eager to lead the class effort to buy her an extra-special Christmas present.

Unfortunately, the person she most longs to connect with remains consistently distant. Her father Jamie (Jason Robards) is stingy with his money, which is frustrating for a lively child but understandable for someone who lived through the Depression not long ago. What’s more demoralizing is his stinginess with his time. Jamie rarely converses with Addie or engages in any kind of quality activity with her, and most of his interactions with her are brusque and disapproving. Addie wants a tree to bring light and life into a drab home, but what she really wants is a relationship with her father.

All three leads do a wonderful job in establishing the characters as individuals of depth and real human emotion. Lucas brings an intellectual but angsty quality to her performance, revealing hues of sweetness and dejection at being so disregarded by the most important person in her young life. Natwick’s is a maternal presence, and while her performance is subtler, we also see the emotion bottled up behind a stoic veneer.

Of the three, the only one I was previously familiar with was Robards, and he is excellent as a man who has retreated into himself in the aftermath of tragedy. He speaks little, except when he is pushed to point of a frightening outburst, but his craggy visage says a great deal. The change that occurs within this weary widower over the course of the special is not so dramatic as Ebenezer Scrooge’s but is deeply touching nonetheless.

Adding to the charm of the tale are the flannelgraph-style illustrations that punctuate the action and the cute sub-plot about Addie’s love-hate relationship with classmate Billy Wild (Brady McNamara), which shadows her relationship with her dad in some ways. The historical setting is also fun and most noticeable through the girls’ dresses and Addie’s constant use of the word “nifty,” along with the difference in prices that makes a shop owner’s kind gesture considerably more significant than it would seem by today’s standards.

At just over an hour in length, The House Without a Christmas Tree doesn’t take long to watch, and its heartfelt tale still has the time needed to let its events unfold gradually. A stirring story of reconciliation, it celebrates the beauty of traditional Christmas trappings but, more than that, of a family whose members truly appreciate, respect and make merry with one another.