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| - After Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis) see their daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), depart for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, empty nest syndrome sets in. Luther calculates they spent $6,132 during the previous year's holiday season and, not looking forward to celebrating Christmas without their daughter, he suggests they invest the money usually spent on decorations, gifts, and entertainment and treat themselves to a ten day Caribbean cruise instead. Skeptical at first, Nora finally agrees.
- Based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham; Blair Krank (Julie Gonzalo), the daughter of Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) departs for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru, where she'll be during Christmastime. The Kranks, along with their entire neighborhood, have always made a huge deal of celebrating Christmas with decorations and parties, but after their daughter leaves and they realize they spent over $6,000 last year to celebrate, this year they elect to go on a cruise in the Caribbean instead. They won't be celebrating Christmas this year like they'd always done previously — no decorations, no parties, no gifts, no fiberglass snowman on their roof...
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| abstract
| - After Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis) see their daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), depart for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, empty nest syndrome sets in. Luther calculates they spent $6,132 during the previous year's holiday season and, not looking forward to celebrating Christmas without their daughter, he suggests they invest the money usually spent on decorations, gifts, and entertainment and treat themselves to a ten day Caribbean cruise instead. Skeptical at first, Nora finally agrees. The Kranks are amazed to discover they are considered pariahs as a result of their decision. Luther's coworkers think he has become Ebenezer Scrooge, local stationer Aubie is distressed to lose their order for their engraved greeting cards and Christmas Eve party invitations, the Boy Scout troop is upset and angered when they refuse to purchase one of their Christmas trees to help them make enough money for a camporee, and the police are stunned to discover they won't be buying this year's calendar from them. Most vocal in their objections are neighbors Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) and Walt Scheel (M. Emmet Walsh). Vic, who's the unelected leader of the street, organizes a campaign to force them to decorate their home so Hemlock Street won't lose the coveted award for best decorations. Walt doesn't seem to like Luther, so his efforts are primarily personal. However, it is revealed that his wife Bev is suffering from a serious illness, perhaps dampening his holiday spirits. Children picket, neighbors constantly call, and Christmas carolers try to revive the Kranks' holiday spirit by singing on their lawn which Luther stops them by freezing his sidewalk. Even the newspaper gets into the act by publishing a front page story complete with a photograph of the unlit Krank house and states that their street has lost the prize and won sixth place because of how thet refused to decorate their house. Still, they continue to stand their ground. The two are in the process of packing on Christmas Eve morning when they receive a call from Blair, who announces she's at Miami International Airport, en route home with her Peruvian fiancé as a surprise for her parents. She's anxious to introduce Enrique to her family's holiday traditions, and when she asks if they're having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes, much to Luther's dismay. Comic chaos ensues as they finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with only twelve hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law arrive. While Nora scrambles to find food, especially Blair's favorite ham, Luther buys a tree from the Boy Scouts but they only have one left; a dead, ugly, non-green one. He buys it anyway but rejects it by throwing it in his backyard. While Vic's children picket at Luther's house, he arranges to borrow the tree of a neighbor who is going away for a couple of days. He and Vic's son, Spike, try to transport it across the street on Spike's Radio Flyer wagon, only for the neighbors to confuse this to be him stealing it, and to be stopped by the police, who assume they have stopped a robbery in progress. Nora comes home enraged at Luther for making the Christmas tree a "Disaster" and how she had to buy "Smoked Trout" to replace the ham (because it rolled into the street and got smashed by a truck). Once it is established why Luther is trying frantically to decorate his home, the neighbors come out full force to help him and Nora ready it for Blair. She calls to say she landed from Miami. Luther tries to answer the phone first so he can send her back to Peru, but fails; Nora beats him to it. After giving everybody, including Blair and Enrique, a unthankful and non-friendly toast, Luther tries to convince Nora to accept the cruise when she confronts him for the toast, but she refuses, disgusted that he isn't happy that Blair's home. He sadly slips out of the house and goes across the street to the Scheel home. Bev's cancer, once in remission, has returned and, knowing this may be their last holiday together, Luther insists they take the cruise in place of him and Nora, going so far as to offer to take care of their hated cat, Muffles. At first they decline, but ultimately they accept his generosity, and he, whose holiday spirit has been renewed, realizes that skipping Christmas wasn't as good an idea as he had originally thought.
- Based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham; Blair Krank (Julie Gonzalo), the daughter of Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) departs for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru, where she'll be during Christmastime. The Kranks, along with their entire neighborhood, have always made a huge deal of celebrating Christmas with decorations and parties, but after their daughter leaves and they realize they spent over $6,000 last year to celebrate, this year they elect to go on a cruise in the Caribbean instead. They won't be celebrating Christmas this year like they'd always done previously — no decorations, no parties, no gifts, no fiberglass snowman on their roof... Well, the neighbors aren't pleased about this. More specifically, they're pissed and won't take no for an answer, bullying the Kranks relentlessly to try and force them into relenting and celebrating —
* They scrutinize the Kranks, referring to Luther as Scrooge.
* A group of kids threaten to break into their house to steal Frosty and put him on their roof against their will for them...and when they fail, stand on their lawn repeatedly chanting "free Frosty, free Frosty!", additionally ringing them on their phone seven times a day.
* A group of carolers come to their house every night, peer in their windows, and holler at the top of their lungs for hours.
* Eventually, even the neighborhood police turn on the Kranks. In the end, Blair rings and informs them that she's coming home for Christmas with a new fiancée who has never celebrated it before and wants to know what it's like, forcing them to admit to their neighbors that they were "wrong" and "being selfish"...so they help them scramble a Christmas party together at the last minute. The closing shot is of the two embracing and agreeing that skipping Christmas was a bad idea.
* The Complainer Is Always Wrong: The entire plot.
* Dreaming of a White Christmas
* Imaginary Friend: When Luther's arrested and his "accomplice" runs off, the cops jokingly ask him if he has one.
* Indecisive Deconstruction: Of Saving Christmas or Yet Another Christmas Carol. Or we may be giving them too much credit and it's just a case of Unintentionally Sympathetic Designated Villain.
* Indecisive Parody: The whole damn plot. The first two-thirds are a jab against suburban conformity and the commercialization of Christmas, which would've made for a pretty good (if somewhat dark) film...if, at pretty much the last minute, the whole plot didn't turn on its head so it not only celebrated the aspects it was mocking not five minutes ago, but very firmly chided the notion of working against them at all.
* Jerkass: Luther seems to be one just for the sake of it.
* Many of the neighbors qualify.
* The Needs of the Many: The neighbors want the Kranks to conform, at least on the topic of exterior decorations, in order to have their whole block win a prize.
* Saving Christmas
* Serious Business: Christmas is this to the neighbors because the Kranks' decision not to decorate their home will jeopardize the neighbors' chances of winning the coveted prize for best decorated block in the neighborhood. Basically, ego and pride are the only reasons the Kranks are being harassed.
* What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Nora's search for a hickory ham.
* Worst News Judgment Ever: The Kranks' decision to go on a cruise ends up on the front page of the local paper.
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