The House Without a Christmas Tree

As the writer of the original autobiographical material for "The House Without a Christmas Tree," I wanted to thank others for their kind remarks. The writer of the teleplay based on my book was the late Eleanor Perry who won an Emmy for her script. The show also won a Peabody Award. I'm told that it will soon be available on DVD. The book is still in print as a paperback at Scholastic Press. Lisa Lucas, (Addie) continued acting through her teenage years, doing guest appearances on TV and appearing in several features. She then studied at the Cordon Bleu in France and opened a French restaurant in New York City.

I first saw this on television when I was in elementary school back in the '70s. I actually found it on VHS video years ago and enjoy watching it regularly. It's an unusual role for Jason Robards, but he's excellent in it. And the actress who plays Addie is certainly homely by today's standards, but very authentic in the role and for the times, which are the 1940's in the Midwest. In fact all the actors and actresses are refreshingly real. If this movie were re-made today (which I hope it never is) it would undoubtedly be filled with "beautiful people." I think that is part of the appeal of this movie. It speaks to another time - not just the '40's, but to the 70's when it wasn't necessary to be Barbie doll perfect to be on television or in the movies. Times have changed, but this movie is a classic.

CBS was known, in the old days, for it's quality adaptations of literature, be it classic or contemporary. As a child of the 60's and 70's, I remember all of these with great warmth, but none more than "The House Without a Christmas Tree" (except possibly for "J.T.", the story of the little boy and his cat). This is a simply told story, but it shines with an inner light. Lisa Lucas plays Addie, a 10 year old girl who lives with her widowed father and his mother in Clear River, Nebraska during the late 40's. Her father is still terribly torn apart over the death of his wife, so torn apart that he can't stand to celebrate Christmas and remember how happy he was when she was alive. To this end, he won't allow a Christmas tree in the house. Addie is determined that she will have a tree this year, and tries every minute she can to weedle him into getting one.

There are true emotions in this film; Addie is hurt by her father's seeming indifference to her, and doesn't understand why he won't buy a tree. He can't bring himself to explain, so these two headstrong people continually clash. Addie's grandmother softens what she can, but her son won't listen to her. He is sometimes cruel to his daughter, to hide his own wounded feelings. He and Addie come to a truce of sorts at the end, but it's not a neatly wrapped up conclusion, and it feels just like a real father-daughter relationship. Jason Robards is devastating as the father. His eyes are so expressive; the pain bleeds out of them, and just as conversely the love he truly does feel for Addie also shows in them. Mildred Natwick is just fine as the grandmother. She is the warm, comfy composite of every grandmother who ever lived, but she also adds a bite to the character that is refreshing. The Nebraska setting does just as much to enhance the story.

This was broadcast in 1972 on CBS, and not shown again till Disney picked it up in the very early 80's, along with the other two movies taken from Gail Rock's wonderful reminiscences of growing up in rural Nebraska, "The Thanksgiving Treasure" and "Addie and the King of Hearts". This film is available on VHS tape, and is highly recommended for the whole family. My own children always adored it.

I was only 10 years old when "The House Without a Christmas Tree" was shown for the first time on CBS on Christmas Day in 1972.

I have some rather vivid, but pleasant, memories of when I first saw this TV movie. That year, what Christmas presents I do remember receiving included a model car kit (which my father spent most of the day helping me build), three record albums, and a cassette tape recorder (which I wanted most of all). Later that evening, we all gathered around the TV and watched "The House Without a Christmas Tree;" needless to say, it was an excellent story (I also remember the librarian at our elementary school highly recommended this special, as well as encouraging us to also read the book). The following year, my family got their first color console TV (we had only a small 17-inch black-and-white set before that), so we were able to see "The House Without a Christmas Tree" again, in color - and that was the last I ever saw of the movie (which CBS recorded on videotape rather than film) until December 1987, when CBS reran "The House Without a Christmas Tree" for the very last time. Unfortunately, that final airing was the victim of a "hatchet job," as the network had to chop out about 10 minutes in order for the movie to fit the time slot.

After that last airing, I remember writing to CBS/Fox Video (which has since become 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) and asking them if they would ever release "The House Without a Christmas Tree," uncut, on VHS tape, to which they blithely (and somewhat smugly) replied, "At this time we do not own the rights to distribute it on videocassette." Mercifully, after five years elapsed, Fox finally came to their senses and released the movie on VHS tape; I bought a copy of the tape in December 1992, and now every time I visit my family up in Davison, Michigan for the holidays I've instituted a new tradition - my mother and I watch "The House Without a Christmas Tree" each year, on Christmas night, together. (Unfortunately, my father went to his final reward at the outset of 1992.)

On December 1, 2007, I was shopping at a local Kmart and was perusing through the holiday DVDs when what should I happen to see but a DVD copy of "The House Without a Christmas Tree," and it was the last copy on the shelf! I'm really glad I bought it (the disc having been on sale that week also helped); I wondered when Paramount, which now distributes all of CBS' DVD product, was ever going to release it on disc, and that videotape I had of the show was beginning to deteriorate after 16 years. "The House" looks and sounds as good as the first time I saw it in color in 1973, and now I won't have to worry - at least, for the next decade - about the DVD wearing out soon.

Now if only Paramount would consider putting "The Holiday Treasure" and "Addie and the King of Hearts" (the other two specials in the series) on DVD next, that would really be great!

This is one of my Christmas favorites. It has great details of Christmas and school in the 40s and 50s, bringing back many familiar memories to those Baby Boomers whose fathers went off to work with a lunch pail. Despite the title, it's not a sappy show. Addie looks and acts like a real kid, and the show received good reviews when it was broadcast. Mildred Natwick is wonderful as Addie's grandmother. It isn't really a kid's show, in that it is written from the point of view of the grown Addie looking back at her relationship with her father. If you like this kind of bittersweet story, you would probably like Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," and the short "Christmas Snows, Christmas Winds." They are childhood memories from the same era.