Twelve-year-old Charlie is facing his first Christmas since his mother's passing and he is having a difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit. His father and sister buy a Christmas tree and try, unsuccessfully, to get him to trim the tree with them. Charlie seems destined to miss out on the spirit of Christmas altogether until Charlie's scout troop spends an evening in a nursing home signing to the residents and playing board games with them. When Charlie meets old Mr. Henry and a young girl named Carol his perspective on Christmas is changed as he forgets his own problems in the service of others.