Chip 'n Dale are slumbering in a dead tree trunk in a wintry forest when they are disturbed by the thudding of an axe. Turns out that it's Christmas, and Donald Duck is chopping down a Christmas tree.
Intrigued, the chipmunks sneak over to Donald's cottage. When they see all the goodies inside—candies and fruit and, most important, nuts—Chip and Dale invade the cottage in order to steal Donald's stuff.
Tropes:
- Abnormal Ammo: The climactic artillery duel finds Donald and the chipmunks exchanging volleys of tomatoes, candy, and Christmas ornaments.
- Apple of Discord: Donald, dressed as Santa, sows dissension between Chip and Dale by giving one a regular-sized chestnut and giving the other a gigantic one. Sure enough, the chipmunks start fighting each other.
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: One might expect a Christmas-themed cartoon, let alone one made by Disney, to end with the antagonists making friends. Nope. The artillery duel ends with the chipmunks slipping a stick of dynamite down a telephone wire and blowing Donald up. After he surrenders (he actually waves a white flag), Chip and Dale use Donald's wind-up toys to assist in hauling all of Donald's chestnuts out of the house.
- Christmas Episode: Donald Duck does battle with Chip and Dale at Christmas, under a tree among all the presents and candies.
- Duel to the Death: Dale is startled to see a wind-up toy of Donald's that does this. He bows to the two mechanical men after they bow, and is surprised when they pull out guns and shoot at each other. Granted, they are only popguns, but still...
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: In many Chip and Dale cartoons, the chipmunks are stirred into action by their opponent disturbing their habitat, like Mickey and Pluto disturbing their nest, or Donald chopping down their tree. In this one, it's simply a matter of the chipmunks seeing Donald's goodies and deciding to steal them. On the other hand, whereas Donald's wanting to drive away Chip and Dale is understandable, he's all too enthusiastic in trying to do so.
- Offscreen Crash: Donald marches Chip and Dale into a wind-up paddy wagon, which he then winds up and sets going. Then Donald sticks his foot in the way. We see the toy wagon flip over Donald's foot and go offscreen to the left. The camera remains on Donald while there's a crashing noise, then there's a cut to the toy wagon smashed up against the wall with the chipmunks crawling out.
- Reaching Between the Lines: Chip and Dale's main strategy during the artillery duel has Dale placing a phone on Donald's side of the battlefield, with Donald getting blasted by a candy ball fired from the other side of the line by Chip whenever he answers the phone. Donald attempts the same method by sending a stick of dynamite over the phone. Unfortunately, not only does the fuse go out before it can explode, but also the chipmunks would end up pulling the same trick on him, with their stick of dynamite successfully detonating.
- Suddenly Voiced: As in past shorts, a majority of Chip 'n Dale's dialogue is lifted from their first appearance in Private Pluto, with the exception of one line, when Chip chastises Dale for messing around, he tells him, "You could get into more trouble!"
- Visual Pun: The last shot shows Chip and Dale marching out of Donald's cottage in an imitation of the famous "Spirit of '76
◊" painting, with Chip in the center, Dale being the soldier with a head bandage playing a fife, and a wind-up toy as the drummer boy on the left.
