The group is hired to babysit a defensive little boy while his aunt takes a cruise at Christmas. Can they thaw his heart with the spirit of the season? Includes their beautiful rendition of “Riu Chiu” and a quick verse of “Deck Us All with Boston Charlie”.
The Monkees arrive at a mansion to play a party. Peter’s looking forward to buying Christmas presents with his share of the pay. Mike reminds him of the disastrous presents he bought last year. Davy had a blazer that looked like a tent on him, Micky drank his chemistry set and turned into a monster, and Peter bought himself an intelligence test that exploded trying to figure him out. Mike was afraid to look at his until July, only to find Peter gave him snow skis.
Mrs. Vandersnoot breezes in and graciously thanks them for agreeing to babysit her nephew Melvin while she’s on her Christmas cruise. The Monkees tell her this wasn’t their agreement, and they’re not babysitters. Melvin, twelve years old and in a three-piece suit, enters the room with an executive air and emphatically agrees he doesn’t need childcare. His aunt offers again to take him along on the cruise, but he thinks he’ll have nothing to do for fun besides mah-jongg. His aunt seems to regret leaving him.
Back at the Monkees’ apartment, Melvin assures them he’s self-sufficient and they should go about their day. The Monkees take their places to practice. Melvin interrupts to question why Mike and Peter have the same instrument. After a quick correction and discussion, they decide to play a game. Mike tries to teach him Simon Says, but Melvin challenges them to a math problem instead. Micky’s confident he can warm Melvin up with yo-yo tricks but hits himself in the mouth without so much as a shrug from the boy. Davy’s getting fed up with Melvin’s attitude, and asks him why he wouldn’t like getting to hang out in a new place with cool guys like them. Melvin shoots back that it would be much better if the Monkees didn’t act like such - kids! Micky decides that since they’re dealing with a rich kid, they’ll do something a rich kid would like to do, like shopping.
At the department store, Micky tries to pump up Melvin’s mood, but he’s unimpressed. Within about ten minutes, Peter winds up riding a motorized bike all around the store with a giant stuffed monkey on the handlebars, breaking through Styrofoam building blocks and crashing into the Christmas tree. The damages come to $320, leaving $80 left of the aunt’s pay for their time with Melvin. Oh yes, plus $20 for the stretcher to take Peter home.
Back at the pad, a doctor advises Peter isn’t seriously injured. In the spirit of the season, he’ll generously reduce his $20 fee to $19.95. Melvin is as frustrated as the others. He asks the group how anyone can believe in the Christmas spirit. Where’s the proof? Mike says the Christmas spirt is demonstrated all year long, like when people smile at each other on the street. Melvin tries to hitch up his mouth but gives up quickly. The Monkees unanimously decide this kid needs lessons about Christmas.
First stop is to cut down a Christmas tree. The small ones are gone, and Melvin doesn’t see the point of hurting one’s back on such manual labor. Suddenly Micky bursts around the corner with a handful of holly and mistletoe. Mike takes a look and tells Micky he’s carrying a handful of –
“Poison ivy”, the doctor tells him, for a small fee of $20.00. The consequences of taking the job have now eaten up all their profit.
Moving on to tree trimming, Davy is pleased to finally be able to put the star on top of the tree but growing up and growing bigger are unfortunately not the same thing. One crash off the ladder later, the doctor is back to patch up Davy’s skull, the group will have to owe him the fee, and Melvin is convinced Christmas is a wasted effort. Peter protests, but Mike is ready to give up and agree. Melvin gets angry and says he doesn’t have to put up with them, his servants can look after him at home. Mike invites him to stay or go as he pleases. Melvin turns at the door with a hopeful look back at Mike, but still leaves. Davy complains that Melvin’s been ungrateful for everything they tried to do. Mike agrees, especially at a time of year for peace and love. Just then Mike realizes what Melvin actually needs.
Melvin opens the door at home to find the housekeeper and butler are just leaving for Christmas dinner. They ask if he’ll be all right alone, and he says he prefers it. Suddenly feeling very small in the mansion, he looks at his reflection in a silver tray and thinks about his time with the Monkees. He practices trying to smile but breaks down in tears from loneliness instead. He daydreams for a while about how he wishes he had acted while he was with them. Keeping his cynical guard up led him to miss out on all the fun.
Unknown to him, the Monkees are storming his castle. No longer responsible for or trying to profit from being Melvin’s babysitters, they’re back to deliver Christmas goodwill and love as Melvin’s friends. Up on the roof of the massive house, Davy and Micky argue whether Santa Micky or Elf Davy should drop down the chimney first. They both wind up falling in together. Santa emerges from the fireplace, covered in soot. Davy is right behind him, clean as you please. Micky asks how that’s possible and Davy explains he finally found an advantage to being the smallest Monkee. He just slipped straight down the middle. Micky blows a handful of soot into Davy’s face for spite.They start to sing “Deck The Halls” for Melvin. Mike and Peter join in, hauling the tree through the door. Melvin can’t believe it! He’s overjoyed to see them. To top it off, his aunt walks in right behind them and says she couldn’t bear to leave him alone. Finally dropping his grown-up demeanor, he happily hugs his aunt and tells her all about the fun he had.
The next scene fades in to the Monkees’ apartment set, nicely decorated for the season and dimly lit. The Monkees sing a beautiful acapella rendition of the Spanish carol “Riu Chiu”.
After the song, Mike tells the audience they’re going to introduce the crew who couldn’t make it home so their loved ones can see them for a moment. The episode ends with a joyous and increasingly chaotic roll call of everyone involved in bringing the show to life.
This episode provides examples of:
- Acting Your Intellectual Age: Melvin at the start of the episode.
- Defrosting Ice Prince: Melvin by the end of the episode, leaving Mike and Peter in a puddle of Cuteness Overload.
- Having a Gay Old Time: Seriously, if Davy and Micky's "Don we now our GAY! apparel" doesn't count, nothing does.
- Second-Face Soot: Micky's response to Davy bragging he can slip down a chimney without getting dirty, leaving Davy with a Ash Face and just barely missing getting a reaction from Melvin.
- Smash Cut: Mike's just about to say "poison ivy" as we cut to Micky covered in ointment at home.
