In this year’s Christmas episode of Big City Greens, Bill and Cricket search for the perfect Christmas tree while later, Tilly gets struck with a bit of that gloomy day ennui that so many of us get.
Dream Tree
It’s time for the Greens to celebrate their first Christmas in the country (as far as we’ve known them anyway), and its time for Cricket and Tilly to spend their first Christmas with Grandpa Nick. As fun as this all sounds, Bill only has one mission: to find the perfect Christmas Tree this year.
Every Christmas Tree he has come across thus far has been deemed unsatisfactory, and he will wait until the Christmas Spirit guides him with signs to find the most perfect one. Right on cue, Cricket wakes up from his car-traveling slumber and describes his dream that featured the most perfect Christmas Tree. Bill lights up, taking this as his sign, and asks Cricket to describe everything he can about the dream.
Using the description as clues, the boys set out to find the most perfect Christmas Tree.
Tilly, Nancy, and Gramma are ready to start their caroling throughout Smalton, and Nick is going to come along to get his hands on Cocoa – his one vice (we all know it’s not).
As they go through town, Tilly realizes that Nick is not singing. He is merely lip syncing along with the group. After he is called out by his granddaughter for this, and as the thermos of cocoa is now empty, Nick gets upset and tries to leave.
Out in the forest, Bill and Cricket are still searching for their tree, following a series of clues – or interpretations of the clues. Example: In Cricket’s dream, there were frozen fish sticks. That must mean they must have to go to this frozen pond where they have fished, and sure enough, not only are there fish frozen in the pond, there are frozen sticks as well. Frozen fish sticks! The next clues, including two snowballs and a sledding adventure, come to fruition after a series of events turns Bill and Cricket into rolling heaps of snow, blasting through a fence and inadvertently creating the parts needed to build a sled. All that’s left are the sweet sounds of Christmas Horns. Through the bushes, they spot some on a moose. Well, technically they are antlers but I guess we’re goin’ with it.
After what inevitably turns into a moose attack/sledding adventure, the boys find themselves in a meadow and this surely must be where they’ll find the perfect Christmas Tree.
Back in town, Tilly discovers there is something more deeply rooted as to why Nick won’t sing in public, and unearths the secret – he sang in a choir when he was younger and was ridiculed for it, vowing never to sing again.
After a bit of coaxing, the group starts performing once again and it gets to Nick’s portion of the song, and he belts it. He really can sing!
In the meadow, Bill finds the perfect tree. The stars have literally aligned to show it to him, and Cricket exclaims that that’s the perfect tree – except they’re not talking about the same tree. Bill has found a tall, full, beautiful tree, whereas Cricket has found only a tiny sapling, but is in love with it exclaiming that it is just like the one from his dream. The moose comes back to attack again, and Bill and Cricket quickly save the small tree. The Moose destroys Bill’s tree and launches it skyward while the guys run away and back to the safety of their home.
Cricket runs inside with his tree, and regales the family with tales of the day. Bill, dejected, is standing outside looking for some kind of sign that he should get the better tree.
Alas, that sign is received when he hears the sounds of his family laughing and enjoying the stories around the small tree, not caring about how big or how full the tree is. Perhaps that’s what Christmas is really about. With a little bit more singing from Nick, we close out this Christmas episode of Big City Greens.
Blue Greens
It’s a gloomy day outside. Something we all can relate too is the bit of ennui that comes over each of us on a day like this. While Cricket wants to play games with his sister, Tilly is stricken by her own dose of gloominess, and decides to stay in her melancholy mood for the day.
Thinking his sister is saddened and in need of cheering up, Cricket sets out to do what he can to make his sister happy.
Down in the basement, Gloria is looking to make a bit of money and sell her dresser, and instead of asking literally anybody else in the house for help, she decides to be the strong and independent woman she is (as Admiral Mustard reminds us and her), and tries to move the dresser upstairs on her own. Spoiler alert: she gets the dresser stuck in the doorway, and has now trapped herself in her basement bedroom.
Cricket is trying his best to get Tilly to cheer up, and what better way to make Tilly happy than with a fun animal. Kidnapping a raccoon (momentarily), Cricket tries to convince Tilly that the young animal needs someone to care for it. This is right up Tilly’s alley, but alas, it does not do the trick and the ennui still takes hold. Speaking of taking hold, the raccoon’s mom has returned, and isn’t thrilled about it.
Gloria is still trapped in the basement and is doing her best to be strong and independent, but it might be time to ask for help – even if it means getting help from Cricket. But nobody can hear her? Why is that? Well, because Bill is trying out a new tool while Gramma is trying to perform some at-home plumbing. Not for long though, as Cricket comes in and asks for help in trying to cheer Tilly up. And what would be greater than a bit of fun with her dear old dad!?
Bill to the rescu— wait. The ennui is contagious. Now Bill is speaking french too and falling into his own state of ennui and melancholy – and he is NOT pulling off that beret.
Cricket decides it’s Gramma’s turn to go in, but they both know that she needs some kind of protection or she is susceptible to the ennui. They put a blindfold on her and cover her ears with headphones and whip up some of her famous biscuits to help cheer up her son and granddaughter.
On her way in though, Gramma takes a bit of a stumble and the headphones come off. It’s too late. She now has been subject to the melancholy state, and is now in a state of ennui herself.
Gloria is downstairs still, and makes one last attempt to get help by contacting the buyer of the dresser and explaining her situation – how nobody will answer her, even how the Big City police think it’s a prank call. As she is about to send the message, her phone dies and her charger is upstairs. Fortunately, she finds a hammer and now it’s time to leave.
Cricket is outside and has rounded up every light source he could find and has plugged them all in and aimed them at the house. After all, it was the gloomy day that triggered this mood in most of his family, so the closest he can get to sunlight is sure to do the trick, right?
After firing up his light contraption, the light holds for a few seconds before Cricket shorts out most of the neighborhood. Defeated, Cricket now is feeling that bit of sadness, that melancholy, that ennui, because he can’t cheer up his sister. The rain starts and Cricket joins the rest of his family and gets into the same mood. Tilly explains that this just happens sometimes, it’s not to worry about or need cheering up for but it did make her a little happy to know her brother tried so hard.
Meanwhile, Gloria has now blasted through the dresser with her hammer, exploding it into pieces in the hallway while she is simultaneously cheering to herself for doing it all on her own, calling today the best day of her life – in stark contrast to the rest of the Green family mere feet away.
This episode of Big City Greens is now on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW website. It will soon be available on Disney+ as well, where you can catch up with earlier episodes and seasons of the hit series.