However, with her cold-hearted soul and nasty attitude, she lacks a great deal of holiday cheer and makes her underpaid manager Bob Cratchett and her band anything but happy.

While in New York for a charity concert, Ebony (who was once part of the 1980s trio "Desire") is visited by the ghost of one of her former singing partners, Marli Jacob, who died in a car crash in 1990.

She also mentions that God knows Ebony took advantage of Marli's untimely death to plot her solo career and the fact that she is using the charity concert as an excuse to add to her own wealth.

The only person who made Ebony feel loved was her brother, Ronnie, and he tried to continue to be positive for their family, even after the two were removed from their father's custody by their grandmother's call to child services, and separated in foster care.

Ronnie subsequently left home for good and later married straight out of high school and had Olivia, before dying of a sudden brain aneurysm.

During her years as Desire's lead singer, Ebony was in a relationship with Bob, who was a DJ at the time, and he was considering marrying her before she broke up with him, favoring her career over love.

Ebony shows sympathy and concern for Bob's ailing son Tim, slowly realizing just how strained his relationship with his family is.

This angers Ebony because Ernie was supposed to be her trusted accountant, and also makes her realize why he has always insisted on her staying on a tight budget – the less she spends, the more he can steal from her.

The matter is made worse when one of her disgruntled former backup singers, Tina, theorizes that Ebony had planned to destroy Desire herself by setting up Marli to die in her car accident and deliberately financially ruining Terry, so she could take advantage and make her own solo career more successful.

She hires a chef (revealed to be Wolfgang Puck) to make a lavish Christmas dinner for her crew and encourages them to invite their families to her concert by buying up every ticket to the show that she can, over Ernie's protests regarding her budget.

After offering Bob an extended vacation to be with his family, Ebony reveals that she has pulled strings to get Tim into the best pediatric hospital in New York, and will personally fund his medical care to help him recover.

A year later, Ebony, Terry, Bob, Kelly, and a healthy Tim are seen with Olivia's family and her usual guests at her perennial Christmas party.