In the main story, Oscar the Grouch plants the seeds of doubt in Big Bird's mind whether Santa Claus can actually get down chimneys to deliver Christmas presents.

In confusion, he ends up violently eating a pencil, a typewriter to type a letter, and a telephone to call the North Pole.

Oscar, true to form, starts needling him about how the Easter Bunny can hide all the eggs in one night, only to be rebuked by Gordon and Susan as Big Bird begins to fret about the holidays all over again.

The special concludes with Susan and Gordon returning to their apartment to find that Cookie Monster has eaten the needles and decorations off their Christmas tree.

In various re-airings on PBS in the late 1980s the closing scene with Susan and Gordon finding that Cookie Monster ate the needles and discovered off their Christmas tree was cut, likely due to a combination of the PBS closing credits at the end of the original and for Cookie Monster's excessive belching.

[citation needed] On video releases since the mid-1990s, the 1978 Children's Television Workshop logo with Christmas music was cut.

Approximately 2 minutes of Big Bird skating to Jose Feliciano’s recording of "Feliz Navidad" was removed.