Howard's festive spirit is beginning to wear thin. He has accidentally annihilated the dolls' house Dick has been painstakingly restoring for baby Emily and must somehow prevent Dick from finding out.

Things start to unravel when a concerned family friend turns up to mourn a very much alive Dick... and Howard manages to give her prize stud corgi some unintentional surgery while trying out the garden strimmers set aside for Dick's Christmas present.

Howard and Mel escape the increasingly tense atmosphere with a spot of last minute Christmas shopping, but this is short-lived as Howard is involved in an almighty fight with a belligerent Santa!