Christmas in Dickensian London. Curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghostly spectres. Their mission: his redemption.

The Baker brood moves to Chicago after patriarch Tom gets a job coaching football at Northwestern University, forcing his writer wife, Mary, and the couple's 12 children to make a major adjustment. The transition works well until work demands pull the parents away from home, leaving the kids bored -- and increasingly mischievous.