It's Christmas Eve, early 1930s on Walton's Mountain. As the family prepares for the holiday, they anxiously await Pa's return home from his job in the city some 50 miles away. He is late, and Ma and the grandparents hear on the radio a report of a bus accident that worries them. Oldest son John-Boy must step up to help grandfather cut down a Christmas tree, and upon learning the concern about Daddy sets out to find him.
Patricia Neal
as Olivia Walton
Richard Thomas
as John-Boy Walton
Edgar Bergen
as Ebenezer Walton
Ellen Corby
as Esther Walton
Dorothy Stickney
as Emily Baldwin
Josephine Hutchinson
as Mamie Baldwin
William Windom
as Charlie Snead
Cleavon Little
as Hawthorne Dooley
Andrew Duggan
as John Walton
David Huddleston
as Sheriff Ep Bridges
Woodrow Parfrey
as Ike Godsey
Sally Chamberlin
as City Lady
