Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree

Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the second series. It is based on the book of the same name.

Plot
It is the day before Christmas Eve and the final preparations are being made for a carol party to be held at Tidmouth. All the engines are working hard setting up the decorations. This year, the Fat Controller wants the carol party to be extra special.

The Fat Controller is waiting very impatiently when Thomas arrives. The Fat Controller tells Thomas that their Christmas tree has come and Thomas has to fetch it while Duck watches over Annie and Clarabel. Thomas asks the Fat Controller if he and the other engines can sing carols too, and the Fat Controller promises to think about it. Thomas is very excited and rushes off, collecting the tree safely. But on the way home, he ends up stuck in a snowdrift. Thomas knows that he must arrive back in time and whistles for help, but cannot back out of the heavy snow. Suddenly, an avalanche erupts and buries Thomas and the tree.

Back at the yards, the engines are waiting for Thomas. His delay begins to make them cross, but they are silenced by the Fat Controller, who tells them that snow has knocked the telephone lines down and they must assume that Thomas is stranded. Everyone now feels sorry, and Donald and Douglas puff away to save him. They soon reach a snow drift much deeper than the rest. A cry for help is heard, and Donald thinks he hears something, but Douglas thinks it may be the wind. Hearing the cry carefully, they realise that they are at the drift where Thomas is buried.

Time passes as the workmen dig through the snow to free him. Thomas' driver and fireman, who had taken shelter in a nearby cottage, join the rescue, and Thomas is freed from the snow. Thomas follows the twins home and they arrive just as night falls. The Fat Controller rewards the engines by granting them permission to sing carols. The engines happily chuff away to the station. Lights come on, and the Fat Controller declares three cheers for Thomas and his friends.

Harold soon joins the party bringing Father Christmas, much to everyone's joy. As the carols begin, Thomas tells Percy that although getting stuck in the snow was no fun, it was all worth it for the celebration and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Donald and Douglas
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Harold
 * Father Christmas
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Bill and Ben
 * Diesel
 * BoCo
 * Troublesome Trucks
 * Terence
 * Bertie
 * Trevor
 * Jeremiah Jobling
 * Farmer Finney
 * Jem Cole
 * The Vicar of Wellsworth
 * The Little Boys
 * The Ffarquhar Policeman
 * The Lady with the Floppy Green Hat
 * Harold's Pilots

Locations

 * Tidmouth
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Tidmouth Goods Station
 * Tidmouth Yards
 * Ffarquhar Sheds
 * The Branch Line Cutting
 * Suddery Castle
 * The Watermill
 * The Works
 * Wellsworth

Trivia

 * Father Christmas' large scale figure is a dressed-up Fat Controller. His small scale figure is the Fat Controller's overalls figure from Coal repainted.
 * Stock footage from the first series episodes Thomas, Terence and the Snow and Thomas and the Guard is used.
 * This episode marks the last occurrences of several things:
 * The last episode narrated by Ringo Starr in the UK, Trine Lossius Borg in Norway and Louise Raeder in Sweden (only from the original dubs). Although, Ringo Starr would later voice Thomas again in The Official BBC Children in Need Medley.
 * The last episode translated by Beate Mulholland in the TV dub in Norway.
 * The last episode produced by Robert D. Cardona.
 * The last episode made by Clearwater Features.
 * Britt Allcroft's last episode as executive producer until the sixth series.
 * The last episode until the seventeenth series episode Kevin's Cranky Friend and the special, King of the Railway to have the same narrator for both the UK and US, excluding the episodes on New Friends for Thomas and Other Adventures, the special, The Great Discovery and the episodes from the original cut of the twelfth series.
 * The last episode where Donald and Douglas' nameplates are on their smokeboxes until Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure and the twentieth series episode Toby's New Friend, respectively.
 * The last appearances of The Lady with the Floppy Green Hat and the Branch Line Cutting.
 * The last episode where Harold's blades are achieved using a transparent disk. Starting with the third series episode Percy's Promise (which is two episodes after this episode) onwards, his blades are now shown when he is flying.
 * The last appearance of Suddery Castle until the seventh series episode, Emily's New Coaches.
 * The last episode to feature Edward's angry face without teeth until the seventh series episode, Edward's Brass Band.
 * The last episode video edited by Kang Hyun-gi for JEI TV until the fourth series episode, Granpuff in South Korea.
 * The last episode to feature Thomas' laughing face without teeth and his bigger footsteps as well as for the laughing faces of the other engines.
 * The last episode to feature Annie's low front buffer-beam.
 * The last episode to feature Terence's happy face without teeth.
 * The last episode to create the score with the Roland Jupiter 6 synthesizer from original material.
 * The last episode to feature Thomas' annoyed face in its original form. From the next episode onward, the face would have more stern-looking eyebrows to represent an angrier look.
 * This is the only Ringo Starr-narrated episode released in the US without him properly re-recording certain lines. In this version, due to Starr's departure before he had a chance to re-narrate certain lines, all lines mentioning the Fat Controller were omitted but were not re-narrated with "Sir Topham Hatt" in their place, leaving some large sections of pauses in some places. The one line that was not omitted was the UK name for Santa Claus, Father Christmas. This version can only be found on the VHS release of Shining Time Station's Christmas Special Tis a Gift, which was first released on 27th October 1992.
 * A deleted scene shows Thomas laughing when he is pulled out of the snow drift.
 * George Carlin's dub of this episode was not featured on an episode of Shining Time Station. It first appeared on Thomas' Christmas Party and Other Favorite Stories on 24th August 1994.
 * Daisy and Henrietta are the only characters introduced in the first two series not to appear in this episode. The reason for the former's absence was due to the fact she and BoCo shared the same chassis.
 * A scene of Donald and Douglas passing the watermill was originally going to appear in this episode, but it was cut and used as the opening shot in the previous second series episode, The Deputation.
 * Some of the passengers are represented by 1:32 scale Scalextric and Marklin figures.
 * The Ladybird Book is far different to the episode, and is actually closer to the original book instead, featuring scenes of Donald and Douglas passing Percy, Toby and Duck as well as mentioning how they wanted to rest at a station.
 * This episode's Korean title was just a transcription to Hangul of the "Christmas Party."
 * This episode first aired on 17th December 1986 and was repeated on 13th July 1988 for the 1988 repeat double-bills. This episode was not shown on further repeats after 1988.

Goofs

 * When Thomas leaves Tidmouth Station to pick up the tree and when he and the Scottish Twins pass the Water Mill, his train has an SR 25 Ton Brake Van. When he is in the valley, it is replaced with a BR 20 Ton Brake Van.
 * When the narrator says, "Then they set off once more to finish their long journey," on the left side of the screen, the space between the leaves and the tree is green.
 * In the aerial shot of the station when the lights come on, Bertie is stationary, at the back of the shot and missing a Christmas hat, and Terence's eyes are also noticeably misaligned, as they are horizontally pointed away from each other. Not long after, there is a close-up of both of them with Trevor, and Bertie is now wearing a hat.
 * In the aerial shot of the station, Annie and Clarabel do not have hats on, but later gain them.
 * In the aerial shot of the station, James is only seen briefly positioned behind Thomas on a branched track leading towards the Ffarquhar Sheds turntable. Once the celebrations begin he is not shown again, especially in the last shot of Thomas and Percy together as James' view is obscured due the camera's angle.
 * A wire was used to hold Harold when he lands. This is due to the fact that prior to the model where the rotors rotated while flying, the flying model had a transparent disc and flew by being held to wires.
 * BoCo's left eye is scratched, and his face moves a bit.
 * When the narrator says, "Everyone cheered and the party began," Thomas was next to Harold instead of in front of the station. Then, at the end of the episode, he is in his original position again. Edward is also seen in the station instead of in front of the station and Henry, Gordon and BoCo have disappeared.
 * Donald and Douglas' nameplates are missing in several scenes.
 * In the restored version:
 * Camera tripods are seen in the shot of the telephone lines and when Donald and Douglas set off to find Thomas.
 * In the shot of Thomas and Percy towards the end, a blue light behind them was covered up. This is likely to be a crew member standing in the background.
 * When the engines head to the Christmas party, Thomas' head lamp is not on, and the other engines are not wearing head lamps at all.
 * Thomas' eyes are misaligned throughout the episode.
 * In the shot of Bill and Ben with Diesel, Ben's nameplate is loose.
 * When the Fat Controller tells the engines they can go enjoy the carols, Donald and Douglas are missing their nameplates, Donald's left eyebrow (viewers' right perspective) is missing, and Thomas' face is crooked.
 * In the overhead shot of the station, none of the trucks next to Annie and Clarabel have faces, but when the shot of Trevor, Terence, Bertie, Annie and Clarabel is shown, a truck next to Annie gains a face.
 * When Donald and Douglas set off to rescue Thomas, the Fat Controller was standing by the track opposite them. In the next shot, the Fat Controller has already got back to his car on the other side of the turntable long before the twins run round it.
 * When Thomas says, "Happy Christmas, Percy!", his face moves.
 * The narrator says the engines were grumbling about Thomas being late, but Henry and Gordon are clearly smiling. Also in that scene, Donald has Edward's angry face on.
 * In the close-up of the people near the tree, some of them have some missing paint marks.

Quotes
_____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
 * The Fat Controller: Quickly, now. Our Christmas tree has arrived just in time! I want you to fetch it, Thomas. Duck can look after Annie and Clarabel until you get back.
 * Thomas: Will we be able to sing carols, too?
 * The Fat Controller: We'll see.
 * Thomas: It would be nice to sing carols again.
 * The Fat Controller: [to the engines whistling impatiently] Silence! Thomas left the works safely, but snow has brought the telephone lines down. We must assume he is stranded!
 * Thomas: [in snow] Help!
 * Donald: Hush! I can hear something.
 * Douglas: Probably the wind.
 * Thomas: Help!
 * Donald: No! Listen!
 * Thomas: Over here!
 * Donald: Och! It's Thomas! Come on! The poor wee engine must be frozen to the frames in there!
 * The Fat Controller: [to the engines] As a reward for all your hard work, you may go and enjoy the carols. Be quick now!
 * The Fat Controller: 1! 2! 3!
 * [the station then lights up as if it were magic, with decorations and Christmas lights]

_____________________________________________________________________________________
 * The Fat Controller: Ladies, Gentlemen, and children! I give you three cheers for Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends who have made this occasion possible!
 * Thomas: [last line] It's no fun getting stuck in the snow. But it was worth it for this party. Happy Christmas/Holiday, Percy! Happy Christmas/Holiday, everyone!

Merchandise

 * Books - Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree
 * Ladybird Books - Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree

Home Media Releases
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UK

 * The Deputation and Other Stories
 * The Best of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
 * Thomas' Christmas Party and 17 other stories
 * Ghost Train and other stories/Time for Trouble and other stories
 * Thomas Comes to Breakfast and Other Stories
 * Your Favourite Story Collection
 * The Biggest Ever Christmas Collection
 * Seasonal Scrapes
 * Christmas Collection
 * The Complete Series 2
 * Children's Christmas Favourites

DVD Boxsets

 * Classic Collection

WAL

 * The Best of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
 * The Big Christmas Video

US

 * Shining Time Station: 'Tis A Gift
 * Thomas' Christmas Party and Other Favorite Stories
 * Percy's Ghostly Trick and Other Thomas Stories
 * Thomas' Christmas Wonderland and Other Thomas Adventures
 * Thomas' Snowy Surprise and Other Adventures
 * Ultimate Christmas
 * Thomas & Friends Classic Volume 2

CAN

 * Thomas' Christmas Party and Other Favorite Stories
 * Percy's Ghostly Trick and Other Thomas Stories
 * Thomas' Christmas Wonderland and Other Thomas Adventures
 * Thomas' Snowy Surprise and Other Adventures
 * Ultimate Christmas

DVD Boxsets

 * Celebrate with Thomas
 * Holiday Favorites
 * Sodor Friends Holiday Collection
 * Thomas' Holiday Collection

AUS

 * The Deputation and other Stories
 * The Biggest Ever Christmas Collection
 * The Complete Series 2

DVD Boxsets

 * Complete Series 1-10
 * Classic Collection
 * Series One and Series Two Double Pack

NZ

 * The Deputation and other Stories
 * The Biggest Ever Christmas Collection
 * Bumper Video Collection Volume 3

FRA

 * The Talkative Trains

JPN

 * Thomas the Tank Engine Volume 11
 * The Complete Works of Thomas the Tank Engine 1 Vol.6
 * Thomas's Christmas
 * The Complete DVD Box 1

GER

 * The Woolly Bear and 4 Other Adventures
 * The 9 Best Christmas Stories
 * Thomas and His Friends Vol. 6
 * Lots of Little Helpers

DVD Boxsets

 * Thomas and His Friends Box Set 2

KOR

 * For the Story of Determination

NOR

 * Ghost Train
 * Thomas-Festival
 * Thomas Celebrates Christmas

DK

 * Better Late than Never and Other Stories

SER

 * Thomas the Tank Engine 5

GRC

 * A Lively Companionship

PHL

 * Edward's Exploit

IND

 * Ghost Train and Other Stories

UKR

 * A Train Thomas and Friends

BRA

 * Christmas in the Beautiful Land of Thomas

NL

 * Merry Christmas!
 * The Greatest Stories: The Adventures of Thomas

ZA

 * Volume 4

ITA

 * On Christmas Eve

MYS

 * Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree and Other Thomas Adventures
 * The Deputation and Other Adventures

ROM

 * Thomas Comes to Breakfast

DVD Packs

 * Triple Pack 2

SVN

 * Thomas and the Christmas Tree

TWN

 * Holiday Express

CHN

 * Thomas and Friends Season 1-4

THA

 * Thomas and Friends - Volume 8
 * Superstar Children's Favourites Vol. 3

HK
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 * Thomas and Friends Volume 6
 * Thomas and Friends Volume 4

Thomas y el Árbol de Navidad Perdido תומס ועץ חג המולד החסר La notte di Natale きかんしゃたちのクリスマス・キャロル Tomek i Zaginiona Choinka Томас и пропавшая ёлка