Shining Time Station: 'Tis a Gift

Shining Time Station: 'Tis A Gift is the Christmas special of the PBS television series Shining Time Station.

It takes place during the Christmas season at Shining Time Station. The scene opens with Mr. Conductor (Ringo Starr) with an axe over one shoulder, dragging a miniature evergreen along the top of a bench heading towards his home.

The station is filled with people trying to catch trains to take them to see their families. Even Schemer (Brian O'Connor) is in a good mood, because the Indian Valley committee is putting on a Christmas pageant and he is almost certain to get the part of Santa's helper. The kids, Matt (Jason Woliner) and Tanya (Nicole Leach), write letters to Santa Claus and Mr. Conductor sends them on their way. He then tells the kids the story of the time Thomas the Tank Engine had a Christmas Party:

• The story is called Thomas' Christmas Party.

• Mrs. Kyndley, and old friend of Thomas' who lived by the railway, had once stopped Thomas just in time before he got into a nasty accident and Thomas realized the other engines: Gordon, James, Henry, Edward and Percy have never thanked her properly so Thomas proposes they throw a Christmas party, but then Sir Topham Hatt had bad news: Mrs. Kyndley was snowed in and had to be rescued, so Thomas, Toby and Percy head out to do just that and are successful and when they return to the shed, they have their Christmas party!

An old man, Mr. Nicholas (Lloyd Bridges), enters the station carrying a Christmas tree with Harry's cousin Tucker Cupper (Ardon Bess), and immediately knows everything about Stacy Jones (Didi Conn) from when she was a little girl. Mr. Nicholas says he is there to catch the Northern Star, a train that doesn't run on that railway, but Mr. Nicholas is confident it will come.

Meanwhile, Stacy agrees to watch Claire's (Judy Marshak) daughter, Vickie (Rachel Miner), a bratty little girl, at the station. Matt and Tanya dislike her because of her attitude. She meets Mr. Nicholas who teaches her to be nice to people and it soon begins to work; Schemer's mom has made him a Santa's helper costume and he begins his campaign against Stacy by telling Midge Smoot (Bobo Lewis), J.B. King (Mart Hulswit) and the Mayor (Jerome Dempsey) untrue things about her. Mr. Conductor tells the kids another story from the Island of Sodor:

• The story is called Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree.

• It was almost Christmas on Sodor. Thomas went to get a Christmas tree but got stuck in a bank of snow. Donald and Douglas saved him and when they come to the big station, they have a Christmas party!

Mr. Nicholas (actually Santa Claus) is still waiting for the Northern Star. To everyone's surprise, the train pulls into the station as he had predicted. Meanwhile, the fighting continues over who will play the part of Santa's helper. Mr. Nicholas encourages Vickie to use her gift of song to quell the conflict. Her singing of the 1848 Shaker song "Simple Gifts" reminds them all of the true spirit of Christmas. Harmony is restored as all gather around the tree to celebrate the power of believing.

The second season casting change from Mr. Starr to George Carlin as Mr. Conductor would be explained by Starr's character having left Shining Time Station to go with Mr. Nicholas to the North Pole. While there is a brief encounter at the end of this program between Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Conductor, nothing in the story actually mentions Mr. Conductor's departure.

The snowy winter footage used for the opening and closing sequences was filmed at the Grand Canyon Railway between Williams, Arizona and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The final filmed scene of the title sequence shows the train pulling into the former Santa Fe Railway station at Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. The historic Bright Angel Lodge and El Tovar Hotel are in the background nearby. The steam locomotive shown is #18, a 2-8-0 type. Number 18 appears again during the third musical number, "It's Christmastime at the Railway Station" and also contributes the sound of its whistle, a Southern Pacific six-chime, for Mr. Nicholas's heard-but-not-seen "Northern Star." This locomotive now resides at the Mount Hood Railroad in Oregon.

Cast

• Ringo Starr as Mr. Conductor
• Didi Conn as Stacy Jones
• Brian O'Connor as Schemer
• Jason Woliner as Matt Jones
• Nicole Leach as Tanya Cupper
• Lloyd Bridges as Mr. Nicholas
• Ardon Bess as Tucker Cupper
• Jerome Dempsey as Mayor Floppdinger
• Mart Hulswit as J.B. King Esquire
• Judy Marshak as Claire
• Rachel Miner as Vickie
• Bobo Lewis as Midge Smoot

The Jukebox Band

• Jonathan Freeman as Tito
• Olga Marin as Didi
• Vaneese Thomas as Grace
• Alan Semok as Tex
• Craig Flegemacher Marin as Rex

Trivia

• On the TV version the Thomas stories were Terence the Tractor and Thomas' Christmas Party. But on the VHS version they were Thomas' Christmas Party and Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree.
• On the VHS version, when the Thomas story Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree was shown, it was actually the UK version, but with the lines mentioning Sir Topham Hatt removed. (Sir Topham Hatt is known in the UK as "The Fat Controller"; since this was the U.S. version of the episode, it would have required redubbing the lines to change the name.)
• On TV, the Thomas story Terence the Tractor was taken from the episode Agree to Disagree.
• This special is dedicated to all those who have helped build Shining Time Station.
• The tune Mr. Conductor is singing before being interrupted to say hello to the station's resident kids is the opening to Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song".
• This episode marked the beginning of a two-episode change in cast members. It followed season one; in the first episode of season two (Scare Dares, the Halloween episode), Ringo Starr and Leonard Jackson were replaced by George Carlin and Tom Jackson, respectively. Scare Dares featured both the children from season one and the new children that would remain throughout the series' run.
• The music video, The Hobo Song, was originally going to be cut out as the producers felt it would be too emotional for younger viewers, but the final decision was made that it would be kept in as it conveyed an important message.

Ginny the farmer is not included in this special.