What happens
On Christmas Eve, Gildersleeve dresses as Santa Claus for a church party, but he has promised his nephew Leroy a model airplane he has not yet bought. Leroy is eager for the gift and boasts about his own Christmas plans to a new boy, Donald, who says his family is wealthy. When Gildersleeve goes shopping, the toy department is sold out, and he is turned away at every turn. Meanwhile Leroy's small white dog, Snowball, goes missing, and Leroy suspects the new boy. Gildersleeve, still in his costume, sets out to find the dog and sort out the matter before the party begins. The Great Gildersleeve, starring Harold Peary, Willard Waterman, Lillian Randolph and Lurene Tuttle, aired on NBC on December 24, 1947.
Summerfield, the Gildersleeve household and nearby streets, a department store toy floor, and a drugstore on Christmas Eve 1947
Characters: Gildersleeve, Leroy, Birdie, Donald, Bertie, Judge Hooker, P.V. Pinkham, Horace
Listen for: Gildersleeve's struggle to find a model airplane in the crowded toy department, and the moment he discovers who has Snowball
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.