franklin the turtle, his little sister, harriet (introduced in the previous film, "franklin and the green knight"), and their parents, mr. and mrs. turtle, plan to spend christmas with their maternal grandparents (mrs. turtle's parents) at faraway farm, a farm far away from woodland where mrs. turtle grew up. as the family gets ready to leave, they sing the first and third verses of "deck the halls". franklin immediately becomes annoyed with harriet when she throws a snowball at him, causing him to drop a large pile of presents. franklin's best friend bear and his little sister beatrice come to collect franklin's pet goldfish, goldie, and franklin accidentally leaves his favorite stuffed toy dog sam behind. franklin thinks that harriet dumped sam in the snow on purpose, when in reality beatrice had found sam and bear had failed to give it back to franklin before they left. franklin is still annoyed with harriet when they get to faraway farm, and he becomes even more annoyed when he learns that he and harriet will be sleeping in the same room. later that evening, his grandmother, jenny, tells a strange story from her childhood about a reindeer. this story involves a flashback showing young jenny and her father (mrs. turtle's grandfather and franklin and harriet's great-grandfather). jenny admits that she might have imagined things just as mr. turtle takes a family portrait, in which franklin gives a sad look because he still misses sam. jenny then shows franklin sirius outside and sings twinkle twinkle little star to him before sending him to bed.