When Donald Duck chops a Christmas tree, the inquisitive chipmunks Chip and Dale follow and see him decorate it with nuts and sweets. So they sneak in his home, determined to 'harvest' it all, using the toys for the Duck nephews, as if Christmas came early for them, so to say. Donald puts up an equally 'playful' yet grim defense, so it all rapidly escalates into a bitter miniature two-to-one-giant war over the Christmas-treats.

It's October 7th and Chip is working industriously to store enough acorns in the tree for the winter. Dale would rather sleep in his matchbox, but an angry kick from Chip gets him working furiously. But there's only so much they can do. Their tree is nearly out of acorns. Luckily, the two semi-intelligible chipmunks happen to see the half-unintelligible Donald Duck, a park ranger, planting acorns. They immediately set to steal his bag of the precious nuts. Donald soon realizes what they are up to, and sets out a box propped up with a stick. It's a crude trap, with an acorn as bait; but it's not too crude to fool Dale, who upsets it and traps Chip. Soon, Donald finds he can have fun instigating a fight between these two quarrelsome chipmunks, but he underestimates their friendship and their ability to work as a team against a common enemy: in this case, a bad-tempered duck.