Following the non-wedding the happy couple hold separate receptions with their same sex friends but just before Christmas Mrs Hollingbery goes to confession,the priest telling her that she has wronged Alf and should do penance. To Alf this means cooking and cleaning for him and,to make her feel guilty,pretends he had booked a luxury honeymoon for them. Mrs H however rebels and,when the priest visits to make her do further penance,makes sure she gets her money's worth.

Facing another Christmas with a frugal dinner Alf cons the vicar into giving him a Christmas hamper but Mrs Hollingbery refuses to accept it because it has been dishonestly obtained. So Alf takes it to the pub to raffle,making sure that most of the slips of paper with the winning name on bear his. However he is outwitted at the last minute by the equally devious Bert Luscombe.

Alf is spending Christmas in hospital for a hip replacement but his visitors' scare stories of what could go wrong propel him into fleeing from the ward dressed as a woman - which incurs a drunk's unwanted attention. Back at the house he is outraged when Mrs Hollingbery's sister turns up after his room,being told that he is not expected to live but all is forgiven when Mrs Hollingbery invites everybody upstairs for a Christmas party. Unfortunately he has forgotten the loose stair rod and ends up back in the hospital.

When Rita wins a winter sun holiday abroad, Alf complains about having to spend Christmas alone.

Rita has come to stay but announces her intention to go back home on Christmas Eve. In order to persuade her to stay and help him look after Else Alf falls off a ladder and claims to have injured his leg. However,whilst Rita does stay,the knees up at the Christmas Day party goes so well that Alf's enthusiastic participation soon exposes his supposedly bad leg as nothing more than a ruse.