Caleb Plummer

Caleb Plummer is Bertha Plummer's father and a poor toymaker working in the employ of the miserly Mr. Tackleton in the Charles Dickens book, The Cricket on the Hearth and in Rankin/Bass's 2nd Christmas special of the same name.

He is voiced by the late Danny Thomas.

Biography
Caleb was first seen leaving the toy shop to deliver some toys. Suddenly, he notices Cricket Crocket looking for a proper family to "adopt". He picks it up and suggests to him if he could stay with him and his family for a little while, so he accepts his hospitality.

Later, when he got back, he starts to build toys with his daughter, Bertha and Cricket. Just then, Jeremiah Bleak drops in to tell him and Bertha the shocking news which made her suddenly and inexplicably go blind. He tries to make Bertha feel better by hiring doctors to cure her blindness, but nothing works and he loses his passion for work. After when he was unable to pay the mortgage, he had no choice but to pack up and leave.

Caleb, Bertha, and Cricket try to find a bit of work, but as they were about to give up, Cricket spies a toy shop in need of employment. Inside the toy shop, Caleb meets the greedy toyshop owner Tackleton and his pet crow Uriah and urges him for a job. In their new home, he starts to pretend that they were living with other workers and that their situation isn't quite so grim so as to not worry Bertha.

The next day, about a week before Christmas. Caleb starts to work night and day to keep up with the demands of the season and Tackleton's penny-pinching orders. Two days before Christmas, after when Caleb bumps into Edward (who was in disguise), he invites him to come home with him, Bertha, and Cricket, and this made Bertha surprised when he knows her name. Caleb then declares that they were all one family, and that Christmas is a time for mankind to come together.

On Christmas Eve, Caleb, Bertha, and Cricket build toys when Tackleton and Uriah drop by to give them a few shillings. After when Tackleton gives Bertha an hour to think it over. she was honored, though Caleb initially refuses since he still sees her as just a child.

On Christmas morning, he was happy after when Bertha got married with Edward, and tells Cricket that he was the luckiest thing that ever happened to anyone.