diff --git a/themes/xtemplate/xtemplate.theme b/themes/xtemplate/xtemplate.theme
index a898c32b2dd..f5d477537b6 100644
--- a/themes/xtemplate/xtemplate.theme
+++ b/themes/xtemplate/xtemplate.theme
@@ -44,10 +44,16 @@ class Theme_xtemplate extends BaseTheme {
     if (module_exist("taxonomy") && ($taxonomy = taxonomy_link("taxonomy terms", $node))) {
       $this->template->assign("taxonomy", $this->links($taxonomy));
     }
+    else {
+      $this->template->assign("taxonomy", "");
+    }
 
     if ($links = link_node($node, $main)) {
       $this->template->assign("links", $this->links($links));
     }
+    else {
+      $this->template->assign("links", "");
+    }
 
     $this->template->parse("node");
     print $this->template->text("node");