diff --git a/src/standard/utils.html b/src/standard/utils.html
index eb3c632bba..7985a7f8a6 100644
--- a/src/standard/utils.html
+++ b/src/standard/utils.html
@@ -116,8 +116,8 @@
      * @return {Array<Node>} List of distributed nodes for the `<content>`.
      */
     getContentChildNodes: function(slctr) {
-      return Polymer.dom(Polymer.dom(this.root).querySelector(
-          slctr || 'content')).getDistributedNodes();
+      var content = Polymer.dom(this.root).querySelector(slctr || 'content');
+      return content ? Polymer.dom(content).getDistributedNodes() : [];
     },
 
     /**