diff --git a/packages/handlebars/evaluate.js b/packages/handlebars/evaluate.js
index a9e7ddd19c..1accbc99c0 100644
--- a/packages/handlebars/evaluate.js
+++ b/packages/handlebars/evaluate.js
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ Handlebars._default_helpers = {
     if (data && data.length > 0)
       return _.map(data, function(x, i) {
         // infer a branch key from the data
-        var branch = (x._id || (typeof x === 'string' ? x : null) ||
+        var branch = ((x && x._id) || (typeof x === 'string' ? x : null) ||
                       Spark.UNIQUE_LABEL);
         return Spark.labelBranch(branch, function() {
           return options.fn(x);
diff --git a/packages/templating/deftemplate.js b/packages/templating/deftemplate.js
index 9c24d72a72..4101628720 100644
--- a/packages/templating/deftemplate.js
+++ b/packages/templating/deftemplate.js
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
         arg,
         function (item) {
           return Spark.labelBranch(
-            item._id || Spark.UNIQUE_LABEL, function () {
+            (item && item._id) || Spark.UNIQUE_LABEL, function () {
               var html = Spark.isolate(_.bind(options.fn, null, item));
               return Spark.setDataContext(item, html);
             });
diff --git a/packages/templating/templating_tests.html b/packages/templating/templating_tests.html
index bbe8dd8f41..2ad6fae73a 100644
--- a/packages/templating/templating_tests.html
+++ b/packages/templating/templating_tests.html
@@ -350,3 +350,8 @@
 <template name="test_template_trickylabels_a2">
   <div>foo</div>
 </template>
+
+<!-- Test for issue #801 - Each handling of falsy values eg. [1, 2, null, undefined] -->
+<template name="test_template_issue801">
+{{#each values}}{{this}}{{/each}}
+</template>
diff --git a/packages/templating/templating_tests.js b/packages/templating/templating_tests.js
index 49557b2820..40ad9dc4cc 100644
--- a/packages/templating/templating_tests.js
+++ b/packages/templating/templating_tests.js
@@ -1085,3 +1085,10 @@ Tinytest.add("templating - tricky branch labels", function (test) {
   div.kill();
   Deps.flush();
 });
+
+Tinytest.add('templating - each falsy Issue #801', function (test) {
+  //Minor test for issue #801
+  Template.test_template_issue801.values = function() { return [1,2,null,undefined]; };
+  var frag = Meteor.render(Template.test_template_issue801);
+  test.equal(canonicalizeHtml(DomUtils.fragmentToHtml(frag)), "12null");
+});