Andy Williams and the Osmonds, The King Family, and Dean Martin provided some of my favorite Christmas memories. Bing Crosby’s Christmas special was the BEST, especially when he sang the Drummer Boy with David Bowie. I remember driving around looking at gorgeous Christmas lights, then running home to make the cocoa and settle around the TV to enjoy the music and laughter and fun of the Christmas specials.
Christmas variety specials aren’t as popular now as they were in my youth. I’ve had to replace them with something else fun – Christmas movie specials. They are often cheesy as all get out, have way more focus on Santa than I personally like, and yet I love them. I hand pick one or two to enjoy with my grandchildren, and the rest I enjoy alone as I munch on my semi-healthy cheese puffs from Trader Joe’s and work on the computer.
I love every silly (and not-so-silly) remake of The Christmas Carol. I love the Family Man. I love the songs from Rudolph and all three versions of The Santa Clause. There is a Nativity Christmas cartoon I found last year that I only got to see half of due to DVR issues, and I’m hoping to enjoy it in full this year . I even love the Christmas versions of all my favorite TV shows. How about you? What are your favorite Christmas movies and/or specials? Do leave a comment and tell us.
For those of you who share this “guilty pleasure” with me, I offer these links to upcoming specials. Enjoy – and Merry Early Christmas 
Don’t forget to print out a copy of this in extra-large print for your elderly parents who can’t get out as much as they used to. I’ll bet they’ll enjoy many of these shows.
One caveat – do doublecheck listings with your TV or TV guide. All listings are subject to change with little or no notice as you’ve probably found over the years
ABC/ Family Channel – YAY – they are playing Family Man on 11/28, along with much more. They start their “Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas on 11/16 and their “25 days of Christmas” on 12/1. If you get the TV guide delivered to your house, you’ll find an easy-to-read schedule on page 3.
Hallmark Channel is offering several interesting holiday movies on their regular channel including An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving tomorrow, Saturday, November 22.
According to their press release, they have four family-friendly original holiday movies, airing every Saturday night, 9-11 p.m., ET/PT, on the Hallmark Channel as follows:
- “Moonlight & Mistletoe,” Saturday, November 29, starring Tom Arnold and Candace Cameron Bure
- “The Christmas Choir,” Saturday, December 6, starring Jason Gedrick and Rhea Perlman
- “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Saturday, December 13, starring Henry Winkler, Brooke Burns and Warren Christie
- “Our First Christmas,” Saturday, December 20, starring Julie Warner, Steven Eckholdt, Dixie Carter and John Ratzenberger.’
RealChristmas.com – http://www.realchristmas.com/2008/09/13/holiday-specials-announced-at-nbc/ - has a complete description of various specials planned by NBC along with their schedule, including:
- “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” will air on Wednesday, December 3 (8-9 p.m. ET). “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” will be broadcast on Thursday, November 27 (9 a.m.-12 noon in each time zone).
- “It’s a Wonderful Life” — the most famous Christmas film of them all — from Oscar-winning director Frank Capra, on December 13 (8-11 p.m. ET) and 24 (8-11 p.m. ET).
NBC also has three new specials that sound especially interesting to those of us who love nostalgia at Christmastime – “Greatest Holiday TV Specials and Movies,” “Greatest Holiday Songs” and “Greatest Holiday Home Videos.” I’ll let you know if and when I find out dates for these.
HolidayPages4u has a great listing – http://holidaypages4u.tripod.com/christmas_movies_tv.htm - that will be updated regularly as well. I’m bookmarking that one! It includes TV series holiday specials such as Home Improvement Christmas reruns. Another show I love! Be sure to click the “Printable View” at the top. When the print view opens, you can select it, paste it into a word processor (I use Word), and then select all and change the size to a larger font. In my program, it enlarged beautifully, keeping its format. A wonderful treat for an elderly relative.
The Gospel Music Channel is also getting into the holiday spirit. http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com/christmas details some of their Christmas music offerings.
MercyMe, best-known for their hit song "I Can Only Imagine," will perform from their album, The Christmas Sessions, up close and personal – tomorrow, Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 8 pm (est), 5 pm (pst); From Friday – Sunday, November 28-30 they will have a Christmas Marathon including Superfest Christmas, episodes of Christmas at Union Station, their original series with Natalie Grant, Jars of Clay, Mandisa and George Huff from Nashville’s historic hotel. Then its Christmas programming every day from December 1-31. You can look up the schedules for each day at http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com/schedule
TBN has some Christmas programming – http://www.tbn.org/index.php/2/3.html – So far, I’ve found (all times are Pacific):
Christmas Box – 11/25, 11pm; 11/26, 2 am; 12/20, 4 pm; 12/25, 7pm
The CandyMaker’s Christmas, 12/20, 4 pm
Carmen – 12/20, 1:30 am
Cherub Christmas show – 12/20, 4 am (This is a great little series for preschoolers. If you can tape it, your grandchildren will probably love it.)
I will add more information as it becomes available. If you find any information, please send it to Kaye@SandwichINK.com or leave a comment below. And happy viewing
