Viewing Party
A “Dexter” Christmas?
Why not? The serial killer of serial killers in sunny Miami celebrated the season several times during his just-ended Showtime run.
Also making merry: the crazy cartoon kids of “South Park.” Want a ghoul yule? Try “The X-Files” or “The Twilight Zone.” Sci-fi Santas? “Doctor Who” and “Warehouse 13.”
Christmas can be found where you least (and most) expect it.
While it’s true that TV has learned to play multiculti with its winter holidays — Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice — it’s still mostly Christmas that TV takes note of at year’s end. That can mean the traditional religious observance, secular culture come-togetherness, or the commercial modernity of consumerist gift-giving. Christmas TV seems to embrace everyone, every show, every genre, every decade or century setting.
This year’s holiday TV slate brings back Charlie Brown. We get seasonal music and merriment from artists new (Lady Gaga) and old (The Muppets), sometimes simultaneously. Sentiment-drenched TV movies premiere, and venerable standbys make their annual reappearance (Alastair Sim’s Scrooge, Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey). All kinds of episodes celebrate all sorts of ways — a fantasy-football Hanukkah, a duck-call Christmas, a newly colorized Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.
And that’s just on this season’s linear television channels. Turn to cable on-demand, DVD or online video, and you’ve got hundreds of celebratory options, anytime you want to watch. The highlights provided here are just the tip of the iceberg in this connected age, when it seems almost anything ever made might be accessible somehow.
Check your cable / satellite services, too, along with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other program providers.
Merry viewing!
FESTIVE CHANNELS
Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas — round-the-clock through Dec. 31, with a dozen holiday movie premieres (hallmarkchannel.com)
Hallmark Movie Channel The Most Wonderful Movies of Christmas — through Dec. 25, includes the channel’s first original movie and “Christmas classic Thursdays” (hallmarkmoviechannel.com)
Lifetime It’s a Wonderful Lifetime — ongoing, with six new TV movie premieres (mylifetime.com/movies)
ABC Family Countdown to Christmas — holiday animation, episodes, TV movies and feature films (abcfamily.com/25days)
Disney Channel Fa-la-la-lidays — has holiday films, episodes, cartoons for kids and family (disneychannel.com)
THE CLASSICS
“Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” — Dec. 24 at 8 p.m., ABC
“It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946, James Stewart) — Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., Dec. 24 at 8 p.m., NBC
“A Christmas Carol” (1951, Alastair Sim) — Dec. 19 at 10 p.m., Turner Classic Movies
ANIMATION
Dec. 6: “Yes, Virginia” and “Frosty the Snowman,” CBS
Dec. 9: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” ABC
Dec. 16: “Prep & Landing,” ABC
Dec. 21: Rankin-Bass marathon, ABC Family
Dec. 25: “Kung Fu Panda Holiday” and “Merry Madagascar,” CW
MUSIC
Dec. 4: “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” NBC
Dec. 11: “Kelly Clarkson Christmas Special,” NBC
Dec. 18: “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball” (Miley Cyrus, Pitbull, Fall Out Boy), CW/11; “Michael Bublé Christmas Special,” NBC
Dec. 20: “Christmas in Washington,” TNT
NEW EPISODES
Dec. 9-23: “The Great Christmas Light Fight,” ABC
Dec. 11: “Melissa & Joey” and “Baby Daddy,” ABC Family
Dec. 11: “Duck Dynasty,” A&E
ENCORE EPISODES
Dec. 4: “Saturday Night Live” Christmas, NBC
Dec. 20: “I Love Lucy” colorized, CBS
Dec. 24: “Father Knows Best” kicks off two days of various round-the-clock vintage holiday episodes, Antenna TV (plus the Yule Log on Antenna TV)
Dec. 25: “The Twilight Zone,” Syfy
NEW MOVIES
Dec. 7: Sean Astin in “Santa Switch,” Hallmark; Ashley Williams, Ashanti in “Christmas in the City,” Lifetime
Dec. 8: Jennie Garth, Cameron Mathison in “Holidaze,” ABC Family
VINTAGE MOVIES
December on Turner Classic Movies Dec. 8 includes “Scrooge” (1970); other holiday films most nights Dec. 15-24
Dec. 16: Tim Allen’s three “Santa Clause” films, ABC Family, also Dec. 21, 22, 24, 25
Dec. 24: “A Christmas Story” for 24 hours, TBS
Dec. 24: “Elf” for 24 hours, Starz
Dec. 24: “Bad Santa” for 24 hours, Starz Comedy.