Closed until November 2001

I didn't do such a great job at keeping this site updated, but I will do better next year.

Thursday, December 7

Friday's Christmas Specials

• Ebenezer, 1 PM, TNT

  Old West version of A Christmas Carol, starring Jack Palance and Rick Schroeder

• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, 6 PM, Fox Family

  Santa Claus is offended by a mouse

• Pinocchio's Christmas, 8 PM, Fox Family
• A Christmas Carol, 8 PM and 10 PM, TNT

  starring Patrick Stewart

• Gordon Elliot's Door Knock Dinners Holiday Surprise, 9 PM, Food Network

  Ice sculpture, singing, and chocolate soup.

• The Cricket on the Hearth, 9 PM, Fox Family

  Based on the story by Dickens

12/7/2000 09:52:57 PM

Wednesday, December 6

Thursday's Christmas Specials

• Christmas Carol, A (1997), 10:15 AM, STARZ!

  Animated with Whoopi Goldberg and Tim Curry

• Jack Frost, 1 PM and 2:45 PM, HBO Plus

  1998 Michael Keaton film

• Noel, 6:30 PM, Fox Family

  Charleston Heston narrates the tale of an ornament come to life

• Annabelle's Wish, 7 PM, Fox Family

  A cow wishes to be reindeer

• Santa Claus is Coming to Town, 8 PM, Fox Family

  Kris Kringle grows up near Sombretown to defy the Burgermeister by giving kids toys.

• A Mom for Christmas, 8:40 PM, Disney

  Olivia Newton-John stars in a story of a motherless girl who gets a store mannequin to come to life

• Decadent Desserts with Jacques Torres
• Secret of Giving, 9 PM, TNN

  A widow (Reba McEntire) pulls a town together for Christmas

12/6/2000 11:50:46 PM

Sounds of Christmas

Christmas music is one of the best parts about Christmas. Here are some sound file collections in various formats.

• MIDI
  • JFDesigns: over 100 files, but many are alternate versions of the same songs. Very slow loading due to Java script and numerous animated gifs.
  • Donna's Place: about 40 files, without repeats and with lyrics. Animated snow background.
  • XmasCarols.net: about 250 files with lyrics.
• MP3

  These are all radio stations on MP3.com, and they take a while to load due to many small gif files.

  • Christmas on MP3.com: over 60 traditional holiday songs
  • Slightly Different Christmas music: about 60 rude and irreverent Christmas tunes
  • A Batch of Christmas Goodies: some folkier tunes
• Real Audio
  • Sleigh Ride: music from the United Staes Air Force Heritage Band
  • Elycia's Real Audio Holidazzle: Hanukkah: only four pieces, but one of them is Adam Sandler's The Chanukah Song. Not to be missed.
  • Wanderer's Christmas: oldies and country holiday songs. These pages are extremely long loading due to a large number of gifs and animated gifs. I recommend turning your images off to surf these pages.

12/6/2000 08:43:52 PM

Annie's Christmas TV Specials Page

Annie's listing includes holiday episodes of some regular series, and is a more complete listing of holiday specials. A Christmas Witch List includes only those specials that I would recommend, and not holiday episodes of regular series shown in their regular time slots.

12/6/2000 06:16:15 PM

Today's Television Specials

• The Smurfs Christmas Special and 'Tis the Season to be Smurfy, Cartoon Netowrk, 7 p.m.
• The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, Fox Family, 7 p.m.
• A Country Holiday at Walt Disney World, 8 p.m., TNN
• Trans Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve , Fox Family, 9 p.m.

12/6/2000 12:25:02 AM

Tuesday, December 5

Fannish Fun: Sacrilegious Songs and Shows

These sites are much less reverent than many of those I've linked to and will link to. They're generally intended to be funny, but they might offend you.

• Holiday Music from the Cult of the JebuSlug, based on the X Files season 8 episode Road Runners. Many of the songs are hilariously gruesome.
• Monkees' Christmas Parody page is a little difficult to read over the background, but if you fondly remember the Monkees, you'll chuckle at these songs. Probably. Actually, they're a little weak as parodies go, but then, I'm not a Monkees fan.
• The Diablo Labs (un)Official Space: Above and Beyond Holiday Gift Catalog is full of in-jokes for real fans. (That means, if you've never watched SAAB, you won't laugh.)
• Pagan Song Archive has a number of Yule songs and a number of filk songs. These categories may or may not overlap depending on your definition of filk.
• And finally, some reviews of the Star Wars Christmas Special. The reviews will give you much more pleasure than the show, which is simply proof that professionals can do much, much worse things to their own product than fans do.
  • Oh the Humanity!
  • Salon
  • Stomp Tokyo
  • Teleport City
  • Unitic.com
  • x-entertainment.com"
  • And a serious, more appreciative look from LucasFan.com

12/5/2000 10:40:12 PM

Cable channels not tracked on this page (part 1)

• AMC's December schedule takes a long time to load. It took so long on my 14.4 modem that I can't tell you what, if any holiday-related programming. they are airing this month.
• BBC America's daily primetime schedule. No Christmas specials through December 16.
• Bravo's December schedule. They have Christmas programming for most of the 25th and a week of Cirque du Soleil programming starting the 12th.
• EWTN's December specials. This Catholic channel has many specials appropriate for the month, including a series on Advent and several different concerts of Christmas music. January 1 is the Feast Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and they'll have nearly 24 hour special programming for that.
• Great American Country is a music video channel that actually plays music videos. (Take that, MTV!) However, they do have a Christmas special airing through December 16. Scroll halfway down the page to get to 'Who's on TV' in order to see the times.
• Home & Garden Television has many Christmas specials, with numberous repeat showings.
• IFC's December schedule shows very little seasonal programming. Maybe independent filmmakers aren't interested in it.
• Ovation, an arts channel, has Christmas specials the week of the 24th.
• Sundance's program guide doesn't seem to include any holiday films. However, in order to celebrate the shortest day of the year, December 21 is all short films
• techTV has a holiday buying guide, although no Christmas programs
• The Travel Channel also seems devoid of holiday programming.

12/5/2000 08:48:17 PM

Monday, December 4

Tuesday's Television Specials

• Red boots for Christmas, 7:00 p.m., Fox Family

  A shoemaker is upset by Christmas. The show has a slightly more Christian focus than some of the others I've recommended.

• It's a Wonderful Tiny Toon Christmas Special, 7:30 p.m., Cartoon Network
• Frosty's Winter Wonderland, 7:30 pm., Fox Family

  Frosty finds a mate

• Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, 8 p.m., CBS

  The classic

• Rudolph's Shiny New Year, 8 p.m., Fox Family

  I've never seen it, but I expect good things

12/4/2000 09:56:36 PM

Rudolph: Behind the Scenes of a Holiday Classic by Rick Goldscmidt

He wrote a book about Rankin/Bass and is co-founder of the more or less official website. This details information about the creation and restoration of the show.

12/4/2000 12:56:03 AM

Holiday Specials from Broadcast Networks

• ABC, mix of holiday and mundane specials, listings through January 8. Warning! Not in chronological order.
• CBS, just holiday specials
• Fox, a mixed list of specials, only includes the upcoming week.
• NBC, mixed specials, nothing terribly seasonal until December 16.
• Pax, just Christmas specials in December, it appears.
• PBS, their on-line newsletters of previews for the upcoming week. You should really check your local listings, and remember that December is a pledge drive month. This means extra specials, but also pledge commercials.
• Neither UPN nor the WB appear to have any Christmas or holiday specials as networks, although many of their shows seem to have holiday episodes.

12/4/2000 12:14:06 AM

Sunday, December 3

Today's Christmas Specials

• The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold, 6 p.m., Fox Family

  A bainsidhe wants the leprechauns' gold.

• Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, 6:30 p.m., Fox Family

  An absolutely marvelous retelling of the birth of Jesus from the perspective of Mary's ride. One of the few Rankin/Bass holiday productions to deal directly with the religious story.

• Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 7 p.m., Cartoon Network

  You don't really need me to tell you? From all reports, far superior than the version currently in theatres.

• Little Drummer Boy, 7 p.m., Fox Family

  I haven't actually seen it, but I expect good things

• The Year without a Santa Claus
, 8 p.m., Fox Family

Again, I haven't seen it, but I have the highest expectations.

• Dogma, 8 p.m., STARZ!

  While not dealing with Christmas per se, it does involve themes about angels, forgiveness, Jesus Christ, God's relationship to man, and virgin birth. Also, it's extremely funny and I like it a lot. Rated R, undoubtedly for violence, language, sex, nudity, and adult themes.

12/3/2000 10:44:45 PM

When to Program Your VCR

There's a GIST TV comedy feature story which details many of the upcoming holiday specials. There are listings from December 2 through the 26th.

12/3/2000 05:44:34 AM

Fox Family Channel's 25 Days of Christmas

Fox Family has a heavy schedule of Christmas specials and movies from now through Christmas day. I'll pull out my favorites daily, but you should check yourself.

12/3/2000 05:39:00 AM

Today's Christmas Specials

• Food Finds: Holiday Treats, 11 a.m. Eastern, Food Network
  Epicureal Americana
• The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, 6 p.m. Eastern, Fox Family Channel
  Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum, this Rankin/Bass stop-motion production is a good story about Nicholaus being raised by wild animals and growing up with a strong desire to give pleasure to the impoverished, miserable children in the town where he settles. It manages to be moral without being moralistic or preachy, and is quite fun for the whole family.
• Winnie the Pooh and Christmas, Too!, 7 p.m. Eastern, ABC
  Pooh makes an error and his friends help him correct it.
• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, 8:30 p.m Eastern, Fox Family Channel
  Another Rankin/Bass story, this one involves mice, vengeful letters, and undue arrogance. Again, morals without preachiness, and good for the whole family.
• Al Roker's Colonial Christmas, 9 p.m. Eastern, Food Network
  How Christmas was done in 18th Century Williamsburg.

  12/3/2000 05:29:02 AM