Dec. 20 – Dec. 26
Dolly’s Christmas party, a very special ‘The Price is Right’ & Frosty the Snowman’s X-rated past
All times Eastern.
FRIDAY, Dec. 20
Six Triple Eight
Kerry Washington stars in this tale inspired by the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to serve overseas during WWII (Netflix).
National Christmas Tree Lighting
Annual TV tradition presented by the National Park Service and National Park Foundation, from President’s Park in Washington, D.C., with musical performances by Mickey Guyton, Trombone Shorty, James Taylor, The War and Treaty and Trisha Yearwood (8 p.m., CBS).
SATURDAY, Dec. 21
Frosty the Snowman
Jackie Vernon, who voiced Frosty in this 1969 stop-motion classic, was in real life a standup comedian fond of X-rated jokes. Now you know! (5:40 p.m., Freeform).
Cartoon Christmas
Get revved up for Christmas with vintage holiday episodes of Casper, Yogi Bear and The Flintstones (4 p.m., MeTV).
SUNDAY, Dec. 22
The Kennedy Center Honors
Tonight’s honorees include director Frances Ford Coppola, the Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt, jazz master Autura Sandoval and the legendary music venue The Apollo. Hosted by Queen Latifah (9 p.m., CBS).
MONDAY, Dec. 23
Bird
Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) stars in this coming-of-age tale (above) set on the margins of contemporary English society (Mubi).
TUESDAY, Dec. 24
The Price is Right
Annual primetime special edition of the iconic game show honors “holiday heroes,” inviting first responders, police officers, firefighters and military members to “Come on down!” (8 p.m., CBS).
A Christmas Story
If you’re not doing anything else tonight, or even if you are, tune in anytime between tonight and tomorrow evening to the annual 24-hour marathon of this 1983 now-classic about a boy who only wants a BB gun for Christmas (begins 9 p.m., TNT).
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 25
Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
In this 1964 Christmas classic, the voice of Donner the reindeer is often mistaken as that of Don Knotts, the star of the era’s popular spy-spoof series Get Smart. But actually it’s the voice of Paul Kligman, who went on to voice Peter Parker’s newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson several years later for an animated Saturday-morning Spiderman series (11 a.m., Freeform).
Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special
The ventriloquist and his dummy pals celebrate the Big C with some laughs (Comedy Central).
THURSDAY, Dec. 26
Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas
The country queen draws on holidays past to find the unique “mountain magic” of Christmas. With performances by Jimmy Fallon, Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus and more (9 p.m., NBC).
Ocean’s Eleven Franchise
Feeling a bit weary already of the holidays? Let George Clooney, Brad Pitt and all the other Oceans casts of all-stars steal your blahs away with a day-long marathon of heist dram-edy (1 p.m., Paramount).
NOW HEAR THIS
Give a soulful gift of music with the new remastered vinyl edition of Stevie Wonder’s The Definite Collection (Motown/Ume), a hit-filled two-disc roundup with his very first No. 1 in 1963, a live version of “Fingertips,” continuing through the decades with “For Once in My Life,” “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” “Superstition,” “Higher Ground” and more. Complete with pics from the Motown Archives and track-by-track info.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
You might not see much connection between scary comic books and Sunday School, but author Matthew Brake sure does. In Horror Comics and Religion (McFarland), the professor of religious studies breaks down the fascinating thru-lines that connect pulpy ‘zines—like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror—to age-old religious ideas about hell, resurrection, redemption, demons, morality, the trinity, and more. It’s good stuff for horror buffs!
The Media Tourist 