December 24th Holiday Recommendations

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Now, the thing to remember at this point is that many of the best Christmas specials running on Christmas Eve have already ran this season, and I have already recommended them. I'm making it a point to recommend new things each day, so some goodies will be overlooked in this list in order to focus on other programming. You can still take a look at our entire holiday schedule, but we've got a shorter list (with descriptions) below for Saturday, December 24th below. As always, times are Eastern and Pacific to the best of our knowledge (except when noted otherwise), but it's always good to double-check with your own provider.


12:30am: Friends "The One with the Holiday Armadillo" (FOX)
- Ross wants to teach Ben about Hanukkah, so he rents an armadillo costume. It's pretty funny, though I am always sad when Chandler, dressed as Santa, steals the show away from Ross.

11:30am: Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July (ABCFamily)
- If I'm not mistaken, there are four main Rudolph specials, and this is my second-favorite (the original being the best, in my opinion). It's the middle of July, and Frosty normally can't be around, as it's too hot. But, a (villainous) wintery fellow offers Frosty magical amulets to keep his family cool enough to enjoy the fireworks and other festivities. Rudolph and Frosty work to help a circus out, but the bad guy starts to make things go haywire, and they worry about Santa not being able to pick them up and bring them back to the North Pole. Tune in to find out how the dilemma is solved! Beware, it's a two-hour special with commercials.

3pm: Mickey's Christmas Carol (ABCFamily)
- My favorite thing about this special is just how many Disney cartoon characters they manage to cram in there. Willie the Giant is the Ghost of Christmas Present, for instance, and Mr. Toad is Fezziwig. Scrooge plays Scrooge and Mickey takes on the role of Bob Cratchit. It's a nice retelling of the story, especially if you were a DuckTales fan, as you really get how Scrooge portrays Scrooge. (This special is a few years pre-DuckTales, though, so don't get too excited.)

3:30pm: Winnie the Pooh and Christmas, Too (ABCFamily)
- If you're a Pooh fan and have never seen this, make time to stop by the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh tries to mail a letter to Santa with everyone's desires listed, but it doesn't work out well. So, he dresses as Santa and makes Piglet his reindeer. They build items similar to those that their friends wanted and deliver them. But the quality is poor and Pooh is confronted. Luckily, Christopher Robin comes to the rescue!

10pm: Everybody Loves Raymond "The Toaster" (TVLand)
- We're all guilty of it... returning a Christmas gift to a store. But, Marie is especially guilty this time around... she never even opened the toaster to discover that it had been engraved! Now, just why Ray didn't make her realize this when the package was first opened is unclear, but there are multiple people at fault in this one. I'm just glad that I never tried to get back a returned item!