2025 Christmas TV Calendar !

It’s that time of the year again, the pumpkins have been discarded or are being eaten by the neighborhood critters, the bird is being turned into sandwiches, soups, and God only knows what else, and somewhere Hermie is telling anyone that will listen that he’d like to be a dentist. That means it’s time for my Christmas TV calendar which is always more challenging than the Halloween one. For one there’s just so many good classics and unlike Halloween the networks seem to understand that these are part of our Traditions and must be cherished. However all of them seem to need a calendar, I’ll explain why later. . . Bless em.

I have to admit I fear for the longevity of these calendars. Not just cause several someone’s at work reported me to IT for “spam” at Halloween; I asked for names, but they refused. You know who you are and may shame fall upon your head. JK no sweat off my back, but just know I know that you know what you did it! The real issue is that I use Microsoft Publisher on these calendars then turn them into PDFs and send them out into the world. However, Microsoft hates Holiday fun cause they are doing away with Publisher? As of October 2026, it will be removed from Microsoft 365 subscriptions and stand-alone versions will no longer be available for purchase. Just in time to start my holiday fun in 2026. Shakes fist at the sky!  So eventually I’ll not be able to edit or open these publisher files. In anticipation of that I tried to do this calendar in Powerpoint to see what that would be like, because they wouldn’t touch that program right, and even at 11X17 with the smallest margins I could get the font had to be so small even I couldn’t read it blown up on the screen. That’s not going to work. So, I’m going to eventually come up with another plan. I could use my work computer and InDesign but then I’d have to haul out my work computer, and the charger cause the thing might last about an hour and well this is a home project not a work project and I don’t wanna do that. For the record Microsoft suggests using Word as an alternative and I was like just um…no. Have they ever used that program for this kind of thing?! Honestly, Microsoft I use a lot of your projects and PUBLISHER isn’t your biggest concern of the moment. Just saying. If you guys could focus on the actual problems within your suite you might not have to bow down to the piece of fruit as often as you do. PS don’t tell my Dad I said that … IYKYK. My home computer has already told me it’s not Windows 11 compatible. I told it to suck it up I’m not in the market for a new computer at the moment. It told me it can’t guarantee my safety. I’m like sir you’ve seen my computer, we are safe, calm down nobody wants what I have. Hackers everywhere rejoiced (maybe I should be reported to IT)! So, my point is enjoy this while you can cause if the networks and streaming services don’t kick me out … Microsoft just might put the nail in the coffin.

Not this year however, so let’s crack on!

Now for those of you who get the following channels, check them out cause they are showing some fun stuff this time of year, I just don’t get them and thus they didn’t make this calendar …. GAC, UP, TCM, COZI, ION, MeTV, MeTV(toons). MeTV(toons) is showing a LOT of classic cartoon Crimmus (as my bestie calls it) specials featuring the Flintstones, Inspector Gadget, Scooby Doo, Heat Miser and Snow Miser, Cabbage Patch Kids, etc., if you get that kind of thing. I also didn’t include Hallmark Mysteries and Movies cause a lot of what they are showing also shows up on Hallmark. Tricky, Tricky, Tricky (said in the voice of the Magician from Frosty the Snowman).

I’ll also add that just cause it’s not on my calendar doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of your eyeballs. Like The Wizard of Oz is all over the place, I assume cause of Wicked, but it didn’t make the cut. Same with Frozen and Toy Story, all great films but Crimmus they are not. Also Hallmark has two competition shows that almost made the calendar until I realized what they were. Finding Mr. Christmas is about finding the next Hallmark leading man, yeah no … I’m good. Baked with Love is another competition show that Hallmark is testing out. I almost added that one because they at least waited until December to air it unlike the same crap that was on Food Network in November. Yeah I’m still bitter about that. Both didn’t make the calendar cause that’s not what this calendar is about, but if you are interested feel free to look them up. I’m not so I didn’t include them, as loyal fans of this calendar know it’s all about me … I just share cause I’m cool like that.

Other shows worthy of your time:

·       ABC – Disney’s Prep and Landing is adding another special to their series. To go along with “Prep and Landing,” by far the most creative and original thing to be created for Christmas in a long time, they then added Naughty Vs Nice which was a good companion to the original. This year they are adding The Snowball Patrol but aren’t giving a lot of details about it, which is both odd and intriguing in a world where we know most everything before it happens now a days. Something goes sideways while Wayne and Larry are on holiday together and something about a baby seal. However, in true - nothing makes sense on network TV fashion - they aired all three on ABC the weekend after Thanksgiving. As you know this calendar starts Dec. 1^st. Sad Face. I’m hopeful they will show it again during the December month, but as of now I’m not seeing it on their schedule. However Freeform and Disney Channel have your back. Dec. 13^th they will show the original and The Snowball Patrol back-to-back to back, one in the afternoon (freeform) and one later that afternoon (Disney) why not all 3….who knows…it’s one of the mysteries of life, I guess. I’m also sure it will be on Disney+ along with the shorts they created a few years ago, which are fantastic and feature Betty White as Mrs. Claus. RIP BW! I love this series if only cause its original and new. There’s not enough of that this time of year, so I celebrate it when it happens. I felt the same way about 10 sleeps until Christmas but apparently NBC was done after a few airings and that’s a shame, it was pretty cute too.

·       Freeform – is once again doing 25 days of Christmas and bless them for it! Their love for Claymation, for classic movies, and family fun are commendable. Plus, did you see they are going to show Prep and Landing (see above). It’s a channel that frankly never disappoints. They understand the assignment and are a mainstay on these calendars  every year for that reason. Gotta love us some Freeform! This year they feature several marathons of The Santa Claus (not my favorite), as well as Home Alone (one of my favorites) several times throughout the month. Not all airings made my calendar but since they are showing them in order I applaud their efforts!  

·       AMC is doing their “Best Christmas Ever” again this year which features Christmas programming throughout the month with a mix of popular films, classic cartoons and those movies that make you just wanna sit down with a cup of coco while wearing a warm sweater in 90-degree Alabama weather. Afterall, it’s not Christmas until Clark is trapped in the attic watching old home movies while dressed like his grandma. PS AMC is also doing a December the TwELFth Marathon on Dec. 12^th showing Elf over and over (some of this is self explanatory guys please keep up). So far not a single Walking Dead in sight for the month of December and for that we rejoice!

·       Rankin/Bass Weekend – both AMC and Freeform are celebrating the stop motion awesomeness that is Rankin/Bass Productions with a weekend of their holiday classics like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus. Not all of the airings made the calendar so if you don’t see your favorite check out AMC or Freeform on the weekend of Dec. 6^th cause I’m sure it will be on at least once or twice or three times.

·       Lifetime is once again doing their “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” which is the PG13 version of Hallmark. I mean nothing all that naughty, but it doesn’t always end up at the alter either. They are even tapping into the pickleball crazy with A Pickleball X-mas on Dec. 20^th at 7 which I find kind of clever and can’t wait to watch. They have romantic comedies, family dramas, thrillers, and good ole Christmas fun.

·       Hallmark took a break from their Holiday programing to bring you some Holiday programing, a joke I reuse every year cause I mean they make me. ALL of their premiers were in freaking October or November … like what is that about? Get a freaking calendar people. Some of these popped up again in December, but not all of them which is just insane to me. I mentioned the competition shows they almost snuck by me, but I did pull some new ones and some old favorites to add to this calendar. I love me some Scott Wolf and will forever add his Crimmus movies as long as they continue to air them. His dimples are just that adorable.

·       Charlie Brown is still being held hostage by Apple TV but you can log into Apple TV on Dec. 13^th and 14^th to watch for free so mark that down on your respective calendars. It’s a classic and deserves to be seen as often as possible. Move aside Clark I have decided it’s not really Crimmus until Linus drops his blanket and tells Charlie Brown what Crimmus is all about! After you watch Charlie Brown, assuming it will allow, watch The Family Plan 2 on Apple TV a Crimmus version of this movie which I’ve heard is very good for a fun family film based in Europe that includes action, comedy, and holiday fun. There’s also “The First Snow of Fraggle Rock” but I haven’t seen that one yet, however it’s Crimmus and Fraggles what could go wrong?!

·       A Christmas Story – I’m really disappointed by how few times this show pops up on the calendar this year. Don’t worry 24 hours of a Christmas Story starting Christmas Eve and running all day on Christmas day is still a thing but otherwise it’s only showing a few other times on TBS and TNT. That’s a shame. I also can’t find A Christmas Story Christmas anywhere. I LOVED it for all it’s nostalgic and original glory and I’m bummed it’s not getting more love. I will tell you to RUSH to your nearest TV with access to HBO Max to catch it before it’s gone forever. Yes, I’m telling you to watch a streaming movie and it’s a good movie so I will likely do it again. It’s that good people! Don’t judge me. Please don’t report me for spam!

·       Nickelodeon is once again having an Nickmas with tons of Christmas themed established shows, and as you all know by now (or should) that’s not what this calendar is about. So tune in for your Paw Patrol Christmas Themed specials, your Loud House 1 hour “movie” or the Rock Paper Scissors Christmas themed shows cause frankly that’s clever. They are also doing another NFL Slimetime which I admit is very entertaining but is soooo not Crimmus. The fact that they don’t haul out the Rugrats Chanukah every year is just sad and should result in some serious jail time for someone.

·       Speaking of Chanukah there are a lot of specials for it on Hallmark they just all air at the crack of dawn like 3am…4am… etc. It’s like yeah we support but um … not really. I’m always shocked that they don’t show Adam Sandler’s 8 Crazy Nights (which used to air on AMC but isn’t this year again). So, to my friends who celebrate ….. sorry. Not my fault.

·       CNN Heroes is always an uplifting thing to watch this time of year. It will air on Dec. 6^th at 7 on CNN. Everyday people using their time and talents to help make the world a better place and getting recognized for it. Well played CNN. Whatever your political stance, this is a show that will make you smile and realize that it’s not hard to make a difference, you just have to get in the game. PS you have the ability to not only nominate people for the award but you can also vote throughout the year and help choose who will get the award which I’ve always thought was cool.  

·       Speaking of up lifting TV, in a time where I think we can all agree it’s very much needed. The Kennedy Center Honors will air on Dec. 7^th 7:30 on CBS. They focus more on the celebrity side of doing good and this year will be featuring George Straight, KISS, Gloria Gynor, Michael Crawford, and Sylvester Stallone. If that’s not a bizarre bunch I’ve never heard of one. Should be interesting.

Now for …the rules. If you are an OG user of this calendar, feel free to skip ahead. If you are new to the party, you will want to read on or face my wrath. I’m not even adding don’t report me to IT for Spam because I mean honestly that can’t happen again, right?!

·       NO E-MAILS about taking Christ out of Christmas, it’s just a really long word and using X-Mas allows for more shows on the already full calendar.

§  Thanks for your understanding.

§  For those that don’t understand I’ll be glad to remove you from the list, just let me know.

·       I live in the central time zone, the times on this calendar reflect that, adjust accordingly.

§  That said unless otherwise stated the times are PM

·       Late Hour Focus, but hour round fun. For you work from home people, stay at home mom’s, or employees with access to good wifi ….  they run these specials all day long, and while my calendar focuses mainly on the after-work hour times since that is when I can watch, fire it up as background noise for that meeting that you are totes paying attention to while you are on mute, or while you edit that really long annoying document that you have already edited several other times but it’s fine you’ll do it again. I also don’t list things if they are on at like 3am…. You insomniacs are on your own, Marcy likes her sleepy time! See note above about this being all about me!

The goal of all of this madness is to get us all to set aside some time to allow the holiday cheer to enter your soul. To give those shows and stories we all grew up with to re-fill your heart with the happiness from your childhood. Most importantly it’s to remind us all during this super busy time of year to stop…breathe…take a minute … recharge…. then jump back out there into the madness that is the holiday season. Teach the new generation that our generation was way better by making them watch the hour-long Rudolph or watch them spaz out when Ralphie well you know *spoiler alert*. Then casually say, “hey isn’t that the guy from the Elf movie …. Or if you are a Marvel Fan Iron Man/Spiderman movies and watch them sit back in awe of how amazing and smart you are for recognizing him. Plus if you play it right you get to watch Elf, or Iron Man or even better Spiderman Far From Home.

Merry Christmas to you all …. and I hope you each have a wonderful and safe New Years. Here’s to a fantastic 2026  for us all even those who reported me to IT I hope your Egnyte goes down hard but comes back quickly ! The JPEG is posted in its original size so that if you save it, and I hope you do it's readable. 

Marcy & Golden 

A month of Firsts, one of them mine

Dear reader, as you know I’m over 40, closer to 50 than 40 if I’m being honest but you’ll have to figure out my age on your own if you are interested. Loyal readers already know, assuming they have been paying attention. My point is that I am at the age where very few new things happen to me. Most of the first’s in my life happen around others for instance my New Niece’s first Halloween was a few days ago and it was most definitely not my first but it was fun witnessing the holiday through her 10 month old eyes. She didn’t really understand what was going on but you could tell she felt the day was different. I look forward to next year when her “first” real Halloween happens cause I think by then she’ll be old enough to know it’s not just about getting in a pretty dress and taking a picture, which we totally did that too. Next year I hope to get to watch her toddle down the street on her way to the first “trick or treat” at a neighbors house. This year we just practiced walking in her living room while Garfield’s Halloween Adventure played in the background. Apparently my little ball of love has decided to just skip over crawling and go straight to walking. She can crawl mind you … she just goes backwards. It is kind of funny cause as she crawls away from whatever she wants she gets mad cause it’s getting farther away not closer. I did my best to convince her to go the other way and my bruised up knees are proof of that. There are lots of first heading her way, first thanksgiving, first Christmas, first birthday, but those belong to her and I’m just there for the ride.

However, October also had a first for me. I had my first reporting for Jury Duty. Not sure why after all these years they decided to call me but they did and I reported and it was definitely a first. I wish I could tell you it was an amazing trial and very interesting but I can’t. I can’t even fully tell you what it was really about other than a wrongful death case. The reason I don’t know these things will be made clear very soon.

So I drag myself out of bed on that faithful day, frankly glad to not be going to work. I get ready. I get in my car. I head to the courthouse at the appointed time I have been told to be there. Now I was told you can’t have a phone in the courthouse. I also read that on the website. So I left my phone in the car. I was the only person told this and most definitely the only person that read it on the website. Lesson learned. That was a long 2.5 hours. I was literally the only person in that room that did not have a phone. I had a book. But no phone. I learned something that day, when you don’t have a phone you don’t have a lot. I didn’t know what time it was. I panicked at one point that I would need my jury number and thought oh it was on my summons. Oh wait I had to runt hat in, no biggie I took a picture of it. It’s on my phone….which is in my car and no help at all. Sigh.

I did however have two battery back ups, I always keep at least one in my backpack (cause I’m too cool for a traditional purse – I use a sling bag) but for some reason today I had two. One of my fellow jurors phone was dying at like 8:30 and I let him borrow it. He still has it. More on that in a minute.

So I sat there trying and failing to not fall asleep, truth be told I think I did actually fall asleep at one point. Then all of the sudden this lady starts telling us what to expect for the day ahead. She also announced that once we were chosen for a Jury our phones would have to be off and in bags but they admitted that Jury Duty participants would need their phone so they were going to let us keep our phones but cautioned us to not use it outside of the Jury room. I was like well that wasn’t on the website. Anywhoooo……. Not too long after that a guy came out to “certify” us as jurors. Then he left. Then they started calling names, if your name was called you were to come up cause that meant you were being added to a “Panel.” Panel one came and went off to wherever a Panel goes (I assume a courtroom) when they are assembled. Panel 2 started and all of the sudden I heard my name. We were off. There were 60+ people in my “panel.” Upon calling everyone they led us out of the room and down the hall to a courtroom already full of people, where we sat in the order that we were called. I had a front row seat to the show. The Judge who was super nice but I can’t remember his name to save my life told us this was a wrongful death case and that we’d know more about that later. Then he asked up a crap ton of questions. By the time he finished it was lunchtime and instructed us not to talk to one another or other Jurors from other panels about what was happening inside the courtrooms. He stressed we were free to get to know one another but just don’t talk about the case. By then my eyeballs were swimming and I and about 40 of my fellow jurors made a beeline to the bathroom. By the time I made it down the elevator I had about 30 minutes left in my “lunch break” so I first walked to the car to retrieve my phone then I grabbed a coke and some chips and just sat somewhere to check my messages and see what the outside world had going on.

Upon returning to the courtroom we had to line back up in our number order then walk back into the courtroom to sit in our assigned seats. We had more questions from the Judge and about 30 minutes in a fellow juror got up and left the room. The judge stopped everything and told the jury to leave the room for a break. Apparently we weren’t allowed to  continue until the juror came back. Yeah no one told us that or she might not have left. So that took about 30 minutes. She was back after 5, but whatever. When we were all reseated it was time for the lawyers to ask questions, as part of the Jury selection process. That’s right we hadn’t even really got started and now it was close to 2pm. So she starts asking questions and when I say questions what I mean is she basically asked the same question about 15 different ways. Then people had to respond and anyone that raised a hand had an opportunity to speak. She’d say will this affect your ability to make a judgement and they would say no and sit down. After a while I thought oh my god just sit down then why raise your hand if you know it won’t make a difference. Two guys god love em said they didn’t care either way and didn’t want to be there. That got a chuckle especially when another guy stood up and said I agree. A few times the other side objected and they had a “sidebar” with the judge. Something was asked that he didn’t like at all and he sent us out of the room for a 2^nd time while he talked with the Lawyers. Man was I glad I got my phone. TWO HOURS … for TWO hours we all stood in the hottest hallway on the planet. They finally called us back in only to tell us that the “jury pool had been compromised and he had declared a mistrial.” That they were going to regroup, get a new panel, and that our services were no longer necessary.

So we literally sat there all day long for nothing. The Judge had told us earlier that if we were chosen for the Jury it was expected the case was going to be at least a week and a half but likely longer. So I guess I dodged a bullet but I would have liked to have seen it through. I did find the process fascinating but also a lot of wasted time and effort. Maybe next time it won’t be so bad.

 

Marcy