History ChristmasEpisode / LiveActionTV

* In the ''Series/FamilyTies'' episode "Christmas Story," the Keatons miss their Christmas ski trip because of a snowstorm. Instead, they spend Christmas Eve at home, looking at a photo album and opening early presents while Steven and Elyse reminisce about the circumstances of each child's birth.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E47TheNightOfTheMeek The Night of the Meek]]" is set on Christmas Eve, and involves alcoholic, despairing department store Santa Henry Corwin wishing he could help the poverty-stricken residents of his neighborhood, then finding a mysterious bag which produces gifts on request. He spends the night giving gifts to children and adults alike, and when the bag is empty, he wishes he could do the same thing every year. [[spoiler:At which point a reindeer-drawn sleigh appears, and an elf sitting in the sleigh tells "Santa" that they need to get a start on next year's Christmas...]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E102TheChangingOfTheGuard The Changing of the Guard]]", Professor Ellis Fowler, who has taught at the Rock Spring School for Boys for 51 years, is forced to retire at Christmas and plans to commit suicide as he believes that his life has been a failure.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

** There is but one classic series Christmas special: Episode 7 of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan "The Daleks' Master Plan"]], "The Feast of Steven", which was broadcast on Christmas Day, had the First Doctor BreakTheFourthWall and wish everyone at home a happy Christmas at the end of a BreatherEpisode that had nothing to do with the rest of the serial. The logic back then was that no-one would watch telly on Christmas Day, but as Christmas happened to fall on a Saturday that year they might as well put out an episode as usual. Indeed, the show’s viewership numbers seem to confirm this, as the episode had the lowest viewership of the entire serial. (This mentality has changed — the new series' Christmas specials posted some of the show's highest ratings.) Unfortunately, however, this logic lead to the episode never being copied or offered for overseas sale; consequently, when the original videotape was wiped, the episode became ''Doctor Who'''s only MissingEpisode that is almost certainly irretrievably lost.[[note]]''Theoretically'' a telerecording could have been made in the absence of specific instructions not to make one, hence "almost certainly", but the chances of this are slim to none. However, audio of the episode has survived, and the episode was the only in the serial to have telesnaps taken of it, so an animated reconstruction, as has happened with other lost episodes, could in theory still happen.[[/note]]

** The first three Christmas episodes of the revival — [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion "The Christmas Invasion"]], [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]] — follow directly on from their previous series' finales. Following this are the standalone [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E14TheNextDoctor "The Next Doctor"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] (which was split in two parts, airing on Christmas and New Year's Day). The first four are ''very'' Christmassy. "The End of Time" was the final story before a complete change in production team and [[TheNthDoctor lead actor]]; aside from the lack of Christmas elements besides the time period, it starts with premonitions of darkness and [[FromBadToWorse rapidly gets bleaker]], eventually rolling down into WhamEpisode territory. Taking a note from soap operas, these tend to have high body counts and bittersweet endings in general, [[LampshadeHanging to the point]] that London is evacuated on Christmas in "Voyage of the Damned" because everyone remembered what happened the last two Christmases!

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]] is the conclusion of the Twelfth Doctor's GrandFinale, which began in the Series 10 SeasonFinale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]]. Notably, ''those'' episodes would have served as Twelve's final bow and the 2017 special was intended to be the Thirteenth Doctor's debut; however, incoming showrunner Creator/ChrisChibnall instead chose to begin from the start of Series 11. When Creator/StevenMoffat learned that the BBC would no longer greenlight ''Who'' Christmas specials if a year were skipped, he revised the SeasonFinale to extend its plot into one more adventure for the Twelfth Doctor and the ''First'' Doctor to keep the tradition alive. However, Chibnall so far has used New Year's Day rather than Christmas for special shows for the Thirteenth Doctor (the Series 11 epilogue "Resolution" and Series 12 premiere "Spyfall" Part One).

* ''Series/TheBear" has Fishes which is without doubt, the most stress inducing episode of the series' run. Happy Christmas.

* ''Series/TopOfThePops'': An hour-long episode of this long-running pop music show is broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day, featuring highlights from the British singles charts from the past year. The set is given a festive makeover, and presenters and artists often appear wearing Santa hats and other festive accessories. Usually, but not always, that year's Christmas Number 1 is played towards the end. Though ''Top of the Pops'' ended as a weekly series in 2006, the Christmas Episode remained part of BBC One's festive schedule into the 2020s. (Classic Christmas Episodes are shown on BBC Four.)

* ''Series/TopOfThePops'': An hour-long episode of this long-running pop music show is broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day, featuring highlights from the British singles charts from the past year. The set is given a festive makeover, and presenters and artists often appear wearing Santa hats and other festive accessories. Usually, but not always, that year's Christmas Number 1 is played towards the end. Though ''Top of the Pops'' ended as a weekly series in 2006, the Christmas Episode remains part of BBC One's festive schedule. (Classic Christmas Episodes are shown on BBC Four.)

** "Blizzard," aired in 1976 and following the drama of children becoming stranded in a sudden blizzard while walking home from school on Chrismas Eve. A search party is formed to find the children before tragedy strikes.

* ''Series/FixerUpper'' - instead of renovating a house for a couple, Chip and Joanna Gaines fix up a house from the 1800's previously passed up by another couple and turn it into a bed and breakfast.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' didn't really have special Christmas episodes, just ones that due to continuity took place around Christmas time and therefore mentioned it (but sometimes New Year's Eve instead.) Their "big deal" episodes apart from season finales tended to be {{Thanksgiving Episode}}s.

* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', ''Power Rangers''[='=] parent franchise, does Christmas episodes far more frequently due to the difference in airing dates. They usually tend towards AnAssKickingChristmas and are always at the 40-something episode mark. They can also be generally divided into two categories — the ones where a major story arc occurs and the characters get the opportunity to celebrate at the end; and the ones where the Rangers have a wacky standalone adventure often occurring right after a major story arc.

** There is but one classic series Christmas special: Episode 7 of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan "The Daleks' Master Plan"]], "The Feast of Steven", which was broadcast on Christmas Day, had the First Doctor BreakTheFourthWall and wish everyone at home a happy Christmas at the end of a BreatherEpisode that had nothing to do with the rest of the serial. The logic back then was that no-one would watch telly on Christmas Day, but as Christmas happened to fall on a Saturday that year they might as well put out an episode as usual. (This mentality has changed — the new series' Christmas specials posted some of the show's highest ratings.) Unfortunately, however, this logic lead to the episode never being copied or offered for overseas sale; consequently, when the original videotape was wiped, the episode became ''Doctor Who'''s only MissingEpisode that is almost certainly irretrievably lost.[[note]]''Theoretically'' a telerecording could have been made in the absence of specific instructions not to make one, hence "almost certainly", but the chances of this are slim to none. However, audio of the episode has survived, so an animated reconstruction, as has happened with other lost episodes, could in theory still happen.[[/note]]

** "The Night of the Meek" is set on Christmas Eve, and involves alcoholic, despairing department store Santa Henry Corwin wishing he could help the poverty-stricken residents of his neighbourhood, then finding a mysterious bag which produces gifts on request. He spends the night giving gifts to children and adults alike, and when the bag is empty, he wishes he could do the same thing every year. [[spoiler:At which point a reindeer-drawn sleigh appears, and an elf sitting in the sleigh tells "Santa" that they need to get a start on next year's Christmas...]]

* ''Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall'' had three: two to bridge the gap during the hiatus and one to close out the series.

* As a radio show, ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' almost did a [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas special]] in which Marvin would have been both figuratively and literally the star (of Bethlehem), and by participating in a nativity scene would be cured of his depression. This concept was WhatCouldHaveBeen; the episode broadcast instead on 24 December 1978 was the pilot for the second series.

* ''Series/FamilyAffair'': The show had no "official" Christmas episode that aired shortly before December 25, but there was a holiday-themed episode that aired during the show's third season: "Christmas Came A Little Early." In this episode – which originally aired in November 1968, a month before Christmas – the Davis family hold an early Christmas for a [[LittlestCancerPatient terminally ill classmate]] of Buffy's, who is not expected to survive into late Decemeber. The tragic youth, by the way, was played by a pre-''Series/TheBradyBunch'' Eve Plumb. [[note]]Despite originally airing in November, the episode – when the show was popular in syndication, and later when the series was reaired on rerun networks – was/is often pulled from its original production order and aired on Christmas day (or the last Friday before December 25) due to its holiday theme.[[/note]]

** The 1994 special shows the leisure centre staff in various vocations on New Years Eve in the year 2019, as they recall New Years Eve of 1989 when they were trapped in the centre with each other for days during a fierce blizzard.

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' had a Christmas episode in the third season of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' and in ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''. There's also the non-canon DirectToVideo ChristmasSpecial "Alpha's Magical Christmas". The tradition was revived with ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'', as for a long time the seasons began in February and ended in November, meaning there was little room for holiday celebration.

* An early ''Series/GreenAcres'' episode has Oliver anxious for an old-fashioned Christmas in his new country home - he finds that 'traditional' in Hooterville means (literal) AluminumChristmasTrees.

** Season 8's "Dear Sis" focuses on Father Mulcahy writing a letter to his sister around Christmastime.