All The Christmas TV You’ll Actually Want To Watch This Month
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2 weeks ago
Christmas specials and festive favourites worth tuning into
The food is ordered and the menu finalised, the guests are invited and the greeting cards written, the party outfits have been selected and the Christmas shopping is… Well, it’s happening.
Time to start planning your downtime: whether it’s solo recuperating with some laptop streaming or gathering the whole brood in front of the television on the big day itself, festive telly is some of the year’s best. And this year we are being treated to a full slate of goodness. To cut through the noise, here’s the C&TH pick of the very best watches this season, from new thrillers and Christmas specials to perennial favourites.
The C&TH Christmas TV Guide 2025
(BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
The Traitors
Claudia Winkleman is back already – aren’t we lucky? After the great success of the inaugural Celebrity Traitors, the fingerless-gloved castle-dweller is back to kick off a new series of civilian The Traitors on New Year’s Day. Expect 22 new contestants and mind-bending trials and twists as we are whisked away to Scotland once again. With £120k up for grabs, who will prove the most treacherous Traitor – or the savviest Faithful? Here’s what to know before you tune in. 8pm 1 January, BBC One
Earlier in the day, the BBC will also be reshowing its special The Traitors at the Proms, which was recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall this autumn. Expect melodramatic pop renditions, famous faces from past seasons and, of course, Winkleman herself. 2pm 1 January, BBC One
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The Great Peep Show Christmas Bake Off
From one Winkleman to another… For the very first time since the series wrapped in 2015, Peep Show stars David Mitchell, Olivia Colman, Isy Suttie, Matt King and Sophie Winkleman (fresh off her turn in the gripping Wild Cherry) will reunite on screen. It had to be something special to get them back together: they’ll be trading deadpan to-camera jokes and awkwardness for aprons and rolling pins in the famed Bake Off tent. With Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood scrutinising their efforts and Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond hosting, who will rise to the occasion and who will collapse like a poorly proved loaf? 8pm 25 December, Channel 4
Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, Camila Morrone as Roxana & Diego Calva as Teddy in The Night Manager series 2. (Ink Factory/BBC)
The Night Manager Series 2
Big news – a decade in the making. The Night Manager is finally back for a second series, set to commence on NYD (right after The Traitors, FYI). Now living as Alex Goodwin, a low-level MI6 officer running a quiet surveillance unit called The Night Owls in London, we will rejoin Tom Hiddlestone’s Jonathan Pine eight years after season 1’s explosive finale. After all of that commotion, Pine’s life is comfortingly uneventful. That is until a chance sighting of an old Roper mercenary brings Pine into contact with a violent new foe: Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva). Pulled into a flashy new world in South America, Pine finds himself in the middle of another perilous mission in the world of arms dealing. Here’s everything we know so far. 9.05pm 1 January, BBC One
Helen Mirren as June, Kate Winslet as Julia in Goodbye June. (Kimberley French/Netflix © 2025)
Goodbye June
New Christmas films are released every year, but when did we have the last classic? Think Home Alone (1990), Love Actually (2003), The Holiday (2006)… We’re hoping Kate Winslet’s directorial feature (penned by her son, Joe Anders) will steal a slot in our future festive marathons. Featuring the Titanic star alongside Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren and Timothy Spall, it centres on a dysfunctional family brought together in the run up to Christmas when matriarch June’s health takes a turn for the worse. Expect biting humour, blunt honesty, and a bitter-sweet take on the festive season. Here are all of the details. From 8am, 24 December, Netflix
Will Sharpe as Amadeus. (© Sky)
Amadeus
If you are seeking a flamboyant new costume drama to binge, Sky’s new original series Amadeus is top of our watch list, starring The White Lotus star Will Sharpe as history’s greatest composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In this new adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s Tony award winning 1979 play of the same name, Paul Bettany takes on the role of Antonio Salieri, the musician’s fiercest rival. Here’s what to expect. 8.30pm 21 December, Sky
The Holiday
If you love romantic Christmas films, The Holiday is almost definitely already in your festive rotation. But if you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, 2025 is the perfect time: it’s available to stream for free on BBC iPlayer this season. Set between glossy Los Angeles and a cute Surrey village, two love stories unfold when two women swap homes for the holiday season. Starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black, it’s a heartwarming holiday must-watch. Streaming on BBC iPlayer now.
Alison Steadman OBE & Dame Mary Berry in A Mary Berry Christmas. (© BBC/Sidney Street Productions for Darlow Smithson Productions/Neil Genower)
A Mary Berry Christmas
The beloved dame Mary Berry is a year-round staple in our kitchens – or her cookbooks are, anyway. If you are looking for some last minute festive hosting inspiration, make sure you tune into the super-cosy A Mary Berry Christmas where the celebrity cook will be celebrating the magic of the season’s traditions and its tastiest recipes with the help of her friends Alison Steadman, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Zoe Ball. 9pm 17 December, BBC One
Festive MasterChef
Two festive MasterChef specials are coming to BBC One this season. First there’s Celebrity MasterChef Christmas Cook Off starring GK Barry, Kola Bokinni, Nikki Fox and Iain Stirling, who are tasked with impressing the judges across two challenges, battling it out to clinch the Golden Whisk. Then we are being treated to the MasterChef Festive Extravaganza – Champion of Champions, with four previous winners (Natalie Coleman, Thomas Frake, Chariya Khattiyot and Brin Pirathapan) tapped to return to the high-stakes kitchen, battling to impress restaurant critic Tom Parker Bowles. 8pm 22 December & 29 December, BBC One
Amandaland (© BBC/Merman)
Amandaland Christmas Special
Amanda and the family get the festive treatment in this one-off special episode. The brood heads to Aunt Joan’s country house for Christmas day – but plans change when Mal and Anne tag along. Anne, struggling to recreate the magical Christmases of her youth, is in despair at being separated from her family, while Felicity is growingly frustrated at her sister’s high spirits. Mal, meanwhile, stumbles across a deep family secret while snooping… 9.15pm 25 December, BBC One
Roger (TOBIAS MENZIES) in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower. (© BBC/Adorable Media/Joe Duggan)
A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Room In The Tower
Mark Gatiss is back with his annual festive Ghost Story for the BBC this year, presenting a spooky adaptation of E.F. Benson’s 1912 short story A Room in the Tower starring Joanna Lumley and Tobias Menzies. Re-set in the interwar period, expect ghostly visitings and lavish parties as a haunted man stumbles across the bedroom he knows very well from his nightly nightmares. Here’s exactly what to expect. 10pm 24 December, BBC Two
Home Alone
For a family-friendly festive classic, Home Alone is the perfect answer (especially if you’ve already made your way through all eight Harry Potters). Released in cinemas a month before Christmas in 1990, the John Hughes flick has stood the test of time, centring on eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) accidentally left behind by his family as they fly to Paris on a family vacation. Home alone in his Chicago mansion, the precocious youngster is left to defend his property against thieves taking their chance to fleece the property. Streaming on Channel 4 now.
(© BBC/Passion Planet Ltd/Gavin Thurston)
Wild London
Returning home from the abundant countryside, the world’s most glorious tropical forests and adventures at sea isn’t as depressing to David Attenborough as you might think. Having called London home for 75 years, the naturist has developed an intimate knowledge of the ancient city’s natural history – which he will delve into in this special one-off hour-long documentary. As Londoners know, there’s plenty of wildlife in the city, and in Wild London we can expect to see everything from herds of deer invading gardens and pigeons commuting by tube to snakes slithering along Regent’s canal and parakeets raiding green spaces. 6.30pm 1 January, BBC One
Call the Midwife Christmas Special 2024. (© BBC/Neal Street Productions/Olly Courtney)
Call The Midwife
For some cosy comfort watching, we can always rely on the annual Call the Midwife festive double bill, which will kick off series 15 in the New Year. But first, Christmas – and this year we’re going international. Senior members of Nonnatus House head to Hong Kong on a mercy mission, while the younger midwives are left to cope alone – with the action spanning the sun-drenched Far East and the snowy East End. Sister Julianne (Jenny Agutter), ever-resistant to change, finally decides to embrace it. Here’s everything we know so far. 8.15pm 25 December & 8.30pm 26 December, BBC One
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Taskmaster
For something a little more silly, there are also two festive Taskmaster specials to get excited for: Taskmaster Champion of Champions IV and the two-part Taskmaster’s New Year Treat. The former sees the five most recent Taskmaster victors – Andy Zaltzman, John Robins, Maisie Adam, Mathew Baynton and Sam Campbell – collide in an epic battle to join the best-of-the-best list. The latter meanwhile sees five brand new contestants from outside the world of comedy take on some of Greg Davies and Alex Horne’s baffling challenges across two episodes. The subjects are Big Zuu, Jill Scott, Sam Ryder, Susie Dent and Rose Ayling-Ellis – but who will come out tops? 9pm 22 December, 2 January & 3 January, Channel 4
Minnie Driver & James Nesbitt in Run Away. (Netflix/Ben Blackall)
Run Away
It’s become a New Year’s Day tradition, and 2026 is no different: a new Harlan Coben thriller will land on Netflix, taking us back up to Manchester and plummeting us in the middle of another twisty crime. This time Simon (James Nesbitt) is at the fore – a man with a seemingly perfect life. But it all unravels when his eldest daughter runs away and finds herself tangled in a complex conspiracy. And desperate as he is to save her, James finds himself pulled into it too. Here’s what to know before you tune in. 1 January, Netflix
Lily Collins as Emily in Emily in Paris. (Caroline Dubois/Netflix © 2025)
Emily In Paris
For some festive fluff, you’ll want to tune into the fifth season of our favourite guilty pleasure Emily in Paris – which will contradictorily give us some Italian escapism as Lily Collins’ bubbly marketing executive pursues new romance (and also new business) away from the city of love. Her new beau Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini) is based in Rome, but Emily will also jet off to Venice as she tracks down new business for the Italian Agence Grateu office. Back in Paris, Emily’s perennial love interests Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) also star. 18 December, Netflix
