Holiday TV Goodness Preview 

It’s that time again! Actually, retailers would have you think it started around the time they cleared the back-to-school merch, but whatever. We’re marking it with the arrival of Thanksgiving weekend, and even some our network friends have jumped the gun, but the long and the short of is that you can get your fill of every kind of Christmas flick on TV between now and the end of the year. And this season, Hallmark is being particularly gifty about unspooling several original films alongside your favorites. Here’s a tease of what’s coming, and coming back around. Plan your DVRing accordingly!

First up, granddaddy franchise Hallmark Hall of Fame makes its ABC debut with another sure thing, Mitch Albom’s Have a Little Faith. Starring fresh-from-CSI Lawrence Fishburne, Bradley Whitford, and Martin Landau, it’s a feel good story of redemption and kicks off the season in earnest Sunday night at 9 pm ET. ABC also has rights on the Charlie Brown franchise, so look for them to rotate throughout the holidays.

ABC Family got a jump on its annual “25 Days of Christmas” programming this year with a “Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas” which was essentially a 10-headstart on airing its library of made-for-TV holiday movies, feature films, animation, and Rankin/Bass classics. Sunday night at 8 pm ET, it debuts a new holiday romance, Desperately Seeking Santa, starring V and Smallville alum Laura Vandervoort and Nick Zano from What I like About You and 2 Broke Girls. In addition to the TV programming, you can also catch several past films and new videos from The Band Perry online at the ABC Family holiday hub.

The Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel are tag teaming to run an astounding number of holiday movies this year—many from their own recent library. If you’ve never seen Alphas’ Warren Christie in the really very charming The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, you’ll have several chances this season. New offerings have already begun airing this month, and they’ll continue to repeat alongside another handful of newbies. Look for new movies with familiar faces Kristy Swanson, Edward Herrmann, Tricia Helfer, Elizabeth Berkley, Dean Cain, Gil Bellows, Melissa Gilbert, and Vivica Fox, as well as the latest Debbie Macomber story. There’s also a brand new cartoon with Hoops and Yoyo, the characters who voice the audio cards at the Hallmark kiosks. For complete schedule info, visit hallmarkchannel.com and hallmarkmoviechannel.com.

Lifetime has kicked off “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” with its own massive library, and two networks to spread them over, so look for holiday favorites to run all month long. The networks are surprisingly light on tentpole pics this season, but they do have one new film that’s already available on Amazon, Dear Santa, starring fan favorite Amy Acker, which debuts tonight at 8 pm ET and repeats tomorrow. The network schedule hasn’t been updated yet—it shows the same schedule for all of December—but I’d guess there will be a handful of other new holiday flicks sprinkled throughout the month.

Syfy has a few holiday gifts for us with a new miniseries (after taking last year off), Neverland on December 4th and 5th, Christmas one-off episodes of Warehouse 13, Haven, and Eureka all on December 6th, and a holiday-themed disaster flick about a very bad snow globe called Snowmageddon with Magda Apanowicz, who we last saw on CW’s Hellcats, and BSG’s Michael Hogan, on December 10th. Also look for the network to trot out a variety of snow-filled B-movies to warm your winter nights.

Psych didn’t do a holiday episode this season, but USA and ION are rerunning its two previous genius Christmas episodes, “The Polarizing Express” and “Christmas Joy” throughout the month of December. Check your local listings.

And finally, several of our favorite shows—the ones not enduring a hellatus, that is—will have holiday episodes, so keep an eye on your handy TV schedule.

What are your favorite holiday TV chestnuts? Comment us if we missed any!