1) Thanksgiving Day Parade, 9 a.m. to noon, NBC.and CBS, Here are all the elements to launch TV’s Christmas season – noise, color, size and Santa. The parade (shown here) are 11 bands, 1,000 clowns, 1,200 cheerleaders and dancers and 26 floats, many bearing lip-syncing star –.Ciara, Chicago, Lea Michele, Billy Porter, Black-Eyed Peas and more. Networks also add separate acts, especially early. CBS has Miranda Lambert; NBC opens with “Sesame Street” Muppets and has the casts of four musicals.
2) Afternoon competitions. You can choose your species here. Dogs have … well, the “National Dog Show”; that’s noon on NBC, followed (on most NBC stations) by a parade rerun at 2. Humans have football: It’s Bears-Lions at 12:30 p.m. ET on Fox, Bills-Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. on CBS, then Saints-Falcons at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.
3) “Disney’s Magical Holiday,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. Wrapping up the busy holiday, we get more size and spectacle, this time from the Disney parks. Two of the hosts – Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) and Matthew Morrison – will perform. So will Pentatonix, Ally Brooke and Lindsay Stirling, plus some duets – Sting with Shaggy and Ingrid Michaelson with Andy Grammer.
4) “Miracle on 34th Street”:(1994), 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., CMT. Next week, Elizabeth Perkins stars in a sort of perverse Christmas tale: Fox’s “The Moodys” is a three-night comedy about a dysfunctional family during the holiday. First, however, catch her in the remake of a sweet classic. She and Mara Wilson play mother and daughter – roles Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood had in the original – with Richard Attenborough as the maybe-Santa. It’s a bit too long, but an upbeat and visually lovely film.
5) “A Christmas Wish,” 8-10 p.m., Lifetime. Already flooded with Christmas-movie reruns, Lifetime goes a step further – new ones on each of the next four nights. This one has a community wish box. Faith (Hilarie Burton) wishes for true love … then meets Andrew (Cristian de la Fuente). But is he the one?