1) “Call the Midwife,” 8-10 p.m. PBS. The new season is months away, but “Midwife” annually has a Christmas special. (A previous one is shown here.) Here’s its best one yet. In a hard-scrabble section of 1969 London, good people face crises — a homeless family, an escaped prisoner, a lost traveler who has Down syndrome. There’s also joy and a “Midwife” rarity – a charming romance.
2) Parade, 10 a.m. to noon ET, ABC. Here are parades in the Disney parks, plus music by Elton John, Carly Pearce, John Legend, Andy Grammer, Seventeen and Pentatonix. With ABC airing basketball games, the times vary: The parade is 9 a.m. CT, but 5 a.m. (before Good Morning, America) MT and PT. On Disney+, it’s 11 a.m. ET, 8 a.m. PT; on Freeform, it’s noon.
3) Basketball. Now for the other piece of ABC’s Christmas Day tradition – a five-game basketball blitz. That starts at noon ET with the Spurs and Knicks. Others are the Timberwolves-Mavs at 2:35, 76ers-Celtics at 5, Lakers-Warriors at 8 and Nuggets-Suns at 10:30.
4) Cartoons. Wrapping its “25 Days of Christmas,” Freeform has “Frosty” at 10:30 a.m., “Rudolph” ar 11 and the 2018 “Grinch” at 4 p.m. AMC has the animated “Jack Frost” at animated 7 a.m. and “The Year Without a Santa Claus” at 8:15. FX has “Toy Story” and its sequel, at 7 and 9, But the gem is the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” at 8 on NBC.
5) More movies. The Christmas ones get one more day. “Santa Clause” is 2 p.m. on Freeform, “Elf” is 4:15 and 9:30 on AMC, the “Home Alone” films are 6 and 8:25 on Freeform. An alternative is Meryl Streep in Albert Brooks’ clever “Defending Your Life,” at 8 p.m. ET on Turner Classic Movies.