Holidays Not Happy This Year? TV Can Help

This will be my first Christmas after both of my parents have passed away, and I’m not looking forward to it. But this is not a plea for sympathy.

That I’ve reached by 61st year before confronting this reality is a tremendous blessing. I can (and will) look back on more than 50 Christmas celebrations with family and friends, and another half-dozen that were more intimate gatherings, but still congenial. And even this year I haven’t lost sight of the fact that Christmas transcends trees and presents and carries as always the tidings of great joy spoken of by Luke and Linus.

But this funk is not easily shaken, its impact felt even in my annual month-long marathon of 25 or so favorite classic TV holiday episodes. In previous years they were a supplement to other pleasures of the season. This year, outside of attending Christmas worship service, they will likely be all I’ve got. Will they help?

Thus far I can say that they have.

The viewing has been more haphazard, though I knew there would be a few that would be on the agenda regardless of circumstances. I watched the Cannonball, decorated for the holiday, rolling through the Hooterville countryside on Petticoat Junction. 

I watched Joe Friday and Bill Gannon on Dragnet investigate the disappearance of the baby Jesus figure from a Nativity display. Its moving final scene, filmed at the San Fernando Mission Church, and Friday’s last line, never fail to get me as close to choking up as my crusty old heart will allow.

I watched the Monkees sing “Riu Chiu” and Blair Warner sing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” on The Facts of Life. Funny thing – all the Facts holiday shows involve Christmas plans that do not go as expected, yet they manage to celebrate anyway. That’s also true of the Bob Newhart Show holiday episodes, which are among my favorites. There are lessons to take away from there.

I watched the guests on Hotel, all away from home, find ways to make the most of a holiday in unfamiliar circumstances. I watched Mary Richards coping with having to work on Christmas. And I watched the holiday episodes of The Doris Day Show – because it’s hard to stay gloomy anywhere in the vicinity of Doris Day.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir once again delivered my favorite of the many
classic TV riffs on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. And I don’t think I’ve made it through a holiday season in more than 20 years without watching Carol Brady get her voice back in time to sing at church, Donna Stone make sure the children in a hospital ward have a Christmas party, and Samantha Stephens introduce a skeptical orphan to Santa Claus.

And I watched some of the holiday-themed commercials from the 1970s and ‘80s, featuring so many retailers that we’ve lost, and giving us moments as touching as the shows they played alongside.

Maybe there was still something missing from the experience this time around. But there were also thoughts that were triggered in unexpected moments that had never surfaced before.

There’s a tag scene in the Wings episode “Insanity Claus” showing an older man, a member of the maintenance staff at the small airport in Nantucket, vacuuming the rug in the air traffic control tower, late at night on Christmas Eve. He is clearly the only employee still working and still in the building. He’s not even the focal point of the scene, yet I found myself wondering if he celebrated with his family before going to work, or if like many seniors he’s alone, and to him Christmas Eve is just another night.

Maybe that’s the point of all this – noticing the less fortunate, even as we join their ranks for a while. When we’re awash in things to do and parties and presents to buy, we don’t tend to think about those without such plans. That’s why the Lord gives us holidays like mine this year – to recognize how many aren’t with their loved ones on Christmas. It’s a chance to remember them in our prayers, and perhaps even alleviate some of their loneliness with a card, or a kind word, or maybe an invitation to share memories and a glass of egg nog.

Television shows – even the most festive and heartwarming episodes of classic series, can never replace the people we miss, but they’re not mere distractions either. Like the ornaments on your tree, or the family recipe for chestnut turkey stuffing handed down from generations past, they are a beloved part of holiday traditions that date back to childhood. And when some of those traditions fall away they remain reminders of happier times.

If you’re not anticipating a joyful holiday in 2025, wrap these old shows around you like a cozy blanket and comfort yourself in the warmth of nostalgia.

Merry Christmas.