Everett
Tuned In+Television | December 24, 2011

Generation X-Mas: The Rise of A Christmas Story

By James Poniewozik

How an upstart film became a holiday icon for the post-boomer set.

+Video Movies | December 23, 2011

Watch: The Best Christmas Films of All-Time

By Claire Suddath
Everett

From Scrooge to the neo-classic Elf, TIME’s Richard Corliss picks his favorite Christmas movies of all time.

+Movies | December 20, 2011

Top 10 Worst Christmas Movies

By Richard Corliss
Everett

There’s a thin line between a heartwarming holiday movie and a heartrendingly bad Christmas film. TIME’s Richard Corliss sets his sights on the latter.

Populist+Music | December 29, 2011

Top 10 Overplayed Holiday Songs

By TIME Staff
overplayed_holiday_songs_tout

By Thanksgiving Day each year, more than 150 radio stations nationwide begin to broadcast Christmas music 24/7. TIME presents the most incessantly spun jingles.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | December 9, 2011

Parks and Recreation Watch: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!

By James Poniewozik
Mike Ansell/NBC

Spoilers for last night’s Parks and Recreation below: Last night after rewatching “Citizen Knope” (having gotten a screener earlier in the week), I tweeted half-jokingly that Parks and Recreation had become “the Friday Night Lights of comedy.” Jokingly, because the moving, optimistic ending to the episode made me mist up—not the first time this show [...]

+Music | December 2, 2011

Hark! Listen to TIME’s Favorite Holiday Tunes on Spotify

By Allie Townsend
ABC Photo Archives / Getty Images

You bring the eggnog. We’ll bring the soundtrack.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | November 24, 2011

Turkey Day TV: Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas

By James Poniewozik
FOX

It’s not often that an animated children’s special answers a question of broad religious import, but Fox’s Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, debuting Thanksgiving night, pulls it off. Santa Claus, it turns out, came before Jesus. At least that’s the implication of setting a holiday special, overtly about Christmas and involving a visit to the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 24, 2010

Vacation Robo-Post: Cindy-Lou Who, Meet Doctor Who

By James Poniewozik

In retrospect, it’s surprising the idea wasn’t done earlier: if you want someone to deliver a Christmas Past, Present and Future, you could do worse than Doctor Who. Tomorrow (Christmas Day) at 9 p.m. E.T., BBC America debuts Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol, a stand-alone update of the Dickens classic co-starring Michael Gambon. (The special [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 25, 2009

Vacation Robo-Post: Happy Dance Edition

By James Poniewozik

I usually mark holidays by posting some kind of amusing clips or mashups from TV holiday specials. This one, though, you’ve already seen. What’s interesting to me is not so much the video as the comment of the YouTube user who posted it: Pay special attention to the girl in the pink dress she seems [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 18, 2009

Merry Jewish Christmas!

By James Poniewozik

Last night, NBC aired SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas, a holiday special whose title made me nervous. I love Kristen Wiig; I do not love Gilly, who like many SNL characters that “break out” for some unknown reason, is one drawn-out, not especially funny joke over and over and over. But the special did [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 11, 2009

NBC Comedies Watch: You Sleigh Me

By James Poniewozik
Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 10, 2009

Big Love: We Wish You a Married Christmas

By James Poniewozik

Big Love returns to HBO Jan. 10. To get you through the long holiday wait until then, Roman Grant and his wives prepared you the above video Christmas card. An album of eight songs, A Juniper Creek Christmas, is available for download from hbo.com. No, seriously, it is. Happy holidays to you and yours (plural)!

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 2, 2009

TV This Evening: NBC Tree to Get Lit After All

By James Poniewozik

Tonight’s annual NBC tree-lighting special—a.k.a. The Reason It Was a Good Idea to Work At Home and Not At Time’s Rockefeller Center Office Today—will go on after all. A union of broadcast technicians rescinded a strike threat against the network, which had threatened to pull the plug on Christmas in Rockefeller Center. The network and [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | November 20, 2009

Dead Electron Alert: Suggestions for a Shopaholic

By James Poniewozik

Also out today, elsewhere at time.com, is TIME’s entertainment holiday gift guide (you can scan the full list here), within which I have a few DVD-set suggestions, including collections of Rome, Futurama, thirtysomething, The Shield and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. That Very Sunny Christmas disc came across my desk too late for this, but [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | November 19, 2009

Have Yourself a Sunny Little Christmas

By James Poniewozik

  In these tough economic times, I’m not sure I can in good conscience tell anyone to spend $27 retail (currently $16 at Amazon) for what amounts to an double-length single episode of a current TV sitcom. On the other hand, hell, the economy needs stimulus, and if you’re inclined to blow the money this [...]