TCM Highlights: December 22-28 & Full December Calendar

It won’t surprise you to hear that TCM is bringing you some major seasons greetings this week, featuring Christmas classics like The Bishop’s Wife, The Shop Around the Corner, Holiday Affair andMeet Me in St. Louis. But there’s more on offer than just yuletide cheer — you can also catch films about divine intervention, including the original 1951 Angels in the Outfield, ’70s drama Network, Elvis’ Blue Hawaii, and an “In Memoriam” night dedicated to stars who have passed this year, including Val Kilmer. There’s a little something for everyone — so get ready to spend your holiday days off with some fantastic classic cinema.

Just looking for the full December calendar for the month? Scroll to the bottom to download.

Monday, December 22

Classic Christmas Marathon

Beginning at 6:30am

Everett Collection

This is an unusual mix-up of films that don’t immediately come to mind when you think of holiday classics, but settle in for some heartwarming tales filled with nostalgia, laughter and a touch of mischief. The lineup begins with the tear-jerker Blossoms in the Dust (1941), a moving story starring Greer Garson that captures the true spirit of giving. Then indulge in the drama The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady (1950), where family, music, Christmas trees and presents take center stage. Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) brings small-town warmth in Wisconsin and childhood wonder into the story, while the Oscar-nominated Metropolitan (1990) adds a modern twist with witty conversations and Christmas-party charm. Feel the sparkle of youth where mischief meets heart in stories of friendship and growth with Peter Sellers in The World of Henry Orient (1964) and Rosalind Russell and Hayley Mills in The Trouble With Angels (1966). Love takes a holiday turn in Never Say Goodbye (1946), and generosity shines bright in It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), a timeless story of kindness at Christmastime. Finally, wrap up the night with The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), Fitzwilly (1967), Lady on a Train (1945), Miracle on Main Street (1939) and Roadblock (1951).

Tuesday, December 23

A Double-Dose of Garland

Beginning at 8pm

Everett Collection

See Judy Garland at her greatest in two of her most wonderful Technicolor musicals. First up, Garland wows in 1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis, which follows a year in the life of the Smith family, whose four daughters learn about life and love in the lead-up to the World’s Fair (she and director Vincente Minelli would marry soon after the film wrapped). Then, in 1949’s In The Good Old Summertime, Garland plays a shopgirl who irritates coworker Van Johnson, and the feeling is mutual — but in their relationship as anonymous pen pals, the pair fall in love. Yes, it’s the same plot as 1940’s The Shop Around the Corner, which would later come back again as 1998’s You’ve Got Mail.

Wednesday, December 24

Classic Christmas Marathon

Beginning at 7am

Everett Collection

Spend Christmas Eve immersed in the golden age of Hollywood, where holiday magic comes from love, laughter and redemption. The day begins with Three Godfathers (1936), a rugged Western about outlaws discovering the power of kindness, followed by the screwball charm of Bachelor Mother (1939), where Ginger Rogers navigates romance and mistaken identity. Heartstrings tug with All Mine to Give (1957), a true story of family and legacy in the 1850s, while The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan offers tender romance between secret pen pals unaware of their workplace rivalry. Generosity takes center stage in It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), as a millionaire’s mansion becomes a respite for the homeless, and Holiday Affair (1949), starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh, captures postwar love with warmth and charm. Christmas in Connecticut (1945) delights with culinary chaos and romantic entanglements, while The Bishop’s Wife (1947), starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven, brings angelic guidance and heartfelt joy. Plenty of other films continue through Christmas evening.

Thursday, December 25

“Help From Above” Marathon

Beginning at 8pm

@ MGM/Courtesy of MOVIES!

TCM figures that by primetime on Christmas Day, you’ve had your fill of sugar plums and stockings hung by the chimney with care. So instead, they’ve programmed an evening of classic films about heavenly interventions. First up, in 1946’s A Matter of Life and Death, David Niven plays a World War II pilot who misses his date with Death, falls in love with a gal, and must convince an otherworldly tribunal to let him stay on earth. Then, in the original 1951 Angels in the Outfield, Paul Douglas plays the hot-tempered manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose losing team can get an assist from a group of kind-hearted deceased players — if he can learn to stop being so quick to anger. In 1943’s A Guy Named Joe, Spencer Tracy plays a World War II pilot who doesn’t make it through a dangerous mission — but comes back to drop on his best gal and her new love, a fellow pilot (Spielberg remade the movie in 1989 as Always). Then, capping things off, in 1947’s Heaven Only Knows, an angel attempts to help a man who was accidentally born without a soul.

Friday, December 26

In Memoriam

Beginning at 8pm

Everett Collection

TCM continues its tribute to beloved stars we’ve lost this year, showcasing some of their more memorable films. Remembered tonight will be Robert Benton with the 1979 weeper he directed and wrote, Kramer vs. Kramer; film legend Val Kilmer in 1984’s Top Secret!; and Western great Joe Don Baker in 1973’s Walking Tall, which makes its TCM premiere. Later in the evening, tribute airings are for Claude Jarman Jr., the young star of 1946’s The Yearling, who died at 90; British actress and Tony Award winner Joan Plowright (widow of Laurence Olivier), who died at 95 and will be remembered in The Entertainer (1960); and composer Lalo Schifrin whose music is featured in 1967’s Cool Hand Luke.

Saturday, December 27

Two for One: Robert Townsend

Beginning at 8pm

In tonight’s Two for One re-airing, TCM primetime host Ben Mankiewicz is joined by filmmaker, actor and humanitarian Robert Townsend, who introduces two films of his choosing. Townsend will offer commentary on each title’s cultural significance and its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and his own personal reflections on them. His first selection is 1941’s Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which Heaven Can Wait was based on, and Townsend reminds how this classic is often overlooked in favor of the Warren Beatty remake. The second film is 1976’s iconic satire Network, in which a veteran news anchor (Peter Finch) who learns that he’s going to get canned initially threatens the network with plans to kill himself on live TV, but thankfully instead opts to do a live angry rant that leads to some outrageous outcomes.

Sunday, December 28

Blue Hawaii

TCM, 10pm

Everett Collection

Elvis is predictably charming as Chad Gates, an Army vet eager to ditch his fatigues for beach babes and blue water, in 1961’s Blue Hawaii. But Angela Lansbury steals her scenes as his upper-crust and uptight mother who wants her hunky son to ignore Hawaii’s temptations and join the family pineapple business. “Obviously, I was awed by being in [Elvis’] presence,” recalled Lansbury, who was only nine years older than her onscreen son in Blue Hawaii, “but he was an awfully nice young man in those days. … He had terrible problems of a very personal nature, but he’d just come out of the Army. … He was fit, he was slender and he was top of his form.” Though the critics offered up a collective “meh,” the film proved a massive hit and scored a Best Soundtrack Album Grammy nomination for its irresistibly tropical tunes.

Click here to download the printable December 2025 TCM schedule.

Best Classic Movies on TV This Week: December 22-28

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