It’s Christmas, that very special time of year when you can turn on the television on almost any night and catch any of your favorite Christmas specials and see them the way they were meant to be seen: With a lot of commercials. The Christmas spirit is about Amazon Wishlists, crowding malls, and spending extra to cut down your own Christmas tree. Capitalism! But as Charlie Brown teaches us, underneath all the Christmas commerce, the heart of Christmas is still beating and these ten Christmas specials and movies should help it to grow three sizes larger. The following slideshow is a rundown of the Ten Best Christmas Specials airing for the rest of the month (plus the network and airtime).

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A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC) — I’m one of the few people on the planet who can’t stand that sad-sack loser Charlie Brown, but even I enjoy this Christmas special. Side note: I like that most shows’ Christmas episodes are taking place during Hanukkah. Take THAT, Hollywood-controlling Jews!

Minute to Win It (NBC) — Season premiere. Yay, Guy Fieri is back. Christmas came early this year.

Warehouse 13 (Syfy) — Judd Hirsch guest stars in a Christmas episode. Eh, I prefer it when my sci-fi/fantasy stories happen in worlds without Christmas.

In Treatment (HBO) Season finale. I know that therapy is useful for a lot of people, but it bores the hell out of me. Why do I wanna listen to people talk about their problems? TV’s my prostitute, not my girlfriend.

Inside the Actors Studio (Bravo) — James Franco enjoys the languid and selfless oral services of James Lipton. Ever notice how James Lipton rarely asks a question? Tonight he’s sure to say something like “You appeared in a soap opera” and then just stop. It really bothers me.

Glee (Fox) — It’s a Christmas episode, and you know what that means: Christmas carols sung in annoying new ways.[GIF via]

As Matt predicted, Hank is right on schedule for being cancelled.  First THR says it’s “Wednesday’s lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network and has failed to improve.”  Now this:

ABC has decided to give viewers a double dose of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” airing a half-hour version of the holiday classic on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. in place of the struggling Kelsey Grammer sitcom “Hank.” [thewrap]

I think a cool “viral marketing” campaign ABC should do is preempt every episode of Hank from now on with a rerun of an old show.  I know this isn’t actually viral marketing, but shhhh, ABC might not know that.  If we present this viral idea to ABC in a powerpoint presentation with lots of graphs and pictures of people snowboarding, they might go for it.

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