Where would we be without glittery Christmas TV specials? Watching too many holiday movies, probably—it’s good to take a musical break occasionally. The biggest celebrations of 2023 feature Olivia Rodrigo, Demi Lovato, Barry Manilow, Trisha Yearwood, and Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham singing and ringing in Christmas, as well as an annual holiday standard from Saturday Night Live.
New Christmas TV Specials for 2023
A Very Demi Holiday Special (The Roku Channel; December 8)
“Cool for the Summer” singer Demi Lovato welcomes actress Tiffany Haddish, pop star JoJo, model Hailey Bieber, drag star Trixie Mattel, and international deejay Paris Hilton to her first-ever holiday special. A Very Demi Holiday Special features Lovato doing up Christmas by decorating cakes with Hilton, making sweaters with Haddish, learning ballet with Mattel, and singing holiday standards with JoJo.
Music legend Barry Manilow is also stepping out with his first TV Christmas special, Barry Manilow’s A Very Barry Christmas (in case you didn’t catch that Barry’s in it). Recorded at the Westgate Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, the hour-long special will feature Manilow and his big band singing Christmas classics alongside his hits, including “Copacabana,” “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” and “Looks Like We Made It.”
Hosts Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood perform “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” along with “Joy to the World,” accompanied by violinist Lindsey Stirling. The rest of the CMA Country Christmas lineup includes Jordan Davis, Lady A, Jon Pardi, The War and Treaty, Zach Williams, and Lainey Wilson singing Christmas standards, not to mention Ashley McBryde and Stirling taking on “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”
Not so much a new special as an annual NBC clip show, A Saturday Night Live Christmas is a nostalgic grab-bag of holiday sketches reaching as far back as the show’s ’70s beginnings. Sketches from the current 2023 season will pop up alongside SNL holiday classics like “Schweddy Balls,” “I Wish It Was Christmas Today,” and Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song,” if you can stand it one more time.
This year’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball doesn’t skimp on the poptastic star power: Olivia Rodrigo, Usher, Nicki Minaj, SZA, Niall Horan, OneRepublic, AJR, Sabrina Carpenter, Miguel, Jelly Roll, Big Time Rush, NCT DREAM, Flo Rida, and maybe even up-and-coming new voice Cher will be on the bill. The two-hour ABC special will pull performances from the recent U.S. iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 Tour.
Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas (Apple TV+; now streaming)
Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham debuted her first-ever holiday special all the way back in November, getting a jump on the Christmas musical wave. Waddingham and her 18-piece band are joined by an eclectic group of singers, including Sam Ryder, Luke Evans, Leslie Odom Jr., Phil Dunster, The English National Opera, The London Gay Men’s Chorus, and The Fabulous Lounge Swingers. So posh!
Bill Frost has been a journalist and TV reviewer since the 4:3-aspect-ratio ’90s. His pulse-pounding prose has been featured in The Salt Lake Tribune, Inlander, Coachella Valley Independent, Las Vegas Weekly, and many other dead-tree publications (see BillFrost.tv). In addition to being a Senior Staff Writer at CableTV.com, Bill is a syndicated streaming TV columnist forSalt Lake City Weekly and other alternative weeklies, and host/producer of TV Tan Podcast. By night, Bill cranks a Flying V with his band at the bar.
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