The 12 Saves of Christmas: How to survive a free-to-air TV-only festive season

When you’re used to a multitude of viewing options, going home for the holidays can be a chastening experience.

With the festive family gathering potentially somewhere remote or in a truly wi-fi and Sky-free zone, that can mean the terror of limited TV options to help get you through that intense time either side of Santa’s delivery window.

If you’re trapped in a free-to-air Christmas, Stuff to Watch is here to help. We’ve come up with a list of the 12 TV saves of Christmas – a dozen options to help give you some extra cheer this festive season – and there’s not an ice-capade or sitcom special in sight.

READ MORE:
* The American Rescue Dog Show: A hilarious, heartwarming special that’s perfect for festive viewing
* Spiderhead, Senior Year, Memory, Moonfall among the worst movies of 2022
* Prime Video’s 1923, Neon’s Shaq, TVNZ’s Litvenenko among December’s must-see TV
* The best Christmas TV specials to watch

The Lion King – Reo Maori (7pm, Saturday, December 24, Whakaata Māori)

Following in the footsteps of Moana, earlier this year, Disney’s beloved 1994 Shakespearean musical was the second of the Mouse House’s animation classics to get the te reo treatment.

Developed by Tweedie Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley, the project features Rachel House and Rob Ruha as performance and musical directors respectively.

“This version is not just a linguistic translation, but a translation and adaption of te ao Lion King,” wrote Stuff to Watch’s Eda Tang.

Last Train to Christmas (8.30pm, Saturday, December 24, Prime)

Michael Sheen, Cary Elwes, Game of Thrones’ Nathalie Emmanuel and Mr Selfridge’s Katherine Kelly star in this 2021 festive fantasy about a successful nightclub manager whose life gets more than a little strange when he gets onboard the 3.17pm to Nottingham for a Christmas family reunion.

“Sheen is an engaging enough actor to pull it off, gurning and goofing around to keep from being upstaged,” wrote The Guardian’s Leslie Felperin.

Happiest Season (8.50pm, Saturday, December 24, TVNZ 2)

Smart, sassy, sensitive and sensationally good, Clea DuVall’s 2020 tale combines a light touch with some weighty dramedy and what feels like a realistic look at modern relationships (even if it is essentially a wintery update of The Birdcage for the Insta-generation).

Of course, it also helps that the ensemble is so good. Kristen Stewart has never been more charismatic, while Mackenzie Davis builds on her brilliant turns in both Tully and Irresistible and Aubrey Plaza, Mary Holland and Schitt’s Creek’s Dan Levy battle it out for the title of scene-stealing MVP.

The Man Who Invented Christmas (9pm, Saturday, December 24, Whakaata Māori)

Although clearly sold as festive fare, this 2017 Canadian-Irish co-production works best as a biopic of British author Charles Dickens. Starring Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens, it details how, just when things were looking bleak for the writer, a combination of his Irish maid and some chance encounters spark an idea – a festive fable.

Based on historian Les Standiford’s book of the same name, the impressive cast also includes Jonathan Pryce, Simon Callow, Miriam Margolyes, Christopher Plummer and Bill Paterson.

Promising Young Woman (10.25pm, Saturday, December 24, Eden)

A kind of a Kill Bill for the #MeToo Era, this stunning 2020 tale of revenge features an absolutely barnstorming performance from Carey Mulligan.

When we first meet Cassie, she’s seemingly a hot mess, alone in a bar, unable to stand and fumbling around for her phone. When a fellow barfly eventually makes his move, that’s when she springs to life, sober, and turns the tables on him.

What follows is a brilliantly conceived tale, filled with plenty of narrative turns, a killer soundtrack and a series of unforgettable outfits sported by Cassie.

Writer-director Emerald Fennell’s script segues quite brilliantly from hilarious rom-com to dark drama, leaving you emotionally exhausted by the end.

Lego Masters Australia (10.10am, Sunday, December 25, Three)

Perfectly timed for after the Santa-delivered sets have been made up, this seven-hour marathon of the first six episodes of the 2021 season of the hit brick-building competition should hopefully provide some inspiration for lengthening the playability of your mountain of Danish plastic.

Challenges featured include a castle designed to spectacularly explode when interacting with a bowling ball and creating a world inside a snow globe. As always, Hamish Blake is the host with the most.

Arthur Christmas (1.45pm, Sunday, December 25, TVNZ 2)

Aardman refreshes the old “son of Santa” storyline with wit and aplomb in this 2011 animated adventure. The visuals are crisp and clean and the script is jam-packed full of zingers and action. Among a universally impressive vocal cast, Bill Nighy threatens to steal the show as the cantankerous Grandsanta.

“Both a heartwarmer and a sly dig at the gospel of family togetherness,” wrote The Independent’s Anthony Quinn.

HM The King’s Christmas Message (6.50pm, Sunday, December 25, TVNZ 1)

How will King Charles III fare in his first attempt at tackling the festive staple that endeared his mother Queen Elizabeth II to so many people across the Commonwealth?

It’s been another difficult year for the British Monarchy, not helped by the King’s youngest son and his wife airing their laundry list of grievances via the power of Netflix.

Topp Class (7pm, Sunday, December 25, Prime)

The cream of Aotearoa’s musical and comedy talent pay tribute to our country’s most beloved yodelling siblings in this concert that was recorded live at Auckland’s Civic Theatre last month.

It was held to both pay tribute to the iconic pair, who have both been suffering from ill health in recent years, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the twins performing on stage together.

Hosted by Wellington Paranormal’s Karen O’Leary, the line-up also included Tami Neilson, Anika Moa, Ria Hall, Dame Hinewehi Mohi, Troy Kingi, Jackie Clarke, Annie Crummer, Chris Parker and Tom Sainsbury, as well as Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair, who reformed their famous duo act The Front Lawn especially for the night.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (8.10pm, Sunday, December 25, Eden)

Let’s get one thing out of the way first, this 2019 tale is not a biopic of the much-loved, Ned Flanders-esque US children’s TV star Fred Rogers. If you want that story, try Morgan Neville’s excellent 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?.

Instead, director Marielle Heller’s dramedy is more about the impact Rogers had on one man – Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys).

Inspired by Esquire journalist’s Tom Junod’s encounters with him for his Can You Say…Hero? article, Heller and screenwriting duo Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue weave a darkly comic, occasionally surreal and surprisingly emotional tale.

Last Christmas (8.30pm, Sunday, December 25, TVNZ 2)

Featuring the music of the much loved George Michael (and his Wham partner Andrew Ridgeley), this 2019 festive British family dramedy is directed by Bridesmaids’ Paul Feig and co-written by Emma Thompson.

Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke plays Kate, a troubled young woman whose life turns upside down when she meets Tom (Henry Goulding), while working as a Christmas-store elf.

As with the hugely underrated Me Before You, she lights up every frame, delivering a performance full of chutzpah and charm, melancholic moments, acerbic asides, heartbreak and pure joy.

Jerry Maguire (11.45pm, Sunday, December 25, TVNZ 2)

“You had me at hello.”

Honestly, Cameron Crowe’s magnificent 1996 magnum opus, the best sports film of the 1990s, Tom Cruise’s finest two hours as an actor and one of the greatest rom-coms of that era’s vast array of genre classics, caught me hook, line and sinker much, much earlier than the unforgettable living-room-set finale.

A lot of its charm comes from a winning winsome Zellweger as the practical, complicated and somewhat tragically smitten widowed mum-of-one Dorothy Boyd.

The perfect way to finish off Christmas and, if you still can’t get to sleep, you can make it a Cruise double-bill with his goofy 1983 teen-comedy Risky Business (2.05am on the same channel).