Editing Christmas by medium (section)

===United States===
{{See|List of United States Christmas television specials|List of United States Christmas television episodes}}

In the United States, many television series (particularly those of a family-oriented nature) produce a Christmas episode, although seldom outside of a season's production block. Stand-alone Christmas specials are also popular, from newly created animated shorts and movies to repeats of those that were popular in previous years, such as ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)|Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]'' and ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]''. Some local affiliates provide the ''[[Yule Log (TV program)|Yule Log]],'' a block of time either on Christmas morning or both during the evening hours of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning showing footage of a fireplace, coupled with popular Christmas music. Some local affiliates that provide the ''Yule Log'' simulcast Christmas music from a radio station playing it.

Every [[Christmas Day]], [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] (since 1996) airs a [[Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade|Christmas parade at Walt Disney World Resort]] and along with its sister cable network, [[ESPN]] (since they jointly acquired broadcast rights to the league in 2002), [[National Basketball Association|NBA]] [[National Basketball Association Christmas games|games]] featuring some of the league's best teams and players, broadcasting a doubleheader (or as many as five games between the two networks in certain years);<ref name=Lakers/><ref name=NBA/>  the NBA's Christmas Day games are notable as they historically serve as the league's first game telecasts on over-the-air network television each season. [[NBC]] airs the [[Midnight Mass|Vatican Midnight Mass service]] at [[St. Peter's Basilica]] on Christmas Eve night (having broadcast the service annually since 1972, typically in place of the network's regular late-night programming), and usually airs an ice skating special (often on the weekend prior to or of the holiday).<ref name=Lakers>{{cite news|title=Christmas Tradition|newspaper=The Riverside (Ca.) Press-Enterprise|date=December 24, 2009|page=B1|first=Jeff|last=Eisenberg}}</ref><ref name=NBA>{{cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/john_schuhmann/12/17/numbers.christmas/index.html|title=Knicks, Kobe and more part of Christmas Day lore|date=December 17, 2009|access-date=December 27, 2010|first=John|last=Schuhmann|work=NBA.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202114508/http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/john_schuhmann/12/17/numbers.christmas/index.html|archive-date=December 2, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/art_garcia/12/13/christmas.history/index.html|title=Christmas Day clashes bring back fond memories|date=December 21, 2009|access-date=December 27, 2010|first=Art|last=Garcia|work=NBA.com}}</ref>  Additionally, [[CBS]] usually airs [[college basketball]] games the day after Christmas while NBC airs a [[Premier League]] [[soccer]] match that same day.

Christmas specials based on [[classical music]] have also been well received. Among them, in addition to the previously mentioned ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'', have been the many telecasts of the ballet ''[[The Nutcracker]]'', and [[concert]] specials featuring musicians such as the [[Boston Pops]], the [[Mormon Tabernacle Choir]], the [[Cincinnati Pops]], and the [[Atlanta Symphony Orchestra]] and Chorus.