Television during the festive season

Like many people from the UK, I am now home for the festive season, and if there’s one thing I’ve realised being home, television at Christmas is just as important as sharing the day with the people you love.

It’s common knowledge that British people watch a lot of TV, and this has been made even more apparent living in France; don’t get me wrong, they watch TV in France but not at all like we do in the UK. We even have a TV show about people commentating on the week’s main TV programmes (which is surprisingly quite entertaining!)

Television during the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year is therefore a big deal in the UK, especially the shows that release Christmas specials on Christmas day; they compete against each other to try and get the most viewers, when the viewing figures are released the following day. I remember when I was younger, the whole family gathered in front of the TV watching the ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special. Today it’s the soaps, which are long-running British dramas, and the likes of period dramas like ‘Downtown Abbey’, which populate the television during the festive season.

Another thing which you’ll always see on the television during the month of December, especially around Christmas, are films. A lot of festive themed films are shown, for example ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Elf’ being favourites, which I always find myself watching to help get me in the Christmas mood. However, it’s not just seasonal films they show during this time of the year, a lot of animated, and ‘fun for the whole family’ films are shown, which is nice as it reminds me of my childhood.

It just wouldn’t be Christmas for me if it didn’t involve watching festive films, and the whole family gathered around the TV come Christmas evening, feeling stuffed from our Christmas dinner. Christmas television has become a tradition not only for my family, but for most people in the UK, and as the Television industry grows, TV during the Christmas season can only get bigger.