Here’s our pick of the best family-friendly television this festive season. For each day from Saturday 18th December right through to New Year’s Eve, we’ll recommend the best film of the day, plus the pick of the rest.
This is far from an exhaustive list, and don’t forget that many of your child’s favourite programmes are still being broadcast, some with Christmas specials, on Freeview channels such as CBBC and CBeebies.
Saturday 18th December
Film: Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (4.30pm C4)
- Charlie and Lola (5pm CBeebies)
- Family Films of the Decade (6pm ITV1)
- Strictly Come Dancing Final (7pm. 9.05pm BBC1)
Sunday 19th December
Film: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (6.30pm ITV1)
- A Muppet’s Christmas: Letters to Santa (3.45pm Five)
- 100 Greatest Toys (6pm C4)
Monday 20th December
Film: Baby’s Day Out (12.15pm C4)
- Yellowstone (starts 7pm BBC2)
Tuesday 21st December
Film: Spirited Away (10.40am BBC2)
- George of the Jungle (3.45pm BBC1)
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (12.40pm BBC2)
Wednesday 22nd December
Film: Barnyard (12.45pm C4)
- Jimmy’s Food Factory (8pm BBC1)
Thursday 23rd December
Film: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (3.50pm BBC1)
- The Santa Clause (11.30am BBC1)
Friday: Christmas Eve
Film: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (5.15pm BBC1)
- The Fox and the Child (10am BBC2)
- Casper (10.40am, ITV1)
- Cars (3.05pm, BBC1)
- Scrooge (4pm, Five)
- Shrek the Halls (4.55pm, BBC1)
- Carols from King’s (6.45pm, BBC2)
- Nanny McPhee (7pm ITV2)
Saturday: Christmas Day
Film: Shrek the Third (3.10pm BBC1)
- The Little Polar Bear (8.05am ITV1)
- The Muppet Christmas Carol (8.50am, C4)
- The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (11am, BBC1)
- The Polar Express (1.10pm, ITV1)
- The Grinch (3.10pm, ITV1)
- The Gruffalo (4.30pm, BBC1)
- Doctor Who (6pm, BBC1)
- Carols for Christmas Day (6pm, BBC2)
- Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special (7pm, BBC1)
Sunday: Boxing Day
Film: The Railway Children (12.15pm ITV1)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (9.45am BBC1)
- SPYkids (11.25am BBC1)
- Enchanted (3.25pm BBC1)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (4.10pm ITV1)
Monday 27th December
Film: March of the Penguins (3pm ITV1)
- SPYkids 2: the Island of Lost Dreams (10am BBC1)
- The Incredibles (3.25pm BBC1)
- Happy Feet (4.35pm ITV1)
- James May’s Top Toys (5.45pm BBC2)
- Halcyon River Diaries (6.10pm BBC1)
Tuesday 28th December
Film: Chicken Run (3.10pm BBC1)
- Just William (starts 12.30pm BBC1)
- Robots (4.50pm ITV1)
- The Grinch (6pm ITV2)
- The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (starts 8pm BBC4)
Wednesday 29th December
Film: Mary Poppins (4.05pm BBC1)
- Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave (1.05pm BBC1)
- Springwatch/Autumnwatch Chriatmas Special (6.30pm BBC2)
- Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice (8pm BBC1)
Thursday 30th December
Film: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (4.45pm BBC1)
- Antz (10am, BBC1)
- Bridge to Terabithia (11.20am, BBC1)
Friday: New Year’s Eve
Film: Piglet’s Big Movie (9.50am BBC1)
- The Sound of Music (3.30pm BBC1)
- James May: My Sisters’ Top Toys (5.30pm BBC2)
Join the discussion! Talk about BBC children’s programmes on our forum.
Welcome to the Family Relationships Magazine weekly roundup of family/relationships TV highlights for the coming week.
Please be aware that these are generally programmes about families and relationships, and are not necessarily suitable for all-age/family viewing.
Friday 8th May
Affecting everyone, the Tonight programme shows Credit Secrets Revealed, in which Martin Lewis reveals the secrets of how credit scoring works and explains how to improve the chances of getting the best financial deals.
Wife Swap is at 10pm on E4 – no celebrities this time. A career-oriented wife goes to live with a hunter-gatherer husband.
Sunday 10th May
The Cutting Edge film Madeleine Was Here (10pm, More4) reconstructs the night Madeleine McCann disappeared and the efforts of her parents to create a normal life for their other children.
Monday 11th May
Make My Kids Happy (8pm, ITV1) conducts a social experiment by taking away the material possessions of a group of teenagers for one month to see if breaking their cycle of excessive consumerism makes them happier. Second part airs on Friday at 8pm.
Alernatively, Dispatches: Lost in Care (8pm, Channel 4) reveals the scandal in the British system that condemns vulnerable children to lives of isolation. Thousands are taken into care every year but there’s a wait of two years or more for adoption.
Following this, Find Me a Family (9pm, Channel 4) follows three households as they attempt to find homes for children that no-one has come forward to adopt. Continues tomorrow and Wednesday at 9pm.
Thursday 14th May
Cutting Edge: The Homecoming (9pm, Channel 4) is a film exploring the effects of long-term care on kids and their families. Thirty years after she was placed in a Doncaster children’s home, Rachel Roberts goes in search of the other children who were there with her. Armed with just one old photograph and some distant memories, Rachel discovers some astonishing stories from her former housemates and meets a long-lost member of her family.
Welcome to the Family Relationships Magazine weekly roundup of family/relationships TV highlights for the coming week.
Please be aware that these are generally programmes about families and relationships, and are not necessarily suitable for all-age/family viewing.
Friday 1st May
If spying on celebrity couples is your thing, and you’re not sick of them yet, then Katie & Peter: Stateside (ITV2, 10pm) is for you. This week, Katie meets her new horse which has just come out of quarantine after being flown over to America.
Alternatively, there’s sure to be some cringeworthy material in Celebrity Wife Swap (10.05pm, E4) as eighties pop star Sinitta trades places with Sandra, the wife of actor Bruce Jones.
Saturday 2nd May
Take on the Takeaway (11.30am, BBC1) sees Ken Hom trying to convince a busy couple that it is possible to cook quick and healthy food instead of relying on the local Chinese takeaway.
Family quizzes your thing? Try the new series of All Star Mr & Mrs (6.20pm ITV1) which sees Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and his wife Lisa, Brigitte Nielsen and Mattia, and Peter Shilton and Sue battle it out to see who knows the most about their other half.
Tuesday 5th May
The second part of the fourth series of Born to be Different (9pm, Channel 4) follows six disabled children who have features in the series since birth. This time, we see them aged nine. Each child has their own particular battle to fight; some face major operations, some require constant support and medication; and for one it’s a battle just to stay alive.
More celebrity following in Claire Richards: My Big Fat Wedding (9pm, BBC3). The former Steps singer sets out to shed some pounds from her size 20 frame in time for her wedding, a task which sees her face off with the paparazzi.
Wednesday 6th May
The World’s Strictest Parents (8pm, BBC3) continues as teenagers Lizzie Pol and Stefan Alvarez travel to Ghana to live with a middle-class Christian couple who prioritise chores and ban the pair from romantic relationships.
Thursday 7th May
A new four-part documentary series, Keep it in the Family (9pm, BBC2), follows the family of Gary Don, who has dedicated his career to the family auction house and has persuaded his 28-year-old son Jamie to pick up the mantle.
On Channel 4 at 9pm, Madeleine Was Here looks at how parents Kate and Gerry are dealing with the lack of knowledge about their daughter’s whereabouts, two years on from her disappearance.
Real-life wedding preps, under the camera of course, in Don’t Tell the Bride (8pm, BBC3).
