25 Days of Christmas

Annual seasonal television event by Freeform

Freeform's 25 Days of ChristmasLogo used since 2018NetworkThe Family Channel (1996–1997)Fox Family (1998–2000)ABC Family (2001–2015)Freeform (2016–present)Disney Channel (2017–2018)Disney XD (2017–2018)Disney Jr. (2017–2018)ABC (2017–2018)LaunchedDecember 1, 1996&#59; 29 years ago (1996-12-01)Country of originUnited StatesFormerly known asThe Family Channel's 25 Days of Christmas (1996–1997)Fox Family's 25 Days of Christmas (1998–2000)ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas (2001–2015)FormatChristmas-based films and programming, along with some non-seasonal filmsRunning timeDaily and nightly, annually from December 1 to 25Original languageEnglishOfficial websiteOfficial site Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas is an American annual seasonal event of Christmas programming broadcast during the month of December by the U.S. cable network Freeform. Launched on December 1, 1996, it consists primarily of reruns of Christmas-themed television specials, theatrical films (some of which are not related to Christmas), and originally produced television films, which air throughout the day and night from December 1 through Christmas Day, preempting the channel's regular lineup. 25 Days of Christmas programming often attracts major surges in viewership for Freeform, with higher-profile film airings often attracting 3–4 million viewers or more. Freeform has described the block, along with its companion October block the 31 Nights of Halloween, as its tentpole.

[edit] The event was first held in 1996, and has been an annual fixture of the channel through its various incarnations, including The Family Channel, Fox Family, ABC Family, and Freeform. The brand covers airings of classic holiday specials as well as new Christmas-themed television movies each year; generally few of the network's original series air during the time period, outside of Christmas-themed episodes and contractually obligated Christian Broadcasting Network programs (such as The 700 Club). Since 2006, the lineup has also included airings of non-Christmas feature films from the network's library (including Walt Disney Studios releases, and until 2017, the Harry Potter films). In 2007, the block was extended to November with a Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas event. In 2017 and 2018, Disney extended the 25 Days of Christmas branding to holiday programming across the entire Disney-ABC Television Group, including ABC, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior. For most of the block's run, fourteen specials from the Rankin/Bass Productions library of Christmas specials (excluding the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman specials, both of which aired on CBS from 1972 and 1969 respectively through 2023) served as the centerpiece of the 25 Days of Christmas. Freeform lost the rights to twelve of those specials (which included The Year Without a Santa Claus), along with other content whose right was held by Warner Bros. Discovery and its predecessor companies such as Elf, The Polar Express and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, to AMC after the 2017 Christmas season to serve as the linchpin of its new "Best Christmas Ever" schedule; WBD also carries that content on its own All I Watch for Christmas and Christmas Maximus blocks on the WBD-owned former Turner networks. Freeform still airs Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and The Little Drummer Boy In May 2019, Freeform announced it had acquired the cable rerun rights to the Rudolph and Frosty specials, reuniting the four pre-1974 Rankin/Bass programs on the same network. CBS continued to hold the free-to-air rerun rights to both specials until NBC retained the rights to the 2024 airings. Freeform and ABC also held rights to the Charlie Brown holiday specials until Apple TV+ acquired the exclusive rights to the franchise in 2020 (later sublicensing some of the specials to PBS for one-time airings that year). In November 2022, Freeform sister network ABC launched 25 Days of Christmas Past, a free ad-supported streaming television pop-up channel featuring an abbreviated selection of original films produced for the event. The FAST service does not include the four Rankin-Bass specials, as NBCUniversal, which owns the underlying copyrights, did not license any streaming rights to those specials to ABC/Freeform nor CBS. The FAST channel did not return for 2024, after ABC withdrew its streaming apps from the market and downsized its remaining FAST offerings. In 2018, Freeform rebranded the graphics for its 25 Days of Christmas event to align with the channel's then-current branding, which had debuted that same year. In 2023, Freeform collaborated with the design agency ROVE to update the 25 Days of Christmas graphics once again, making them consistent with the channel's latest logo and branding introduced the previous year. Freeform struck an agreement with NBCUniversal, expanding on its 2019 licensing agreement, to bring more specials and films owned by that company to the 25 Days of Christmas block in 2025, including The Legend of Frosty the Snowman and the original version of Miracle on 34th Street.

[edit] Original specials[edit] 1996 – Home and Family Christmas Special 2001 – Donner 2008 – A Miser Brothers' Christmas, Cranberry Christmas 2009 – Gotta Catch Santa Claus, Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure 2011 – A Very Pink Christmas 2017 – Disney Parks Presents a Disney Channel Holiday Celebration 2025 – Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol, The Wonderful World of Disney Holiday Spectacular

Original films[edit] Nearly every year since 25 Days of Christmas debuted in 1996, at least one new holiday-related TV film has been produced (excluding 2002, 2014, and 2015). Starting in 2005, two TV films have been produced. In 2007, three films were created for the block, due to the popularity of the previous year's films.

The Family Channel era: The Family Channel's 25 Days of Christmas[edit] 1996 – Christmas Every Day 1997 – The Christmas List Fox Family era: Fox Family's 25 Days of Christmas[edit] 1998 – Like Father, Like Santa 1999 – The Ghosts of Christmas Eve 2000 – Special Delivery 2001 – Three Days ABC Family era: ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas[edit] 2003 – Picking Up & Dropping Off 2004 – Snow 2005 – Chasing Christmas; Christmas in Boston 2006 – Christmas Do-Over; Santa Baby 2007 – Christmas Caper; Holiday in Handcuffs; Snowglobe 2008 – Christmas in Wonderland; Snow 2: Brain Freeze 2009 – The Dog Who Saved Christmas; Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe 2010 – The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation; Christmas Cupid; The Gruffalo 2011 – Desperately Seeking Santa; 12 Dates of Christmas 2012 – The Mistle-Tones; Home Alone: The Holiday Heist 2013 – Holidaze, Christmas Bounty Freeform era: Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas[edit] 2016 – Holiday Joy 2017 – Angry Angel 2018 – Life-Size 2, No Sleep 'Til Christmas, The Truth About Christmas 2019 – Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas, Same Time, Next Christmas

[edit] As of 2025, the following acquired programs are included on the 25 Days of Christmas:

Specials[edit] The Cricket on the Hearth Frosty the Snowman (shared with NBC) Kung Fu Panda Holiday The Little Drummer Boy Merry Madagascar Prep & Landing (original special and The Snowball Protocol) (shared with ABC and Disney Channel) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (shared with NBC) Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (shared with ABC) Film franchises[edit] Frozen (Frozen, Frozen II and Olaf's Frozen Adventure) Home Alone (original, Lost in New York and Home Alone 3) Jingle All the Way and Jingle All the Way 2 Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas Santa Buddies (Air Bud) (The Legend of Santa Paws, The Search for Santa Paws and The Santa Pups) Snow and Snow 2: Brain Freeze The Santa Clause (film trilogy) Toy Story (film tetralogy and Toy Story That Time Forgot) Films[edit] Arthur Christmas A Christmas Carol (2009) The Family Man The Grinch (2018) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998) The Legend of Frosty the Snowman Love, Actually Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Miracle on 34th Street (1994) The Nightmare Before Christmas Richie Rich's Christmas Wish Santa's Little Helper

[edit] In 2007, due to popular ratings from the previous year, ABC Family launched the first official countdown to the programming block, which began on November 21. Although this was the first official early start, in previous years holiday programming had unofficially begun during the last week of November, showing mostly older original films, some of which pertained to Christmas and some of which did not. Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas returned in 2008 on November 16. In 2018, Freeform announced that the block would be renamed to Kickoff to Christmas, and would last throughout the whole month of November. This was reprised in 2019. In 2023, Freeform abandoned the Countdown/Kickoff block in favor of a "30 Days of Disney" event, featuring films mostly from the Walt Disney Company's animated features library, to bridge the entire month of November between the 31 Nights of Halloween and the 25 Days of Christmas. Christmas movies are sparingly featured. The 25 Days of Christmas Past FAST channel launched in early November.

2011[edit] In 2011, it started later in the month, on November 20. In 2012 the countdown began at an earlier date of November 18.

2014[edit] The Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas ran again in 2014. In 2014 the countdown event which started on Sunday, November 23 was even with previous years. The highest rated programs of the eight-day event were Finding Nemo at 1.8 million viewers, Despicable Me at 2 million, and an airing of The Hunger Games at 1.7 million. Other highlights included Ratatouille on Thanksgiving night which garnered 1 million, Cars 2 gained 1 million, and Brave which had 1.8 million tune in.

2015[edit] The Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas schedule was released on October 29, 2015. The 2015 lineup included family classics such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Jingle All the Way, Monsters, Inc., Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the cable premiere of Planes. A Monday, November 30 airing of The Polar Express was watched by 1.5 million viewers, the highest rating of this year's Countdown. A Saturday, November 28 airing of Wreck-It Ralph was also watched by 1.5 million viewers. The network premiere of Planes on Thanksgiving night garnered only 0.699 million viewers.

2016[edit] The Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas schedule was released on October 22, 2016. In 2016, Freeform's first Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas ran from Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2016, to December 25, 2016. The 2016 lineup includes family movies such as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story That Time Forgot, Brave, Tangled, Happy Feet Two, Tooth Fairy, Another Cinderella Story, Mulan, Wreck-It Ralph, Matilda, Little Rascals, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Despicable Me. Freeform also announced the network premiere of The Odd Life of Timothy Green, The Boxtrolls, and A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits. The holiday movies in the 2016 Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas included: Fred Claus, The Holiday (Freeform network premiere), Scrooged, Jingle All the Way, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Deck the Halls. The 2016 ratings were on par with previous years. The highest airing of the countdown was the November 26 airing of Tangled, gaining 1.461M viewers. Despicable Me gained 1.2M on November 25.

[edit] 2006[edit] The network premiere of The Polar Express was watched by more than 4 million viewers. An encore airing on December 9 was watched by a record 5 million viewers. It became the most watched programming to ever air on ABC Family. The debut airing of the film, Santa Baby, was watched by 4.7 million viewers.

2007[edit] The first week of programming averaged 2.3 million viewers.

2008[edit] In 2008, the first week of programming attracted 2.7 million total viewers. The entire lineup had an average 2.5 million viewers.

2009[edit] The third annual "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" was watched by 1.2 million viewers. The network premiere of The Santa Clause 3 was watched by 1.6 million viewers, while an airing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was watched by 1.5 million viewers. The premiere of Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe was watched by 3.8 million total viewers.

2010[edit] The fourth annual "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" was watched by 2.1 million viewers. The lineup began its first week with record breaking 3 million average viewers. The December 12 premiere of Christmas Cupid was watched by a total of 3.4 million viewers. Total viewers for 2010 broke records, averaging 2.8 million viewers. An airing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas drew 1.3 million viewers.

2011[edit] The first week of the 25 Days of Christmas was watched by an average of 2.2 million viewers, down 27% from last year. During the second week, viewers increased to 2.4 million, thanks to the premiere of 12 Dates of Christmas. However, this was still down 30% from the previous year. Overall viewers for the 2011 lineup averaged 2.3 million viewers.

2012[edit] In 2012, the programming block had its most ever total viewers in its debut week, with 2.9 million. An airing of the film Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas on December 2 became the lineup's most watched program ever, with 5.4 million viewers. Other notable airings included, the network premiere of Despicable Me, watched by over 4.3 million viewers, and a Christmas Eve airing of The Santa Clause 2, watched by 3.9 million viewers. The programming block averaged 2.8 million viewers for 2012, on pace with 2010.

2014[edit] In its 17th year, 25 Days of Christmas powered ABC Family as the top cable network in primetime among women 18–34. The entire line-up averaged 2.5 million viewers. A Friday, December 5 airing of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas was watched by 3.7 million. The network premiere of Toy Story That Time Forgot gained 3.4 million while an airing of the classic Toy Story 3 gained 2.7 million viewers. The highest rated airing of Elf gained 3.5 million viewers while the highest rated airing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation gained 3.2 million. An airing of the Tim Allen classic The Santa Clause with limited commercials gained 2.9 million viewers. Christmas Eve ratings on the network saw ratings of The Polar Express at 2.2 million, Home Alone at 2.7 million, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Elf each at more than 4 million. The holiday airings of Pretty Little Liars gained 2 million viewers while Chasing Life gained 1.2 million. The comedies of Melissa and Joey and Baby Daddy gained 1 million and 800,000 viewers respectively.

While the block originates in the US, its formula—non‑stop festive fare from December 1 to the 25th—has become a template for British broadcasters. The appeal lies in the predictable schedule: families can plan cosy evenings around a favourite film, knowing it will be on at the same time each night. This continuity creates a shared ritual, turning random re‑runs into a cultural touchstone. For expats or anyone missing the traditional British Christmas TV line‑up, plugging into the marathon offers a curated mix of classic holiday narratives and newer feel‑good movies, filling the seasonal gap between the BBC’s Christmas specials and the seasonal programmes on ITV and Channel 4.

Freeform’s marathon is now accessible via most UK streaming packages that carry the US channel, such as Sky Atlantic or Disney+ with the Star hub. Before you settle in, check the on‑screen guide for exclusive premieres—Freeform often slots original holiday films that won’t appear on other services. If bandwidth is a concern, use the network’s on‑demand library to catch up on missed titles rather than live‑streaming the whole block. Pair the viewing with a simple snack plan: a mug of mulled cider, a slice of mince pie, and a quick blanket‑fort build, so the marathon feels like a dedicated festive event rather than background noise.

The block isn’t solely about snow‑covered streets and mistletoe; Freeform intersperses classic rom‑coms and feel‑good dramas that aren’t strictly Christmas‑themed but capture the season’s warmth. These hidden gems—think a 90s family adventure or a feel‑good sports story—offer a refreshing break from the predictable carol‑laden line‑up. Paying attention to the schedule can introduce you to films that become new family favourites, expanding the seasonal canon beyond the usual “It’s a Wonderful Life” reruns. Embrace the eclectic mix and you’ll discover why the marathon has stayed popular for three decades.