BBC Christmas Specials

[OC Richard]

My wife and I watch far more UK television than American, and one of the several differences is the institution of the Christmas Special. We happened to watch a Downton Abbey Christmas episode yesterday which got me to thinking on this topic (in the middle of summer!)

I found this article which sums it up better than I could have done:

Tradition dominates the BBC, and one of those traditions reaches to the heart of British culture in December — Christmas. From Royal addresses to sentimental cameo-driven treats, Christmas television programmes have shaped our idea of the holiday, with some Britons always planning to settle into their favourite chair surrounded by family to watch, what is to them, appointment television.

Sometimes a Christmas special is connected with an existing television series, while others are created each year without any connection to an existing property. Of Christmas specials connected with a larger television series, some are self-contained episodes that do not necessarily play largely in the meta-plots of the series they belong to, while others are just as important to the story arc of the season, but have the additional duty of infusing the story with a bit of Christmas optimism. Whatever their origins, Christmas television specials play a unique role in British culture.

These special programmes are always upbeat and often unabashedly sentimental, even maudlin, to us. The themes are goodwill, togetherness, and the putting aside of grievances. They tell us that the British make more of Christmas than we do, in those ways.

By contrast our American Christmas seems more about material excesses, such as spending thousands of dollars on elaborate electrical displays on our houses, frantic shopping, and who can out-do whom in the matter of how much money is spent on gifts. Is this how the British see us? It's how I see ourselves, after watching these BBC Christmas programmes, in which shopping, displays, and gifts have little or no part.

What say you all?

(a video showing our absurdly excessive house decorating)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMl_81o-aQg