What to watch on Christmas Day and Boxing Day

So whether your looking for something to enjoy this evening or the next few days here are a few picks.

Here is what to watch on Christmas Day:

Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special (BBC1, 5.10pm)

It’s time to settle down on the sofa and watch someone else be energetic as Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman raise the curtain on this year’s festive special. The Repair Shop’s Jay Blades, First Dates regular Fred Sirieix, comedian and former Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc, veteran broadcaster Moira Stuart, singer and Voice UK coach Anne-Marie and presenter Adrian Chiles are the celebrities who have signed up for the one-off competition. They’ve each being paired with a professional, and will be taking to the floor, hoping to be crowned this year’s Festive Champions. It all kicks off with a sensational group routine, and there are performances from Jamie Cullum and Gary Barlow and Sheridan Smith.

Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snowbaby (Channel 4, 7.30pm)

Dame Julie Walters and Hugh Dancy star in the animated adaptation of Sir Terry Pratchett’s short story, narrated by David Harewood. In this charming, festive tale of friendship, love and the best of the Christmas spirit, a small quintessentially English town is thrown into disarray by a huge snowfall and the unexpected appearance of a 14-foot-tall ‘snow monster’. The creature is rescued by the indomitable Granny (Walters) and her grandson Albert (Dancy),who shower their new pet with love and affection. But not everyone is happy with the new arrival.

The Great Christmas Bake Off 2021 (C4, 8pm)

The stars of award-winning drama It’s A Sin, Olly Alexander, Nathaniel Curtis, Lydia West and Shaun Dooley, join presenters Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding for this fun festive special, as they vie to be crowned the 2021 Christmas Star Baker. It will remain to be seen whether they cause as much chaos as the cast of Derry Girls when they were let loose in the tent. Which of the celebrity bakers will put a smile on the faces of judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, and who will have them muttering: “bah, humbug!”

Call the Midwife (BBC1, 8pm)

Just like a golden turkey, overdone sprouts and nodding off gently during the Queen’s speech, this period drama has become a Christmas staple, and the day wouldn’t be quite right without it. The 11th season gets underway in this festive special, set in December 1966. It promises to be a memorable Yuletide holiday at Nonnatus House, as Lucille and Cyril (played by Leonie Elliott and Zephryn Taitte) prepare for their upcoming winter wedding. Meanwhile, the team are faced with their busiest Christmas Day ever, as the maternity home is filled with expectant and sometimes anxious mothers-to-be, each with their own challenging case. Luckily Mother Mildred (the ever-wonderful Miriam Margolyes) is on hand to support everyone.

A Musical Family Christmas with the Kanneh-Masons (BBC Two, 8.30pm)

A festive celebration with the exceptionally gifted seven string instrument-playing siblings. The programme features seasonal performances of some of their favourite Christmas music, including Mary’s Boy Child, We Three Kings and Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, plus covers of In the Bleak Midwinter and Hallelujah. Cameras also follow the family as they wrap and unwrap presents, as well as prepare for the traditional Anglo-Afro-Caribbean-style Christmas holidays in their Nottingham home.

The Larkins at Christmas (ITV, 9pm)

Bradley Walsh and Joanna Scanlan head the cast of this feature-length special of the rose-tinted period drama. The festive season is well under way, but the village is abuzz with gossip about the pantomime and an ongoing spate of burglaries – with Miss Pilchester, the Normans and Johnny Delamere among the hapless victims. While PC Harness applies his limited detecting abilities to tracking down the culprit, Mariette and Charley decide to take their romance to the next level. Pop and Ma are overjoyed to have the pair back for Christmas, but when Charley’s parents arrive to meet the Larkin clan, and the entire village is left without lighting and heating following a power cut, chaos descends on the family farm.

Here is what to watch on Boxing Day:

Around the World in 80 Days (BBC1, 5.50pm)

He travelled through space and time in Doctor Who, so presumably going Around the World in 80 Days shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for David Tennant. He plays Phileas Fogg in this eight-part adaptation of Jules Verne’s adventure, which begins tonight with a double bill. In 1870s London, Phileas, who has never been abroad before, is goaded into making a bet than he can circumvent the globe in just 80 days. So, with his new valet Jean Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma) and journalist Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue (Leonie Benesch) in tow, he sets out on the first leg, which takes him to Paris. There, Passepartout meets up with his revolutionary brother, who leads him and Fix into the unrest, while Phileas is left wondering if he’s really cut out for globe-trotting adventure.

Death in Paradise Christmas Special (BBC1, 7.30pm)

Fans of the murder mystery are in for a Christmas treat _ not only is this the first feature-length episode, it also sees the return of Danny John-Jules as Officer Dwayne Myers. The plot finds DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little) and the team investigating when a wealthy shipping magnate is found dead at a Christmas party. That may not seem unusual for Saint Marie, but the case takes a twist when a man in London receives a mysterious Christmas card that appears to be connected to the victim’s death.

All I Want(ed) for Christmas (Channel 4, 8pm)

As kids, no matter how many mountains of presents we tore through, there was always that one longed-for toy that Santa never delivered. This holiday special narrated by Stephen Fry turns those once-distant dreams into reality, as some of the nation’s best-loved celebrities finally get the chance to unbox the present they always pined for. Among those hoping Santa comes up trumps are Jonathan Ross, Asim Chaudhry, Robert Webb, Big Narstie, Keith Lemon, Rosie Jones, Martine McCutcheon, London Hughes, Aled Jones, Kerry Godliman, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Grace Dent, Lucy Porter and Justin Edwards.

All Star Musicals at Christmas (ITV, 8pm)

Fern Britton, Ben Miller, Gyles Brandreth, Anita Rani, Catherine Tyldesley and Radzi Chinyanganya are all familiar faces on our screens, but now they are going to find out if they have what it takes to cut in on the stage in a musical. Luckily, they won’t be thrown in totally at the deep end, as musical-theatre veterans Elaine Paige, Samantha Barks and Trevor Dion Nicholas will be on hand to mentor them, and they’ll receive training from West End choreographers and vocal coaches. But who will deliver the most-showstopping performance? John Barrowman hosts.

La Boheme from the Royal Opera House (BBC Four, 9pm)

Puccini’s opera of passion, friendship and heartbreak is one of the world’s best-loved operas. Its music includes such treats as Rodolfo and Mim’’s Act I arias and duet, the ebullient choruses of Act II and Mimi’s heartrending death scene. Suzy Klein introduces Richard Jones’s production performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2020. Sonya Yoncheva heads the cast as the doomed seamstress Mimi, with Charles Castronovo as Rodolfo, who falls in love with her at first sight, and Simona Mihai and Andrzej Filonczyk as on-off lovers Musetta and Marcello.

A Very British Scandal (BBC1, 9pm)

Claire Foy is no stranger to dramas about 20th-century British history – she played Queen Elizabeth II in the first two series of Netflix hit The Crown. However, while in The Crown, the scandals were very much going on around her, in this three-part series she plays someone right at the heart of it – the Duchess of Argyll, whose divorce from the Duke (Paul Bettany) became one of the most notorious legal cases of its era. The opening episode shows how heiress Margaret Sweeney was in the midst of her first divorce when she fell for the dashing and married Ian Campbell, the future Duke of Argyll – and his crumbling stately home, Inveraray. The pair tie the knot, but the honeymoon doesn’t last, setting the scene for a scandal.