TV stations broadcast favorites

Every year as the holidays approach, a plethora of festive movies inundate the televisions with holiday cheer. From classics like It's a Wonderful Life to new, contemporary movies like. Naughty or Nice, this year's TV holiday movie selection offers an assortment of movies for young and old, scrooges and believers in Santa and even the average holiday-loving college student.

It's a Wonderful Life

This holiday classic starring Jimmy Stewart airs on NBC on Christmas Day at 8 p.m. The timeless message of thankfulness for family and life itself will also be shown in its 34th annual run at the Grand Illusion in Seattle on Dec. 17.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz will air on Dec. 7 at 8 p.m on ABC. The hour will also include a series of never-before-seen Christmas-themed animated stories entitled Charlie Brown Christmas Tales, based on Schulz's work. The hour will include the Peanuts characters -- Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and Sally -- in their own animated holiday vignettes.

A Christmas Carol: The Musical

Christmas Eve will boast a new adaptation of the timeless tale of Scrooge's transformation from "Bah hum bug" to a spirit of generosity at 9 p.m on NBC. The two-hour broadcast of Charles Dickens' classic will star Emmy Award winner Kelsey Grammer as Ebenezer Scrooge. The supporting characters are a star-studded lineup including Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Jane Krakowski (Ally McBeal) and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

This contemporary film starring Chevy Chase is slowly making its way toward being a holiday classic. The loveable, ill-fated Lampoon family leads viewers on a catastrophic adventure through the holiday season on Dec. 12 at 8 p.m.

    The Seinfeld Story 



This rebroadcast of the Seinfeld Christmas special includes a nostalgic look back at the famed comedy series hosted by Jerry Seinfeld, complete with interviews with all four original cast members and co-creator Larry David. The hilarious special will be aired at 8 p.m on Dec. 15 on NBC.

Secret Santa

Jennie Garth of 90210 fame stars in this NBC original about a jaded journalist who finds the true meaning of Christmas by reporting the story of a real life "Secret Santa" in small-town America. Steve Eckholdt from Providence and Josh Randall from Ed costar. It airs at 9 p.m. on Dec. 17.

Naughty or Nice

Starring George Lopez, this ABC original movie will air on Dec. 11 at 8 p.m. Lopez plays Henry Ramiro, a sports radio host who earns his living being rude. In the spirit of holiday movies, however, Ramiro learns love and holiday giving when he encounters a young listener with a life-threatening illness.

ABCFamily's "25 Days of Christmas" will also host a vast array of holiday movies from Dec. 1 to Christmas Day. The line up includes films like The Muppet Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. This year's countdown also includes Jack Frost, starring Michael Keaton as a successful blues singer with little time for his

family who is turned into a snowman that will melt away when the holiday season ends. To save their snow-dad, the family must rush to reverse the curse and spend as much quality time with their father as possible. Frost soon learns the importance of family and the impact he truly has on his children.