Christmas Countdown, TV Schedule and Quick Thought – Sunday, December 14, 2025

11 Days Until Christmas!

Song: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” by Judy Garland
Christmas Album: “Joy,” by Avalon
Christmas DVD: “The Santa Clause” (trilogy)
Netflix Movie: “The Princess Switch,” “The Princess Switch: Switched Again,” and “The Princess Switch: Romancing the Star”
Amazon Prime Movie: “A Bride for Christmas”
Disney+ Movie: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
Hulu Movie: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”
HBO Max Movie: “A Christmas Mystery”
Hallmark Movie: “A Heidelberg Holiday”

On TV:
New programming in bold
• “Let It Snow,” noon, GAC
• “Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper,” noon, Hallmark
• “Christmas Under the Stars,” noon, Hallmark Mystery
• “A Christmas Cookbook,” noon, Lifetime
• “A Prince and the Pauper Christmas,” noon, Ovation
• “Holiday Affair,” noon, TCM
• “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year,” 12:15 p.m., AMC
• “A Christmas Story Christmas,” 12:30 p.m., TBS
• “When Calls the Heart: The Christmas Wishing Tree,” 1 p.m., Hallmark Drama
• “Jack Frost,” 1:30 p.m., AMC
• “Arthur Christmas,” 1:30 p.m., Freeform
• “Christmas In Midnight Clear,” 2 p.m., GAC
• “Royal Christmas,” 2 p.m., Hallmark
• “Family for Christmas,” 2 p.m., Hallmark Mystery
• “Christmas in Alaska,” 2 p.m., Lifetime
• “The Case of the Christmas Diamond,” 2 p.m., Ovation
• “In the Good Old Summertime,” 2 p.m., TCM
• “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch,” 2:30 p.m., FX
• “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” 2:45 p.m., AMC
• “A Christmas Carol (1984),”3 p.m., FXM
• “When Calls the Heart: The Greatest Christmas Blessing,” 3 p.m., Hallmark Drama
• “The Year Without a Santa Claus,” 3:15 p.m., AMC
• “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” 3:30 p.m., Freeform
• “Four Christmases,” 4 p.m., BBCA
• “Once Upon a Christmas Wish,” 4 p.m., GAC
• “Jingle Bell Run,” 4 p.m., Hallmark
• “Christmas at Grand Valley,” 4 p.m., Hallmark Mystery
• “Thank God: Christmas at Keller Ranch,” 4 p.m., Lifetime
• “The Shop Around the Corner,” 4 p.m., TCM
• “Dognapped: Hound for the Holidays,” 4 p.m., Ovation
• “Fred Claus,” 4:30 p.m., AMC
• “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000),” 4:30 p.m., FX
• “When Calls the Heart: Home For Christmas,” 5 p.m., Hallmark Drama
• “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” 5:10 p.m., Freeform
• “A Christmas Carol (1951),”5:10 p.m., FXM
• “Have We Met This Christmas,” 6 p.m., GAC
• “A Suite Holiday Romance,” 6 p.m., Hallmark
• “This Time Each Yeaer,” 6 p.m., Hallmark Mystery
• “Rodeo Christmas Romance,” 6 p.m., Lifetime
• “All I Want For Christmas,” 6 p.m., Ovation
• “Meet Me In St. Louis,” 6 p.m., TCM
• “The Polar Express,” 7 p.m., AMC
• “Home Alone,” 7 p.m., FX
• “A Christmas Carol (2019),” 7 p.m., FXM
• “The Santa Clause,” 7:15 p.m., Freeform
• “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas,” 8 p.m., Disney XD
• “Another Christmas,” 8 p.m., Fuse
• “A Royal Christmas Tail,” 8 p.m., GAC
• “Oy to the World,” 8 p.m., Hallmark
• “Five Gold Rings,” 8 p.m., Hallmark Mystery
• “Deck the Hallways,” 8 p.m., Lifetime
• “The Christmas Thief,” 8 p.m., Ovation
• Sunday Night Football: Minnesota at Dallas, 8:15 p.m., NBC
• “The Polar Express,” 9 p.m., AMC
• “The Santa Clause 2,” 9:25 p.m., Freeform
• “Christmas in Carolina,” 9:30 p.m., Fuse
• “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” 9:30 p.m., FX
• “A Wisconsin Christmas Pie,” 10 p.m., GAC
• “A Bramble House Christmas,” 10 p.m., Hallmark Mystery
• “Snow Queen,” 10 p.m., Ovation
• “Christmas Above the Clouds,” 10:01 p.m., Hallmark
• “The Christmas Campaign,” 10:03 p.m., Lifetime
• “A Christmas Carol (2019),” 10:30 p.m., FXM
• “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966),” 10:30 p.m., TBS
• “A Christmas Story,” 11 p.m., TBS
Recipe: Amazingly Good Eggnog

Quick Thought for Christmas

Read

Isaiah 11:1-5
Micah 5:1-4
Luke 2:1-5

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
Isaiah 11:1

Reflect

Every year when we celebrate Christmas, eventually we’ll hear or sing a song about the town of Bethlehem. There’s even the carol that is devoted solely to the “Little Town of Bethlehem,” which lies less than five miles away from the big town of Jerusalem.

If a king was to be born, it made sense that he would come from the place where kings lived and ruled – Jerusalem, which was the home to both Herod and his great temple. But Herod was Rome’s political king. God had a spiritual king in mind, and more than 700 years before the first Christmas, He told us all where to look.

The prophet Isaiah wrote that the “shoot” would come from the “stump of Jesse.” That stump was King David, and Isaiah told us that the promised Messiah would come from David’s line. That made sense, as David was the greatest king of Israel. But at about the same time Isaiah was writing about stumps and shoots, the prophet Micah was writing about a town – Bethlehem Ephrathah – which would produce God’s promised King. That word Ephrathah is important because it separates that Bethlehem from the other Bethlehems in Judea. It would be like Micah saying, “Columbus, Ohio,” which would distinguish that from the other towns named Columbus in Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and Wisconsin.

The amazing thing is that neither of Jesus’ parents were from Bethlehem. In fact, they had no reason to be in Bethlehem. It took an act of Congress – or the closest thing to it, a decree of Caesar – to get them to Bethlehem. The ruler of Rome at the time, Caesar Augustus, had an itch to know just how powerful he was. So he commanded that all of his subjects report to their hometowns for a census so they could be counted for his amusement. In most societies, that meant simply going to where you were born. But not in Israel.

There, people had to travel to their ancestral homes, and since Joseph was in the ancestral line of David, he had to travel about 70 miles to the little town of Bethlehem. And just when Mary was due to have her baby. What an amazing coincidence!

So between Mary’s miraculous pregnancy and Caesar’s governmental decree, all of the conditions were in place for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. Two prophecies were fulfilled in that one moment. And more ground was laid to prove that the child born in Bethlehem that night was, in fact, the Messiah, the Son of God.

Today, prepare your heart for a truly miraculous celebration that’s going to take place in just 11 days. And remember that God went to great lengths to make sure this day happened and that everything went just as He had planned.