Channel4 - 100 Greatest Christmas Moments

Alan Partridge - Knowing Me, Knowing Yule (1995)
The career-killing Christmas special in which one ill-judged moment of violence involving a turkey and an important BBC executive lost Alan his TV career, consigning him to the Radio Norwich graveyard slot.
The Alternative Christmas Speech (Various)
Since 1994 Channel 4's alternative to the HRH broadcast has been variously given by a toilet-mouthed Ali G, Sharon Osbourne, Rev Jesse Jackson, Brigitte Bardot, Quentin Crisp, Rory Bremner dressed as Diana, and 9/11 survivor Genelle Guzman.
Apollo Eight Orbits the Moon (1968)
Astronauts make the TV news headlines by orbiting the moon at Christmas.
Are You Being Served - Christmas episodes (Various)
Double entendres and dressing up from the staff of Grace Brothers, invariably having to execute Young Mr Grace's latest hare-brained scheme to increase seasonal sales.
An Audience With... Dame Edna at Christmas (Various)
It's now a TV staple which has featured turns as varied as The Spice Girls, Peter Ustinov and Sooty, but the 'Audience With' format began as a Boxing Day vehicle for the Antipodean housewife and superstar.
The Avengers - Too Many Christmas Trees (1965)
Steed starts having nightmares about old St Nick which worsen as he first has a vision of a friend's death and then his own demise by guillotine. Gradually it becomes clear that evil opponents are trying to infiltrate his mind.
Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? (1984)
Appalled by the prospect of gorging themselves on turkey while millions in Africa starved, Midge Ure and Bob Geldof wrote a Christmas song with the express intention of making as much money for charity as they could and ended up selling over 50,000,000 copies worldwide.
Banzai - Christmas Special (2001)
Spoof Japanese Style game show, featuring a Communion wafer eating contest and the quest to find out how many helium filled balloons it takes to lift Aled Jones off the ground.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas (1995)
The sniggering duo spend Christmas reading viewers' letters and creating classic movie spoofs like It's a Miserable Life and Huh, Huh, Humbug.
The Bill - Twanky (1997)
Attempts to stage a panto at Sunhill are undermined by bickering cast members and a maniac attempting to murder DI Deakin.
Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1989)
This variation on the Charles Dickens story tells the story of Ebenezer Blackadder, the kindest man in London, who turns into a mean and unscrupulous miser after seeing visions of how it was being such bad men that brought his ancestors success.
Blue Peter's Grange Hill competition (1981)
Every December the Blue Peter presenters failed to impress the nation by making the same advent crown from coat hangers and fireproof tinsel, but one year they ran a competition well worth entering. Winner Paul Manning saw his storyline about trouble at the Grange Hill Christmas disco turned into the show's first Christmas special, in which he also got to appear alongside Todd Carty and co.
Bob the Builder - Can We Fix It? (2000)
Knocking fellow dungaree wearer Eminem's story of a rap fan who kills his pregnant wife off the top spot and preventing Westlife from scoring a third consecutive Christmas number one, it's the construction expert whose can do attitude was widely slammed in the building trade press for giving customers 'unrealistic expectations.'
Camp Christmas (1993)
The first lesbian and gay Christmas show hosted by Erasure's Andy Bell and Melissa Ethridge. It outraged the more easily outrageable parts of the British press so much that they called upon church leaders to organise an advertising boycott.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (Various)
The annual Christmas Eve carol service from King's College, Cambridge which remains top of the pile despite competition from shows like Christmas Songs of Praise (featuring thirteen-year-old Charlotte Church in the Holy Land) and A Song For Christmas (in which a very young Tim from Big Brother 3 took on a pre-Take That Gary Barlow in a seasonal song writing competition).
Carry On Christmas (Various)
Made-for-TV specials by the Carry On troupe including Sid James as an unenthusiastic store Santa pondering on how Christmas was celebrated throughout the ages from Cavemen to Christmas Eve in the trenches.
Casualty - The Golden Hour (1997)
Featuring a 40-car multiple pile-up, and overseen by Bond stunt co-ordinator Jim Dowdall, this (un)seasonal gore-fest took six months to plan and six nights to shoot, as a disused airfield was transformed into a motorway.
Celebrity Blind Date (2002)
While the tabloids were full of claims about tantrums behind the scenes, Tara Palmer Tomkinson and Big Brother's Alex Sibley won dates with real punters in this seasonal special.
Celebrity TV pantomimes (Various)
A favourite of every family Christmas (Oh no it wasn't!) was the celebrity Christmas Panto. Stars who have donned the tights and slapped their thighs in the cause of good cheer range from screen legends like Gene Kelly, through 1970s staples like Vince Hill and Dickie Henderson to more knowing contemporary contributions from the likes of Paul Merton and Julian Clary.
Celebrity Visits to Children's Hospitals (Various)
Brave kids spending Christmas away from their families in hospital tried to keep cheerful as in stepped Tarby, Rolf, Leslie Crowther, Michael Aspel or Max Bygraves.
A Christmas Carol (1951)
While everyone from Bill Murray to the Muppets have adapted this Dickens classic in their own way, the yardstick remains the classic film version starring a shuddering-jowled Alistair Sim, whose deadpan 'Why?' in response to the charity solicitors' request to help the poor remains one of the cinema's greatest moments.
Christmas Circus Wars (Various)
The BBC's traditional Christmas Day spectacular was broadcast from Billy Smart's Circus. In 1968, ITV launched The Kelvin Smart Circus filmed in a fake big top in Glasgow - and showed it at exactly the same time. The TV battle for best Christmas circus raged on for the rest of the 1970s.
Christmas is Coming... This is a Government Health Warning (1987)
Television doctor Miriam Stoppard's doomy list of Christmas do's and don'ts (including how best to line your stomach before drinking a skinful, how to avoid being poked in the eye with pine needles, and the dangers of drafty churches) are interspersed with comedy sketches performed by a pre-Meldrew Richard Wilson.
Christmas Night with the Stars (Various)
In the days before every show got its own festive special, this was the BBC programme to watch featuring comedy and music from the big names of the year. ITV soon followed suit, introducing its All-Star Comedy Carnival.
Christmas on Brookside Close - The Lesbian Kiss (1993)
Early example of the Christmas Soap shocker story line as Beth tells her friend, Margaret, that she loves her, culminating in TV's first lesbian kiss.