One of the things I always remember fondly from childhood Christmas's is getting the Xmas edition of the Radio Times and finding out which Christmas specials and movies were being shown. These of course were in the days before Sky and DVD.

Nowadays, Christmas TV is not one of the main things I look forward to about Christmas. Partly because the movies will have already been on Sky a year or two before or I'll have bought it on DVD and partly because the quality of TV these days isn't as good as it was during previous years. Shows like Only Fools and Horses and Blackadder made for great Xmas specials worth getting excited about. These days I prefer American shows like Friends, Buffy, Angel, Frasier etc. to the current crop of British shows. Don't get me wrong, there are some good shows around but I don't think we'll be watching re-runs of them in 10 years time.

We as a family tend to gather round the TV on Christmas evening and it's usually one of the best feelings of the year. Everyone's relaxed and fairly well stuffed with Christmas dinner and cake. We break out the chocolates and settle down in front of the TV. Don't get me wrong, we don't just sit there starring at the box not saying a word to each other. TV can bring people together and spark off conversation. That's really what Christmas TV is about for me, bringing people together.