TV Picks 12.11.16

Programs to celebrate the reason for the season.

(photo: Unsplash)

SUNDAY, Dec. 11, 8pm

Mighty Planes: The Best of Mighty Planes

SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL Various aircraft categories are spotlighted in this review of planes built for exceptional missions.

 

SUNDAYS, Dec. 11, 6:30am, Dec. 18, 5:30pm

Advent Reflections

EWTN “Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4:4). For Gaudete (Joy) Sunday and Advent’s Fourth Sunday, priests and deacons provide meditation topics, prayers and Bible readings. Re-airs 5:30pm Fridays.

 

MONDAY, Dec. 12

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

EWTN “He has not done thus for any other nation,” (Psalm 147:20). So Pope Benedict XIV exclaimed in 1754, when he was shown a replica of Mexico’s miraculous 1531 image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. At 3am, Archbishop José Gomez will celebrate Mass in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles (re-airs 3pm). At noon, Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Mass on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (re-airs midnight).

 

FRIDAY, Dec. 16, 4:30pm

Life of Christ: A Holy Land Pilgrimage

EWTN This hour-long special traces Jesus’ footsteps by taking viewers to the many holy sites throughout the Holy Land. Re-airs 2am Tuesday, noon Wednesday.

 

FRIDAY, Dec. 16, 10pm

Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday for Heroes

PBS Celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich salutes our military men and women by visiting veterans, listening to their stories and cooking their favorite dishes. She also prepares a festive dinner for 250 Navy personnel aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington at the Norfolk Naval Station, where newsman Bob Woodruff, wounded in Iraq in 2006, joins her in dining with the crewmen and women.

 

SATURDAY, Dec. 17, 8pm

I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown!

ABC In this “Peanuts” comic strip-themed 2003 children’s animated special, little Rerun, told he is too young to receive a pet dog for Christmas, enlists Charlie Brown’s beagle Snoopy to find out what having a dog is like.

 

FRIDAY, Dec. 23, 1:15am

Babes in Toyland (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers)

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES This 1934 classic musical comedy from Hal Roach features a Victor Herbert score, plus comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as dwellers in a fantasy Toyland who recruit Mother Goose-type characters to comically foil a bad guy and his stooges. Advisory: Bogeymen characters could scare little ones.

 

SATURDAY, Dec. 24

Christmas Eve

EWTN Live at 3:30pm, Pope Francis will celebrate the Solemn Mass of Christmas Eve in St. Peter’s. The same Mass will air on NBC at 11:34pm. At 10pm will be Choral Meditations on the Nativity from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. At 10:30pm, also from the basilica, will be the Solemn Mass of Christmas Eve.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.