Bear necessities of festive viewing

By FIONA RAE

You've stuffed in as much turkey as you can, the kids have miraculously not yet broken all their new toys ... what's on the box tomorrow when you assume the traditional Christmas Day couch position?

TV One has maximum Christmas viewage, starting with Christmas at Home (6.20am), Christmas Memories (7am), Foster and Allen Christmas Collection (8.10am), Where Christmas Began (10am) and Carols from Kings - A Celebration of Christmas (10.55am).

Phew, and all before lunch.

Where Christmas Began takes a documentary approach, retracing the footsteps of Mary, Joseph, the three kings, shepherds - and the pilgrims who still go to Bethlehem.

After lunch, the Emerald Isle is featured in An Irish Holiday (3.25pm). Celtic tenors sing, naturally, Danny Boy, Frank McCourt reads from Angela's Ashes (there's a cheery thought), and Jean Butler reminisces about Irish dance.

Says Stephen Fry about his documentary Paddington Bear: The Early Years (TV One 5.05pm): "I've always had a great respect for Paddington because he is amusingly English and eccentric."

The amusingly English and eccentric Fry travelled to Peru and ended up saving a rare Peruvian Spectacled Bear from being eaten by bartering shovels, corn and flour with the locals. As you do.

One wonders what The Queen's Christmas Message (6.50pm) will be about this year. She is followed by what will be a highlight for the kids - two animated claymation Robbie the Reindeer specials, Hooves of Fire (7pm) and Legends of the Lost Tribe (7.30pm).

At least one US critic was grateful for the shows' British sense of humour at a time which is relentlessly saccharine over there, even if the specials were dubbed with American voices. At least get Father Ted's Ardal O'Hanlon as Robbie.

Over on TV2, the usual line-up is augmented by several Christmas-themed movies: Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (midday), CinderElmo (2pm) and Arabian Nights (7.30pm).

Okay, Arabian Nights isn't Christmas-y, but A Roswell Christmas Carol (10.30pm) is. Do aliens celebrate Christmas too?

Hard to know what Ally McBeal's Christmas (11.20pm) involves, but you can bet it won't be eating.

TV3 has movies for the young folk, including Geppetto (4.35pm) and Casper (7.30pm), and later turns back the clock for the classic Western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (9.55pm).

If you're not feeling the Christmas spirit at all, and fancy something featuring a seminal grunge rock band, then TV4 is the Scrooge station for you.

Nirvana - Live! Tonight! Sold Out! (8.30pm) features home movies of the band members, clips from television appearances and concert footage.

This serves as a sequel to tonight's Nirvana 1991: The Year That Punk Broke (9.30pm), which follows a European tour by Nirvana and Sonic Youth.

Prime is in the spirit, screening the Australian Carols by Candlelight (7.25pm), followed by the movie All I Want for Christmas (9.45pm). Even Dave's full of it: The Late Show with David Letterman (12.05am) is a Christmas special.

And Sky Movies has Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (8.30pm).