My Top 8 Choices for December TV

2025 is nearly over. How is that possible?

[Photo Credit: www.impawards.com/Wikipedia]

It seems like we were just enjoying summer and now winter is settling in, well, for those in regions where you actually have seasons, but winter for me – here in Southern California – is completely different from most of the country.

But to help keep the chill away, no matter how cold your region may get, there are LOTS of programming options to pick from in the December TV calendar, which will go live on Thanksgiving Day.

In the meantime, I’m going to share my top 8 choices for next month, and some of our readers may be surprised that very few of the holiday movies that are set to debut throughout December are NOT on my list.

Let’s get started with the some of the returning dramas:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians will be back for its second season on Disney+ and Hulu, starting on December 10;
Amazon Prime will premiere the second season of Fallout starting on December 17; and,
The 5th season of Emily in Paris will begin on Netflix on December 18.

MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES

Only one holiday movie has made it onto my “must watch” list for December and that is the rather farcical My Secret Santa on Netflix, debuting on December 3. Virgin River star Alexandra Breckenridge stars in the movie as a desperate single mother who, after losing her job, resorts to disguising herself as an elderly man to get “him” hired as a local ski resort’s Santa Claus for the holidays. Things become complicated (of course, because what holiday movie is complete without some kind of complication) when the resort manager begins to suspect her AND she falls in love with the ski resort owner’s handsome son, who is played by New Amsterdam star Ryan Eggold.

A true tearjerker called Goodbye June will debut on Netflix on December 24, starring the one and only Helen Mirren with Kate Winslet not only playing one of the daughters in the film but also doing double duty as the film’s director. The movie will follow a group of fractured siblings who must come together under sudden and trying circumstances. The ensemble cast includes Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette, Raza Jaffrey, Stephen Merchant, Johnny Flynn and Timothy Spall.

And, if you prefer a bit more action in your December movies, look no further than the Lifetime action flick Stolen Girl which will air on December 27 at 8 PM. Kate Beckinsale stars as an American mother who has spent more than 10 years tracking down her daughter who was abducted and taken to the Middle East by the child’s father. The movie also stars box office hunk Scott Eastwood.

NEW TV SHOWS

The Hallmark Channel will have a new holiday-based series debuting next month, starting on December 5 and it will run until December 19. Twelve Dates ‘Til Christmas, based on the book by Jenni Bayliss, stars Mae Whitman as Kate, a Saville Row textile pattern designer, living in the quaint village of Blexford, England. When her best friend Laura signs her up for The 12 Dates of Christmas, a festively themed matchmaking program in the days leading up to the holiday featuring carefully curated, yuletide dating experiences, Kate is forced to get out of her rut. As she wends her way through the 12 dates, she takes a circuitous route to romance while also making some important discoveries about herself. Best of all Dr. Quinn herself Jane Seymour and Battlestar Galactica alum Mary McDonnell also star in the new show.

Then on the opposite spectrum of storytelling, the new series The Copenhagen Test will debut on Peacock starting on December 27. The show is about a first-generation Chinese-American intelligence analyst named Alexander Hale (Marvel’s Simu Liu), who realizes his brain has been hacked (think the Zachary Levi-led TV series Chuck but with much less comedy and slapstick), giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who is responsible and prove where his allegiance lies. In the Heights alum Melissa Barrera co-stars.

As I mentioned before, our full December TV calendar – focusing on dramas, specials, documentaries and movies – will go live on Thanksgiving Day. Please make sure to check it out and mark your calendars!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers!