Thanksgiving is so last week. If you’re not ready for the flood of December holidays, a classic special airing this week will help your heart grow three sizes.
At 8 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 30), you can catch the original “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1966) — complete with Boris Karloff’s gentle narration and Thurl “Tony the Tiger” Ravenscroft’s singing right here on WDTN or your local NBC affiliate. If you miss it, it will rerun on NBC at 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 25 (i.e., Christmas).
If you’re unable to watch it at either of those times — or are a glutton for feeling good — it’s also available for streaming on Peacock, as is the 2018 animated version with Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock”) voicing the Grinch. Peacock also offers a recorded performance of “The Grinch Musical,” shot on a London stage.
(If you’re looking for the live-action version with Jim Carrey, you can either wait for it to hit Peacock on Dec. 20 or wait for the Christmas night airing on your local NBC affiliate, right after the replay of the ’66 version. It will also hit theaters on Dec. 3 and Dec. 6.)
How to watch ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’?
The Grinch is great, but if you have your heart set on watching the greatest holiday special, you’ll have to wait a few weeks. Unless you don’t mind paying, that is.
As it has been since 2020, Apple TV+ is the exclusive home for the Charlie Brown library of specials. While a subscription to the service costs $9.99 a month, it does allow you to watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” or any of the other ones any time you want, any day you want.
Since 2022, Apple has made a weekend before Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving a “free” on, when anyone can stream the special for no charge or subscription. For this year’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” that free weekend will be Dec. 16-17.
(You’ll still need to access/download the free Apple TV+ app, but it’s available on Apple hardware, your smart TV, Amazon Fire, Google Chromecast or video game console.)
