For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

YULE TUBE: 42 days and counting!

The decorations are in the stores, the music is on the Muzak, and here come the TV shows.

Yes, it's officially Christmas already!

We know because Tuesday was the kickoff for ABC Family's Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas. Because 25 days just isn't enough.

(Holiday-happy Hallmark Channel is holding its Countdown to Christmas till after Thanksgiving -- they've got turkey cards to sell first.)

One of our favorite people, Tom "Ed" Cavanagh, got the Christmas snowball rolling Tuesday with his snow tom cavanagh.jpg Santa-playing TV movie double feature, Snow and Snow 2 Brain Freeze.

Other TV movie highlights of ABC Family's Nov. 10-30 yuletide pre-event include Tori Spelling's Scrooge-ian A Carol Christmas (Thursday, Nov. 19, with William Shatner and Gary Coleman), the sentiment-strewn Kathy Ireland double feature Once Upon a Christmas and Twice Upon a Christmas (Nov. 21), and the premiere of The Dog Who Saved Christmas (Nov. 29) with Mario Lopez and Dean Cain.

Holiday animation gets going on ABC Family with the premieres of Gotta Catch Santa Claus (Shatner again, Nov. 18) and Holly & Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure (Nov. 24).

You can view or print out ABC Family's complete Countdown to 25 Days listings here.

Others jumping the Christmas gun this month:

NBC premieres Merry Madagascar (Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. ET, NBC), where the familiar animated zoosters help "marauding red night goblin" Santa recover from amnesia.

CMT starts the seasonal songfest with Larry the Cable Guy's Hula-palooza Christmas Luau (Nov. 20), featuring Kenan Thompson, Caroline Rhea, Tony Orlando and many more.

Comedy comes early -- and in a strange place, on History channel -- with two hours of Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black (Nov. 23). The cranky comic delves into the origins of seasonal celebrations and traditions, with perspectives from Craig Ferguson, Joy Behar, Richard Belzer, Shelley Berman, David Alan Grier and other funny folks.

PBS Kids beats the Thanksgiving rush with the pre-turkey premiere of Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas (Nov. 25).

Stay tuned for our own Christmas-palooza. We'll have our annual TV DVD gift guide up shortly, followed by my annual listings compilation of hundreds of holiday shows to watch, record and share.

Six weeks and counting . . .

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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