Happy December, everyone! Ready to start watching your favorite classic holiday movies? If you are, you can count on lots of those coming up this month. On almost every Friday night this month, plus on weekends, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, you’ll have lots of opportunities to watch lots of Christmas classics.
In honor of his 100th birthday, Frank Sinatra will be December’s Star of the Month. Every Tuesday night, TCM will be showing many of his movies, plus classic televised specials. On Monday nights this month, there will be a series of films that deal with various types of friendships between women; some are genuinely close friendships while others are more complicated.
December’s going to be a busy month, so let’s get started with the schedule.
December 2: Frank Sinatra has his first turn as Star of the Month with Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music at 8:00 PM, Guys and Dolls at 9:00 PM, Pal Joey at 11:45 PM, Can-Can at 1:45 AM, and Marriage on the Rocks at 4:15 AM.
December 3: A few more from Frank Sinatra this morning with Double Dynamite at 6:15 AM, A Hole in the Head at 7:45 AM, Assault on a Queen at 10:00 AM, and Dirty Dingus Magee at 12:00 PM.
December 4: Start getting into the Christmas spirit tonight with It Happened on 5th Avenue at 8:00 PM, Meet John Doe at 10:15 PM, Period of Adjustment at 12:30 AM, All Mine to Give at 2:30 AM, and Little Women (1949) at 4:30 AM.
December 5: It’s a night of movies involving screenwriters, including Sunset Boulevard at 8:00 PM, Susan Slept Here at 10:00 Pm, and In a Lonely Place at 12:00 AM.
December 6: A Christmas Carol (1938) at 8:30 AM, The Man Who Came to Dinner at 10:00 Am, Holiday Affair at 12:00 PM, Sun Valley Serenade at 1:45 PM, An American in Paris at 3:30 PM, The Quiet Man at 5:30 PM, and Bardleys the Magnificent at 12:00 AM.
December 7: Tonight, TCM kicks off their spotlight on movies about friendships between women tonight with The World of Henry Orient at 8:00 PM, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows at 10:00 PM, Heavenly Creatures at 11:45 PM, and Three on a Match at 1:45 AM.
December 8: TCM celebrates the 100th birthday of Ernest Lehman tonight with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at 8:00 PM, Sweet Smell of Success at 10:30 PM, North By Northwest at 12:15 AM, Somebody Up There Likes Me at 2:45 AM, and Executive Suite at 4:45 AM.
December 9: Happy birthday to Kirk Douglas! See him in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers at 6:30 AM, Out of the Past at 8:30 AM, Along the Great Divide at 10:15 AM, Young Man With a Horn at 12:00 PM, The Hook at 2:00 PM, Lust for Life at 3:45 PM, and Seven Days in May at 6:00 PM. Then Sinatra comes back with Sinatra Sings at 8:00 PM, From Here to Eternity at 9:15 PM, The Devil at 4 O’Clock at 11:30 PM, The Detective at 1:45 AM, and The First Deadly Sin at 4:00 AM.
December 10: Even more Sinatra today with Suddenly at 6:00 AM, None But the Brave at 7:30 AM, The Pride and the Passion at 9:30 AM, Never So Few at 11:45 AM, and Cast a Giant Shadow at 2:00 PM. Tonight’s prime time movies are all directed by Claude Chabrol with Les Cousins at 8:00 PM, Le Beau Serge at 10:00 PM, Story of Women at 12:00 AM, La Ceremonie at 2:00 AM, and Masques at 4:30 AM.
December 11: Time for more Christmas movies tonight with The Man Who Came to Dinner at 8:00 PM, Scrooge at 10:00 PM, A Christmas Carol at 12:00 AM, Meet Me in St. Louis at 1:15 AM, In the Good Old Summertime at 3:15 AM.
December 12: One Way Passage at 6:00 AM, The Clock at 4:30 PM, Suspicion at 6:15 PM, Here Comes Mr. Jordan at 8:00 PM, Heaven Can Wait at 10:00 PM, A Matter of Life and Death at 12:00 AM.
December 13: Lots of great stuff on today! In the Good Old Summertime at 10:00 AM, Christmas in Connecticut at 12:00 PM, The Philadelphia Story at 4:00 PM, Charade at 6:00 PM, and Lady in the Lake at 11:00 PM.
December 14: The spotlight on girlfriends is back with Old Acquaintance at 8:00 PM, The Women at 10:15 PM, Swing Shift at 12:45 AM, and Tender Comrade at 2:45 AM.
December 15: Spend at day at the circus with The Circus at 6:00 AM, Laugh Clown Laugh at 7:15 AM, Polly of the Circus at 8:30 AM, At the Circus at 11:00 AM, Billy Rose’s Jumbo at 3:45 PM.
December 16: Ready for more Sinatra? Frank Sinatra: Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back at 8:00 PM, On the Town at 9:00 PM, Take me Out to the Ball Game at 11:00 PM, Anchors Aweigh at 12:45 AM, It Happened in Brooklyn at 3:15 AM, and The Kissing Bandit at 5:15 AM.
December 18: In the afternoon, there’s Swing Time at 2:00 PM and Vigil in the Night at 4:00 PM. Then it’s time for more holiday classics with I’ll Be Seeing You at 8:00 PM, Christmas in Connecticut at 9:30 PM, Remember the Night at 11:30 PM, Holiday Affair at 1:15 AM, Bundle of Joy at 3:00 AM, and Love Finds Andy Hardy at 4:45 AM.
December 20: Follow the Fleet at 6:00 AM, It Happened on 5th Avenue at 10:00 AM, Meet Me in St. Louis at 12:00 PM, Born to Dance at 10:00 PM, and Ben-Hur (1925) at 12:00 AM.
December 21: Get ready for more girlfriends tonight with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at 8:00 PM, Where the Boys Are at 9:45 AM, Girlfriends at 11:30 PM, and Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York at 1:30 AM.
December 22: It’s a day of Alfred Hitchcock with Mr. and Mrs. Smith at 6:00 AM, Under Capricorn at 7:30 AM, Stage Fright at 9:30 AM, Strangers on a Train at 11:30 AM, Dial M for Murder at 1:15 PM, The Wrong Man at 3:15 PM, and North By Northwest at 5:15 PM. Then December’s Guest Programmer Tina Fey takes over in prime time with Desk Set at 8:00 PM, My Favorite Wife at 10:00 PM, The Goodbye Girl at 11:45 PM, and That’s Entertainment! at 1:45 AM.
December 23: It’s another night of Frank Sinatra with Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank at 8:00 PM, The Miracle of the Bells at 8:45 PM, High Society at 11:00 PM, Robin and the 7 Hoods at 1:00 AM, Thee Tender Trap at 3:15 AM.
December 24: Happy Christmas Eve! Naturally, it’s a day chock full of Christmas classics like The Great Rupert at 6:45 AM, the A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas! special at 8:15 AM, A Christmas Carol at 9:15 AM, Bachelor Mother at 10:30 AM, Meet John Doe at 12:00 PM, Christmas in Connecticut at 2:15 PM, Holiday Affair at 4:15 PM, Meet Me in St. Louis at 6:00 PM, The Bishop’s Wife at 8:00 PM, Auntie Mame at 10:00 PM, and The Shop Around the Corner at 2:45 AM.
December 25: Merry Christmas! The Christmas classics keep on coming with Little Women (1933) at 6:30 AM, Scrooge at 8:30 AM, 3 Godfathers at 10:30 AM, I’ll Be Seeing You at 12:30 PM, The Man Who Came to Dinner at 2:00 PM, In the Good Old Summertime at 4:00 PM, and It Happened on 5th Avenue at 6:00 PM.
December 26: The Letter (1940) at 8:00 AM, East of Eden at 10:00 AM, The Bridge on the River Kwai at 5:00 PM, Swing Time at 8:00 PM, Top Hat at 10:00 PM, Shall We Dance at 12:00 AM.
December 27: A Night at the Opera at 6:00 AM, Gold Diggers of 1933 at 8:00 AM, The Day the Earth Stood Still at 10:00 AM, Wait Until Dark at 12:00 PM, The Lion in Winter at 5:30 PM, An Affair to Remember at 8:00 PM.
December 28: It’s a musical Monday on TCM with 42nd Street at 6:00 AM, The Gay Divorcee at 7:45 AM, Born to Dance at 9:45 AM, An American in Paris at 11:45 AM, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at 1:45 PM, The Unsinkable Molly Brown at 3:45 PM, That’s Dancing! at 6:00 PM. Then it’s back to the girlfriends spotlight with The Children’s Hour at 8:00 PM, These Three at 10:00 PM, Little Darlings at 11:45 PM, and Stage Door at 1:30 AM.
December 29: Tonight, TCM remembers some of the stars who have passed away in 2015 but didn’t get their own special tributes on the channel. There’s Louis Jourdan in Gigi at 8:00 PM, Too Late for Tears with Lizabeth Scott at 10:15 PM, Theodore Bikel in The Defiant Ones at 12:00 AM, Coleen Gray in Kansas City Confidential at 2:00 AM, and Anita Ekberg in Back from Eternity at 4:00 AM.
December 30: One more Frank Sinatra night tonight with Sinatra at 8:00 PM, The M
an With the Golden Arm at 9:15 PM, The Joker is Wild at 11:30 PM, Some Came Running at 1:45 AM, and Sergeants 3 at 4:15 AM.
December 31: Happy New Year! Bid farewell to 2015 with a day of excellent comedies. The Marx Brothers take over the daytime schedule with The Cocoanuts at 8:15 AM, A Day at the Races at 10:00 AM, A Night at the Opera at 12:00 PM, Animal Crackers at 2:00 PM, Monkey Business at 4:00 PM, Horse Feathers at 5:30 PM, and Duck Soup at 6:45 PM. Then Myrna Loy and William Powell take over for a Thin Man marathon. The Thin Man at 8:00 PM, After the Thin Man at 9:45 PM, Another Thin Man at 11:45 PM, Shadow of the Thin Man at 1:45 AM, The Thin Man Goes Home at 3:30 AM, and Song of the Thin Man at 5:15 AM.