10 Best TV Christmas Specials, From Only Fools and Horses to Gavin and Stacey

The best TV Christmas specials include Only Fools and Horses: Christmas Crackers (1981), Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988), Knowing Me, Knowing Yule (1995), The Office Christmas Special (2003) and Gavin & Stacey’s festive episodes, the most recent of which, The Finale on Christmas Day 2024, drew 19.1 million viewers. In the UK, The Office, Gavin & Stacey, The Royle Family and The League of Gentlemen are on BBC iPlayer, Peep Show is free on Channel 4, and Only Fools and Horses and Blackadder are on ITVX Premium and NOW.

This is a list of 10 of the best TV Christmas specials, the episodes British viewers go back to year after year. We chose them for how well they hold up on a rewatch and how much they use Christmas, rather than just happening to air at it, and we’ve ordered them by original broadcast date.

1. Only Fools and Horses: Christmas Crackers (BBC One, 1981)

What makes it stand out: The first ever Only Fools and Horses Christmas special, and the start of a festive tradition that lasted more than 20 years.

Key data: Written by John Sullivan, starring David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Lennard Pearce as Grandad; first shown on 28 December 1981.

Why it matters: Only Fools specials became the centrepiece of BBC Christmas schedules for two decades, and this is where it began.

It’s Christmas in the Trotters’ Peckham flat, and Grandad is in charge of the dinner, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Desperate to salvage the day, Del and Rodney head out to the Monte Carlo Club in search of some festive glamour, and find very little of it.

Later Christmas specials would get bigger, longer and more famous, from the chandelier to the Batman and Robin outfits. But Christmas Crackers has the small, scruffy charm of the early series, and Lennard Pearce’s Grandad is a joy. If you’re working through the Only Fools specials in order, this is the place to start. The series is on ITVX Premium, NOW and Sky.

2. Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (BBC One, 1988)

What makes it stand out: It flips Dickens upside down: a kind man is shown the past and future, and learns to be horrible.

Key data: Written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, starring Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson and Robbie Coltrane as the Spirit of Christmas; first shown on 23 December 1988.

Why it matters: It’s one of the best Christmas Carol parodies ever made, and a standalone treat between Blackadder’s third and fourth series.

Ebenezer Blackadder is the nicest man in Victorian London, so generous that everyone takes advantage of him. On Christmas Eve the Spirit of Christmas, played by Coltrane, drops in by mistake and shows him his scheming ancestors, played by the show’s regular cast in their Elizabethan and Regency roles, and then a pair of possible futures.

Ebenezer draws the obvious conclusion, and the payoff on Christmas morning is one of the best gags in the whole Blackadder run. The Blackadder series is on ITVX Premium, NOW and Sky.

3. Knowing Me, Knowing Yule (BBC Two, 1995)

What makes it stand out: Alan Partridge hosts a festive chat show from a fake version of his own home, and it goes badly wrong.

Key data: Starring Steve Coogan, written by Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber; first shown on BBC Two on 29 December 1995.

Why it matters: It bridges Partridge’s chat-show years and I’m Alan Partridge, and shows exactly why the BBC decides not to give him a second series.

Alan welcomes guests to his “home” for Christmas, with all the forced cheer you’d expect, and the evening falls apart one guest at a time. By the end, Alan has turned on the BBC executive Tony Hayers in a moment that sets up the whole premise of I’m Alan Partridge two years later.

It’s a masterclass in cringe comedy, with Coogan’s Partridge somehow both pathetic and monstrous. It’s as funny now as it was in the 1990s. Sky lists it on demand.

4. The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special (BBC Two, 2000)

What makes it stand out: A proper old-fashioned Christmas ghost story anthology, from the darkest sitcom on British television.

Key data: Written by and starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, with Jeremy Dyson; first shown on BBC Two on 27 December 2000.

Why it matters: It revived the tradition of the Christmas ghost story on TV, which Gatiss later took further with his own BBC adaptations.

On Christmas Eve, the Reverend Bernice Woodall, Royston Vasey’s bitter vicar, receives a series of visitors who tell her their stories. Each one is a short horror tale built around a familiar character, including the unlucky vet Mr Chinnery and the sinister Herr Lipp, in the style of the old Amicus portmanteau films.

It’s gruesome, funny and genuinely creepy, and the ending is a perfect sting. Watch it with the lights low. The League of Gentlemen series is on BBC iPlayer and NOW.

5. The Office Christmas Special (BBC One, 2003)

What makes it stand out: Possibly the best ending any British sitcom has had.

Key data: Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant; shown in two parts on BBC One on 26 and 27 December 2003.

Why it matters: It tied up every loose end of the series, and turned David Brent from a monster into someone you could almost root for.

Three years after the documentary, the crew catches up with everyone at Wernham Hogg. Brent has been made redundant and is now a travelling salesman, chasing a fading celebrity in nightclub appearances. Dawn is back from Florida for the Christmas party, still with Lee, and Tim is still at his desk.

The special’s last 20 minutes are as moving as anything in British comedy. Brent finally finds some dignity, and Tim and Dawn get the moment fans had waited for. It still gets people misty-eyed more than 20 years on. The Office is on BBC iPlayer and NOW.

6. Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen (BBC Two, 2006)

What makes it stand out: The curveball on this list, a cookery series that changed how a lot of Britain made Christmas dinner.

Key data: Presented by Nigella Lawson on BBC Two in December 2006; an episode first shown on 13 December 2006 featured her Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey.

Why it matters: Its influence reached sitcoms: in The Royle Family’s 2008 special, Denise’s disastrous Christmas dinner is inspired by Nigella.

The turkey recipe is the famous one: brine the bird overnight in a bucket of spiced water. Nigella’s own published recipe suggests a large plastic bin or bucket, and, if it’s going to sit outside, covering it with foil and putting something heavy on top to keep the foxes off.

It’s not a special in the sitcom sense, but it is pure festive comfort viewing. We couldn’t find the series listed on a UK streaming service at the time of writing.

7. Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special (BBC One, 2008)

What makes it stand out: Barry meets Billericay over Christmas lunch, and it’s all slightly too much.

Key data: Written by James Corden and Ruth Jones; first shown on 24 December 2008. The later specials were even bigger: 17.9 million watched the 2019 special and 19.1 million watched The Finale on 25 December 2024, according to Barb’s seven-day figures.

Why it matters: The Finale was the UK’s most-watched Christmas Day programme in 23 years.

The Welsh contingent, Nessa, Bryn and the Wests, travel to Essex on Dave Coaches to spend Christmas with Pam and Mick Shipman. Meanwhile, Gavin has secretly been to Wales for a job interview in Cardiff, and he and Stacey have a big announcement to make.

Anyone who’s ever spent Christmas with two families under one roof will recognise every moment. If you’ve only seen the later specials, go back to this one; it sets up the third series beautifully. The Gavin & Stacey series is on BBC iPlayer and NOW.

8. The Royle Family: The New Sofa (BBC One, 2008)

What makes it stand out: The Royles leave the living room for once, and immediately wish they hadn’t.

Key data: Written by Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Phil Mealey; first shown on BBC One on Christmas Day 2008.

Why it matters: It’s the best of the show’s later Christmas specials, which kept the family going long after the regular series ended in 2000.

The special plays out over two days: Christmas Eve at Jim and Barbara’s, in front of the telly as always, and then Christmas Day at Dave and Denise’s. Inspired by Nigella Lawson, Denise has decided to cook dinner for everyone, including Dave’s parents, much to Jim’s dismay. The title refers to Dave and Denise’s pride and joy, a new reclining leatherette sofa.

The dinner, naturally, is a disaster, with an undercooked turkey and burnt potatoes. Nobody captures the slow, slightly grumpy rhythm of a family Christmas better than this show. The Royle Family is on BBC iPlayer and Sky.

9. Peep Show: Seasonal Beatings (Channel 4, 2010)

What makes it stand out: Not a special at all, just a regular episode that captures the misery of hosting Christmas better than most specials.

Key data: Series 7, episode 5, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain; first shown on Channel 4 in December 2010.

Why it matters: It’s one of the most rewatched episodes of the show, and a fan favourite every December.

Mark has planned the perfect Christmas Day, with his parents coming to the flat for lunch, including his father, played with icy precision by Clive Merrison. Everything that can go wrong does: Jeremy is over-excited, and Dobby and Super Hans turn up.

The joy of it is watching Mark’s inner monologue tighten as the day unravels. It’s half an hour, it’s savage, and it’s perfect for anyone who has ever hosted a family Christmas and wanted to hide in the kitchen. Peep Show is free on Channel 4 and also streams on Netflix and Disney+.

10. House of Fools: The Bobble Hat Affair (BBC Two, 2014)

What makes it stand out: Vic and Bob’s Christmas special involves an underground boat trip to Phil Collins’s mansion. That’s all you need to know.

Key data: Starring and written by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer; first shown on BBC Two on 28 December 2014 at 10pm.

Why it matters: It’s the purest dose of Reeves and Mortimer silliness on the list.

It’s Christmas Eve in the House of Fools, and Vic and Beef can’t wait to start the party. But when the special present Bob has organised for his sulky son Erik goes up in flames, Bob needs a replacement fast, so the gang join Julie and Bosh on an underground voyage to the home of Phil Collins.

It makes no sense and isn’t trying to. It’s loud, daft and full of songs, and if Christmas is your excuse to switch your brain off, this is the one. The series is available to buy on Amazon and Apple TV.

The Bottom Line on the Best Christmas Specials

If you only watch one this year, make it The Office Christmas Special, which still has the best ending in British sitcom. For something cosy, go for Gavin & Stacey or The Royle Family. For something darker, The League of Gentlemen is a proper ghost story, and Blackadder’s Christmas Carol works for every age. Grab a mince pie and get the specials queued up early: some of them disappear from streaming services just when you want them.

Last updated: 4 October 2026.

Sources: JustWatch UK (streaming availability, checked 4 October 2026); British Comedy Guide (broadcast dates); Chortle: Gavin and Stacey Christmas Day ratings; Barb (TV audience figures); Nigella.com: Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey.

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