5 Classic TV Episodes to Watch This Christmas

Little House on the Prairie (Credit: ©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Bewitched “Santa Comes to Visit and Stays and Stays” (noon/11am c, FETV)

Achoo! A sneeze from bumbling Esmeralda (Alice Ghostley) accidentally summons Santa (Ronald Long) to the Stephens household in this 1969 lark. Because Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) can’t reverse another witch’s spell, she hatches an alternate escape plan. Hint: It involves reindeer.

Walker, Texas Ranger “A Ranger Christmas” (5/4c, H&I)

Walker (Chuck Norris) tells a group of orphans the story of Hayes Cooper (also Norris), a Texas Ranger in 1876. With a stolen baby, a scalp-seeking Comanche, and a life-threatening windstorm, this moving 1996 episode doesn’t follow the usual Christmas formula.

Murphy Brown “I’m Dreaming of a Brown Christmas” (6/5c, Rewind TV)

Former Scrooge Murphy (Candice Bergen, above) aims to give son Avery a perfect first Noel — “not the Yuletide massacres I grew up with” — in a very funny 1992 outing. She even orders in snow! Then Aunt Brooke (Marian Seldes) arrives. Followed by Murphy’s dad (Darren McGavin). Cue family feud!

Green Acres “An Old-Fashioned Christmas” (9:30/8:30c, MeTV)

From 1966: Oliver (Eddie Albert) wants a real tree, but he’ll need a permit to chop one down — and he’ll have to somehow resist a fake with gen-u-ine spruce spray to “pine up your room for hours.”