Thanksgiving TV Treats, Christmas Movies, Football and Mary Poppins

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The iconic parade begins early on the streets of Manhattan, with Wicked: For Good star Cynthia Erivo opening the ceremonies with a showstopper. Today‘s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker are back as hosts, introducing the many floats, balloons, and musical acts. Get a taste of Broadway with performances from Just in Time, The Buena Vista Social Club, and the revival of Ragtime, while the legendary band Foreigner rocks the crowd from the Stranger Things float. (That series, if you hadn’t heard, is now streaming the first episodes of its final season.) The talent roster includes 2025 CMA Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson, the voice cast of KPop Demon Hunters, Jewel, Kool & the Gang, Darlene Love, Mickey Guyton, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, Debbie Gibson, and many more, capped off by the Radio City Rockettes and the arrival of Santa.

For a taste of parades from across the country, CNN presents its second annual Thanksgiving in America special (8 am/ET), with four hours of highlights from celebrations in New York City, Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago, and Detroit. Expect music from Brad Paisley, The Temptations, the Four Tops, the Harlem Gospel Choir, and the Broadway cast of Six, with John Berman, Sara Sidner, and Erica Hill anchoring from New York.

The National Dog Show

After Santa makes his cameo, and before the Macy’s parade is rebroadcast at 2 pm/1c, settle in as canine breeds of all varieties — including a new entry, the Danish-Swedish Farmdog — strut their stuff at the Philly Expo Center when the Kennel Club of Philadelphia presents its annual showcase of top dogs competing for Best in Show. John O’Hurley returns as host with analysis from David Frei and cuddly behind-the-scenes reports from Mary Carillo. Two hours never flew by so quickly.

We Met in December

The Yule Log: The cavalcade of Christmas movies is well underway, with a new batch showing up on Turkey Day. Hallmark Channel‘s We Met in December (8/7c) stars Autumn Reeser and Niall Matter as strangers who share a kiss during a December layover, then try to find each other after realizing they didn’t exchange numbers. Streaming originals include, on Pure Flix, There’s No Place Like Christmas, starring Cindy Busby as a big-city realtor who falls for a photographer (Sam Page) when she returns to her hometown; on BET+, Son of the Preacher, charting the holiday romance of a beauty entrepreneur (Gabrielle Graham) and a megachurch preacher’s son (Chris LeBlanc) with a 3 million social-media following; on ALLBLK, A Heart for Christmas, a heartwarmer about a young girl in a parent trap when she gets her wish to meet the mother she never knew, but how to connect her to her dad, whose heart belongs to another?

Available on Prime Video and YouTube, the animated musical A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas brings the eatery’s characters to life as they plan a surprise party to lift Santa’s spirits. Also for family audiences: the Disney Channel presents Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol (7/6c), the elfin franchise’s first new special in more than a decade. It premieres on Disney+ on Friday and airs Sunday at 9/8c on ABC.

Mary Poppins

Nothing says “jolly holiday” more than a screening of Disney’s 1964 musical classic, which made Julie Andrews a star in her feature-film debut as the magical nanny who charms the entire Banks family in Edwardian England. It’s a milestone year for the movie’s leads, with Andrews having marked her 90th birthday in October, while Dick Van Dyke (who plays the Cockney street painter Bert) turns 100 in December. The film won five Oscars, including for Andrews as Best Actress and for the Richard B. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman score and song, “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”

The Assassin

For a very non-holiday change of pace, this enjoyable thriller picks up after the massacre of an entire Greek village, with retired assassin Julie (Keeley Hawes) and her baffled son Edward (Freddie Highmore) taking refuge on a yacht with his wealthy fiancée Kayla (Shalom Brune-Franklin). Edward has barely begun to unpack the news that his mother has lived a secret life as a hitwoman when she reveals that Kayla was her next assignment, which she refused to accept. But the danger isn’t over yet.

NFL Football: While feasting on food, there’s also a smorgasbord of NFL action to devour. The action begins on Fox (1 pm/ET) with the Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, with the Kansas City Chiefs facing the Dallas Cowboys on CBS (4:30 pm/ET) and concluding in the evening with the Cincinnati Bengals visiting the Baltimore Ravens on NBC (8:15 pm/ET). A college football highlight features the Navy Midshipmen meeting the Memphis Tigers on ESPN (7:30 pm/ET).

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Rabbits, Ducks & No Turkeys (starts at 8 am/7c, MeTV Toons): It’s Looney Tunes all day and night long (through 11 pm/10c) with nearly 100 classic animated shorts featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
• Late Night With Seth Meyers (12:35/11:35c, NBC): It’s all in the family when Seth invites as his Thanksgiving guests his mother Hilary, his father Larry, and his brother Josh.

ON THE STREAM:

• The Artist (streaming on The Network): Not to be confused with the 2011 Oscar winner, this quirky and weirdly indulgent Ragtime-style period piece (with a second half scheduled for Christmas Day) stars Mandy Patinkin as an eccentric tycoon at the center of a Gilded Age murder mystery. The fierce Janet McTeer co-stars as his combative wife, with Hank Azaria as famed inventor Thomas Edison, Danny Huston as visiting artist Edgar Degas, and Clark Gregg as the scandalous businessman Harry Kendall Thaw.
• Sidelined 2: Intercepted (streaming on Tubi): A sequel to 2024’s Sidelined: The QB and Me continues the romantic saga of freshman star quarterback Drayton (Noah Beck) and aspiring dancer Dallas (Siena Agudong).