Christmas 2019 went from being epic to a day I wanted to ignore and forget. Living on a hospital ward is not how I imagined I would be spending the day or the end of the year. However, that is what it ended up being and it was hard. I don’t ever want to do it again.

Spending a lot of the holiday season trying to ignore the festivities meant I avoided a lot of Christmas TV. I found that I didn’t want to interact with it. There were some epic shows on though that I just knew I couldn’t miss out on. BBC One and Channel 4, in the UK, winning the best channels for me.

Still to this day, I am trying to catch up on what I missed, having found it easier to watch them now we are coming to the end of the festive period. If like me you struggled to watch everything when it first screened, I have made a list of the ones you just cannot miss.

Of course, there is one definite one on there…

Gavin & Stacey: I waited all day for this show at Christmas. I didn’t want a lot on the day. I was even happy to have weird food in the ward and no presents. I just wanted this special to be epic. Thankfully it was! I couldn’t recommend it more. I think I will end up watching it at least once a month for the rest of the year, as it made me so happy.

The Great British Bake Off Festive Specials: Spread out over two episodes, on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, both were brilliant. One welcomed back old contestants, the other saw the cast of Derry Girls take to the tent. It is fair to say that the old bakers were better with their cakes, but the girls were better at the crack.

Merry Happy Whatever: New for the holiday season on Netflix, this comedy is a sweet American sitcom. Spread across the start of the festive period and leading up to New Year’s Eve, every major family moment and event is shown. I binged it in two days and am now hoping we get a series for every occasion of the year.

Miranda: My Such Fun Celebration: Back after 10 years, Miranda gathered all the cast, an audience and some essential clips from the show to celebrate. Miranda Hart allows for all of us to be silly and this show highlighted it throughout. If you used to watch the series, you can’t miss this. Especially the moments between her and Tom Ellis.

Top Gear Special: A bit of a random one, but this special really made one of my mornings in the ward. Freddie, Paddy and co are just brilliant together. Seeing them wreak havoc in old cars whilst in Nepal is definitely the perfect anti-type Christmas show the whole family can enjoy.

The more I watch, the more I will let you know about them lovelies on social. I am hoping to catch up on Dracula soon and of course the Gogglebox festive edition. What did you all watch over the holidays that you would recommend?

Joey X