Christmas past and present represented on the holiday tube

Couch potatoes can have a holly, jolly time this holiday season, with some new Christmas movies and specials joining the hundreds in reruns.

The treasured classics are like favorite tree ornaments stored away and pulled out each year to deck the television schedule. Familiar faces such as the Grinch, Charlie Brown, George Bailey, Ebenezer Scrooge, Ralphie Parker, Rudolph, Frosty and Clark Griswold will be back.

Christmas programming that started trickling out two weeks ago now fills the schedules. There are two new holiday-themed stories tonight about dogs.

In the animated "The Dog Who Saved Christmas" (8 p.m., ABC Family), a guard dog named Zeus (Mario Lopez's voice) protects a home from bumbling burglars.

CBS gets in the spirit with "A Dog Named Christmas" at 9 p.m. It's a sweet, sentimental Hallmark Hall of Fame tale about a young man with a developmental disability who wants every family in his Kansas town to adopt a dog for the holidays.

Also among the new offerings this season:

•"The National Tree" (8 tonight, Hallmark) is about an Oregon teen (Evan Williams) who wins a national Christmas tree contest and persuades his overprotective father (Andrew McCarthy) to help him take the 15-year-old tree to Washington, D.C.

•In the Lifetime movie "12 Men of Christmas," Kristin Chenoweth stars as a big-city editor working with some rural hunks who pose for a male calendar. It airs at 9 p.m. Saturday.

•"The Christmas Hope," starring Madeleine Stowe and Ian Ziering, is the third film in "The Christmas Shoes" trilogy (8 p.m. Dec. 13, Lifetime). A couple with a troubled marriage take in a foster child at Christmas.

•Hallmark Channel original movies include "The Three Gifts," with Dean Cain, at 8 p.m. Dec. 19 (about three orphans).

•Carrie Underwood performs Christmas classics on "Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special" (8 p.m. Dec. 7, Fox) with Chenoweth, Dolly Parton and Christina Applegate.

•Oprah Winfrey visits the Obamas for "Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special" (10 p.m. Dec. 13, ABC), and "Saturday Night Live Christmas 2009" (8 p.m. Dec. 17, NBC) brings laughs from Christmases past.

•"Yes, Virginia" (8 p.m. Dec. 11, CBS) is a new animated special based on the famous newspaper editorial.

Among the returning favorites:

•"A Charlie Brown Christmas," at 8 p.m. Tuesday and 8 p.m. Dec. 8 (ABC).

•"A Christmas Carol" (the 1984 version with George C. Scott), at 2 p.m. today (Hallmark).

•"How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (animated), at 8 p.m. Monday (TBS).

•"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," at 8 and 10:15 p.m. Monday (AMC).

•"The 12th Annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center," with Tony Award-winner Jane Krakowski and "Chuck" star Zachary Levi, at 8 p.m. Wednesday (NBC).

•"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," at 8 p.m. Wednesday (CBS).

• "Happy Festivus" episodes of "Seinfeld," at 8 and 8:30 p.m. Dec. 7 (TBS).

•"Frosty the Snowman," at 8 p.m. Dec. 18 (CBS).

•"A Christmas Story," in a 24-hour marathon beginning at 8 p.m. Dec. 24 (TBS).

•"It's a Wonderful Life," at 8 p.m. Dec. 12 and 8 p.m. Dec. 24 (NBC).