Streaming stole our Christmas TV experience – but can we get it back?

In a scene from Friends, Santa Claus and the Holiday Armadillo stand in a kitchen facing each other while Monica Geller looks on from the center.

I'm staring at the Christmas TV guide like it's written in Sanskrit. Two hundred and ninety-two pages of programming, and I can't find a single thing I'm genuinely excited to watch with my family on Christmas Day. Yes, there's some okay programmes – but where's the event? Where's the thing that makes us all put our phones down and actually look at the same screen at the same time?

Here's the uncomfortable truth: streaming has killed the Christmas special. And I'm not sure we've fully processed what we've lost.