A “Dexter” Christmas?

Why not? The serial killer of serial killers in sunny Miami celebrated the season several times during his just-ended Showtime run.

Also making merry: the crazy cartoon kids of “South Park.” Want a ghoul yule? Try “The X-Files” or “The Twilight Zone.” Sci-fi Santas? “Doctor Who” and “Warehouse 13.”

Christmas can be found where you least (and most) expect it.

While it’s true that TV has learned to play multiculti with its winter holidays — Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice — it’s still mostly Christmas that TV takes note of at year’s end. That can mean the traditional religious observance, secular culture come-togetherness, or the commercial modernity of consumerist gift-giving. Christmas TV seems to embrace everyone, every show, every genre, every decade or century setting.

This year’s holiday TV slate brings back Charlie Brown. We get seasonal music and merriment from artists new (Lady Gaga) and old (The Muppets), sometimes simultaneously. Sentiment-drenched TV movies premiere, and venerable standbys make their annual reappearance (Alastair Sim’s Scrooge, Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey). All kinds of episodes celebrate all sorts of ways — a fantasy-football Hanukkah, a duck-call Christmas, a newly colorized Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

And that’s just on this season’s linear television channels. Turn to cable on-demand, DVD or online video, and you’ve got hundreds of celebratory options, anytime you want to watch. The highlights provided here are just the tip of the iceberg in this connected age, when it seems almost anything ever made might be accessible somehow.

Check your cable / satellite services, too, along with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other program providers.

Merry viewing!

FESTIVE CHANNELS

Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas — round-the-clock through Dec. 31, with a dozen holiday movie premieres (hallmarkchannel.com)

Hallmark Movie Channel The Most Wonderful Movies of Christmas — through Dec. 25, includes the channel’s first original movie and “Christmas classic Thursdays” (hallmarkmoviechannel.com)

Lifetime It’s a Wonderful Lifetime — ongoing, with six new TV movie premieres (mylifetime.com/movies)

ABC Family Countdown to Christmas — holiday animation, episodes, TV movies and feature films (abcfamily.com/25days)

Disney Channel Fa-la-la-lidays — has holiday films, episodes, cartoons for kids and family (disneychannel.com)

THE CLASSICS

“Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” — Dec. 24 at 8 p.m., ABC

“It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946, James Stewart) — Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., Dec. 24 at 8 p.m., NBC

“A Christmas Carol” (1951, Alastair Sim) — Dec. 19 at 10 p.m., Turner Classic Movies

ANIMATION

Dec. 6: “Yes, Virginia” and “Frosty the Snowman,” CBS

Dec. 9: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” ABC

Dec. 16: “Prep & Landing,” ABC

Dec. 21: Rankin-Bass marathon, ABC Family

Dec. 25: “Kung Fu Panda Holiday” and “Merry Madagascar,” CW

MUSIC

Dec. 4: “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” NBC

Dec. 11: “Kelly Clarkson Christmas Special,” NBC

Dec. 18: “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball” (Miley Cyrus, Pitbull, Fall Out Boy), CW/11; “Michael Bublé Christmas Special,” NBC

Dec. 20: “Christmas in Washington,” TNT

NEW EPISODES

Dec. 9-23: “The Great Christmas Light Fight,” ABC

Dec. 11: “Melissa & Joey” and “Baby Daddy,” ABC Family

Dec. 11: “Duck Dynasty,” A&E

ENCORE EPISODES

Dec. 4: “Saturday Night Live” Christmas, NBC

Dec. 20: “I Love Lucy” colorized, CBS

Dec. 24: “Father Knows Best” kicks off two days of various round-the-clock vintage holiday episodes, Antenna TV (plus the Yule Log on Antenna TV)

Dec. 25: “The Twilight Zone,” Syfy

NEW MOVIES

Dec. 7: Sean Astin in “Santa Switch,” Hallmark; Ashley Williams, Ashanti in “Christmas in the City,” Lifetime

Dec. 8: Jennie Garth, Cameron Mathison in “Holidaze,” ABC Family

VINTAGE MOVIES

December on Turner Classic Movies Dec. 8 includes “Scrooge” (1970); other holiday films most nights Dec. 15-24

Dec. 16: Tim Allen’s three “Santa Clause” films, ABC Family, also Dec. 21, 22, 24, 25

Dec. 24: “A Christmas Story” for 24 hours, TBS

Dec. 24: “Elf” for 24 hours, Starz

Dec. 24: “Bad Santa” for 24 hours, Starz Comedy.