Turkey Weekend TV Online

Hulu for the Holidays

Thanksgiving weekend is a time for turkey, travel, and television. Beyond the requisite football, we get the start of TV holiday specials – a mix of sentimental schlock and comedy classics. If you’re watching online, the options are wide-ranging. Here are a few to get you started.

Hulu

Hulu for the Holidays is underway, with new content showing up every day from now through December 25th. The selections aren’t necessarily holiday-related (21 Jumpstreet?), but consider the newly available shows and movies to be Hulu’s gift to you. If you really want a T’giving connection, the site also has a collection of Thanksgiving Moments; everything from SNL, to Friends, to Jerry Springer. After all, nothing says let’s be thankful like watching family brawls that don’t involve your own kin. One note, however, beware the company’s new protectionist policy if you plan on embedding whole libraries of holiday moments from Hulu. NewTeeVee tells us several start-ups have gotten letters of complaint for embedding large amounts of Hulu content. Now where’s that TV Everywhere spirit?

YouTube

YouTube is obviously the place to go for amateur holiday videos, but beyond the how-to clips and family antics, there are some gems mixing “old” TV and new. For example, check out last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade RickRoll. It’ll make you laugh and hold you over until next year’s march through Midtown.

Amazon VOD

The selection in Amazon’s Video on Demand department is a bit patchy, but if you’re looking for holiday specials, there are some decent choices thrown into the mix. Rentals for $2.99 are a good bet for entertainment lasting just about as long as the holiday weekend. You can purchase videos too, but they average around $9.99, and for the most part, the movies available don’t seem to warrant the cost.

Netflix Watch Instantly

Netflix has added some nice flicks to its Watch Instantly category recently. Specifically, if you want to entertain the kids this weekend, relative new releases like Bolt, Wall-E, and Bedtime Stories are all available. Best of all, you can monopolize the big screen with your own stuff and plop the little ones down in front of the laptop. Now that’s something to be thankful for. ;)