Warner Bros Discover-owned TBS helps families across America fulfill a decade-long tradition: playing A Christmas Story for 24 hours, starting on Christmas Eve at 8 p.m. ET and ending on Christmas Day at the same time. And while many have the channel on for the entire day, many users have found themselves being bombarded with an absurd amount of commercials. That's not the Christmas spirit, or is it?
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"The amount of commercials during TBS marathon of A Christmas Story seems to have doubled this year. I think I sat through one commercial break that was at least 15 commercials," one user wrote on X, stating that TBS is ruining a tradition.
Many users, even before Christmas started, already blasted TBS for the sheer number of commercials that the network crams down their throats. "TBS is still a thing? Are there commercials every 5 minutes?" one user wrote, in response to a piece saying that the network would remove the controversial Chinese restaurant scene from "A Christmas Story." This has not been verified.
Other users appear to just hate the movie in its entirety. More than likely, they are not very fond of the movie being played non-stop. Commercials on the other hand? Maybe they are a breath of fresh air for them. "How can I single-handedly remove "a christmas story" from the cultural zeitgeist," one user wrote. Another user said: "Just remove the whole movie. It's awful and overrated." The latter was blasted in the responses.
A 24-Hour Long Christmas Story
TBS follows the steps of TNT, with the latter starting the Christmas story tradition back in 1997. However, when TNT went "full-drama," TBS took over. Since 2004, millions of people have tuned in to watch Peter Billingsley, Jean Shepherd, and Aian Petrella, among others on the small screen. Some just leave it in the background while they go along with their usual Christmas tasks.
And while many have blasted TBS for their commercials, many others tuned in as if their lives depended on it. "Yes, I already watched A Christmas Story this holiday season. Yes, I can watch it on Max with no commercials. Yes, I'm still watching it on TBS since it's not Christmas without watching it during the marathon," one user wrote.
Another user said: "I own the Blu-Ray, I have it DVR'd, I own the movie on Amazon Prime, I subscribe to Max, yet I still can't go to sleep when TBS/TNT is playing the "A Christmas Story" marathon. There's something romantic watching it live."
If that's not dedication or keeping the Christmas spirit alive, then I don't know what is.
