1) Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (shown here in a previous year), 8:30 a.m. to noon, NBC; repeating at 2 p.m. This opens with music from Cynthia Erivo and then Lainey Wilson; the Broadway casts of “Ragtime,” “Just in Time” and “Buena Vista Social Club”; and the Rockettes. Then the parade — 11 bands, 28 floats and Santa — proves that the Christmas season has begun.
2) Dogs and football. Some people will stick with NBC for the National Dog Show at noon. Others will catch a pro football triple-header. It’s Packers-Lions at 1 p.m. ET on Fox; Chiefs-Cowboys at 4:30 on CBS; and Bengals-Ravens, at 8:20 on NBC.
3) Musicals. Three of the all-time best overlap. At 1 and 5 p.m., Sundance has Julie Andrews in the soaring “Sound of Music.” At 8, ABC has Andrews (plus Dick Van Dyke) in “Mary Poppins.” Also at 8, TBS has “The Wizard of Oz,” which will air three more times on Friday.
4) More family shows. At 5:15 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies has Van Dyke in the musical “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” At 8, HGTV has Eddie Murphy in “Candy Cane Lane,” a 2023 Netflix film. Then TBS has the animated “Year Without a Santa Claus” at 10:15 p.m. and “Polar Express” at 11:18.
5) More. On Friday, the deluge of new Christmas movies will begin; tonight, there’s just one — Autumn Reeser in “We Met in December,” at 8 p.m. on Hallmark. And at 10 (after basketball), CBS reruns one of the best “Elsbeth” hours. This time, Elsbeth is held hostage by a bumbling toy-store gunman.