The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow falls during the pageant works a small miracle. The film contains a performance of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". The film's title actually refers to the Christmas pageant the orphan children presented on Christmas Eve, though the title could also refer to the first time Lucas actually experiences snow after his sight returns. It originally premiered on December 19, 1975 on NBC. In later years, it aired on CBS, usually as the last Rankin/Bass special aired for the season. Freeform once aired the special each year during its "25 Days of Christmas" programming block, but AMC has now taken over broadcast
The Dog Who Saved Christmas that Sunday, and became the season's number one cable film of the season. Overall, it was a 14% increase in viewers from the same timeslot in the previous year. Critics compared it to another Christmas dog themed TV movie of 2009, "A Dog Named Christmas" and cited influences from "Home Alone" and "Look Who's Talking". "A Dog Named Christmas" was broadcast on the same night as "The Dog Who Saved Christmas" with the original timings overlapping by an hour. Overall, critics rated "A Dog Named Christmas" as the superior film over "The Dog Who Saved Christmas," but praised the performances