The Week in Gay TV: A "Doctor Who" "Christmas Carol" and the Kennedy Center Honors Two Theater Greats

Welcome to another edition of The Week in Gay TV, your guide to the shows you'll use to distract family members from starting awkward  conversations at holiday gatherings. For the most part, the TV schedule is taking it easy in the week ahead (just like many of us) but there are still a few interesting marathons and new shows that should keep you busy, including the first Doctor Who Christmas special to air in the U.S. on Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve, VH1 is bringing back its concert series Friday Night Alright, this time showcasing Pink as she takes her Funhouse tour to Australia. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the performance will include "Raise Your Glass" but we should get to hear her take on "Highway to Hell" and "Bohemian Rhapsody." Plus, for those of you who enjoyed her acrobatic performance on the American Music Awards, I hear she does even more acrobatics in this performance.

I don't usually include The Soup in the week's listings While the top dog of clip shows frequently takes on pop culture's gay moments, too often I find The Soup going for the easy sissy joke. However, it might be worth tuning in to the two-part episode that will count down the year's most memorable clips just to see how many gay moments end up defining the 2010 zeitgeist. At the very least, I'm looking forward to seeing RuPaul deliver one more solid slap to Joel McHale.

Since it's Christmas, I'm going to let myself recommend one of my favorite movies, Best Animated Feature Oscar winner Spirited Away which will air on IFC. Coming from legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited focuses on a girl who has to save her parents after they've been transformed into pigs at a spa for nature spirits. All of Miyazaki's films borrow heavily from Shinto philosophy, which makes his stories feel wildly imaginative and Spirited Away is crammed with a huge variety of creatures to discover, from hyperactive dustbunnies who eat candy stars, identical twin witches, as well as an old man with six limbs (voiced by David Ogden Stiers).

If you've got a young relative to entertain on Christmas Eve, Spirited Away is a worthwhile attempt at becoming their cool uncle or aunt. It's a story that manages to feel both familiar and breathtakingly new at the same time.