{"id":368179,"date":"2025-12-25T14:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/368179\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T14:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:56:09","slug":"what-time-is-channel-4s-alternative-christmas-message-and-who-is-delivering-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/368179\/","title":{"rendered":"What time is Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message and who is delivering it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual tradition has been airing on Channel 4 for over three decadesThe star has presented the Academy Awards on four occasions(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Channel 4\u2019s alternative Christmas message is returning for another year, but what is it and who is delivering it?<\/p>\n

This year sees His Majesty The King\u2019s pre-recorded speech airing on BBC<\/a>, ITV<\/a> and Sky News from 3pm on Christmas<\/a> Day, December 25, and will last for around 10 minutes. The annual message sees King Charles reflecting on the past year and his hopes for the future.<\/p>\n

With King Charles<\/a> 2025 Christmas message his four one, he has delivered every message since the passing of his mother Queen Elizabeth II. Prior to her passing in 2022, the Queen delivered every message from 1957 until 2021.<\/p>\n

On what marks one of the busiest days of television of the year in the UK, Channel 4 have been using the timeslot for their own unique project for over three decades.First airing in 1993, Channel 4’s Christmas message has served as an alternative to the monarch’s annual televised speech.<\/p>\n

The Channel 4 version discusses important events from the year and sets out to deliver a thought-provoking message to the audience. Previous years has seen the likes of Katie Piper, 9\/11 survivor Genelle Guzman, a \u2018deepfake\u2019 digitally created depiction of Her Majesty The Queen, and more recently in 2023 Stephen Fry<\/a> addressing the nation.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s alternative Christmas message was delivered by blind comedian Chris McCausland. Chris\u2019s message arrived just days after he won the 2024 edition of Strictly<\/a> Come Dancing with professional dancer Dianne Buswell.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Chris said: \u201cDisabled people are often some of the most resilient, creative and determined people you will ever likely meet. We have to be in daily life and that makes us valuable people to have on the team.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Kimmel who will deliver Channel 4’s 2025 Alternative Christmas Message(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can even win national dance competitions, just saying! Disability is everywhere. It\u2019s just something that happens. It could happen to friends, family, loved ones. It could happen to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean after all; you know what us disabled people say. There are only really two types of people in this world. Those of us that are disabled, and those of us that aren’t disabled\u2026. Yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was announced on Sunday (December 21) that American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> has been chosen to deliver Channel 4\u2019s alternative Christmas message this year. The late-night presenter was taken off the air and suspended indefinitely in September following comments he made on ABC\u2019s Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, an ally of US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

President Trump <\/a>later suggested that if any TV networks only give him bad press ‘maybe their licence should be taken away’. The suspension was met with criticism from the public, some of Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars and political figures towards the US administration for infringing on their freedom of speech and free press, leading to Jimmy’s return five days later.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Jimmy will begin by saying: \u201cFrom a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year.\u201d The comedian will continue by reflecting on the events of the past year, sharing his own personal experiences and insights after being at the centre of one of the stories that shocked the US and its foundational democratic values.<\/p>\n

A Channel 4 spokesperson said: \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s return to the White House and wide-ranging impact on the world has been the story of 2025 and it would be hard to think of a better person to address it than Jimmy Kimmel, who has found himself on the front line of America\u2019s battle over free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old has presented the Academy Awards<\/a> on four seperate occasions, most recently in 2024 when Oppenheimer sweapt the awards. Jimmy’s first Oscar night in 2017 famously saw Best Picture accidentally given to La La Land, when Moonlight won.<\/p>\n

The Alternative Christmas Message will air on Channel 4 at 5.45pm on Christmas Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The annual tradition has been airing on Channel 4 for over three decadesThe star has presented the Academy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,25932,75,348],"class_list":{"0":"post-368179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-channel-4","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}