It’s the week before Christmas: Let it show

Rene Russo, a frequent participant in “A Home for the Holidays,” the annual CBS holiday special celebrating the joys of adoption, will be joined this year by Jamie Lee Curtis, Bruce Willis and host Jamie Foxx for a unique special that combines powerhouse musical performances by artists including Black Eyed Peas, Train and Rod Stewart with moving stories about adoption.

“All these amazing children with huge potential are just sitting in homes waiting for someone to adopt them,” Russo says. “This show is a great way to get the word out there.”

“There are so many good causes out there that you have to pick and choose, but giving children a good home life is just something that is very important to me,” said the actress, who grew up with a struggling single mom after her father left the family when she was 2. But she’s aware that some kids may have it even worse.

“I have one friend who was in and out of foster care from the time he was a little kid, and it was horrible,” she says. “Especially back then, there were people totally unsuitable who were taking in kids strictly because they were paid to do it. There was so little supervision, no accountability.

“My friend ... was given different food than other people in the family. And the kids just go from family to family, with no stability....

“I hope that if parents are thinking of adopting, they’ll consider one of these kids, if they have a gift for it,” Russo says. “It’s so powerful seeing these wonderful families brought together.”

In addition to “Home for the Holidays,” the week before Christmas abounds with holiday TV treats, including:

The Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” takes on many forms this holiday season, including a version starring Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart, 1938’s classic “A Christmas Carol” (5 p.m. Thursday TCM); Kelsey Grammer and Jason Alexander star in the 2004 musical version of “A Christmas Carol” (8 p.m. Friday, NBC); Bill Murray is featured in the 1988 dark-comedy version, “Scrooged” (10 p.m. Saturday, Family); the story is told with puppets in the 1992 comedy “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (8 p.m. Wednesday, Disney, and noon Saturday, Family). Animated versions include “The Jetsons: A Christmas Carol” (1 p.m. Sunday, Toon); Jim Backus in 1962’s “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” (5:30 p.m. Friday, Toon); and “The Simpsons” (8 p.m. Sunday, Fox) offers its own take on the holiday classic.

There’s a trio of holiday movie marathons, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad in the 1996 comedy “Jingle All the Way,” airing repeatedly Friday, starting at 6 p.m., and all day Saturday, from 6 a.m., on FX; “A Christmas Story” airs 12 times back to back starting at 8 p.m. Friday through 6 p.m. Saturday on TBS; and the 1947 classic “Miracle on 34th Street” will be shown 12 times in a row beginning at 6 a.m. Friday and continuing through 4 a.m. on AMC.

Two perennial favorites air this week:

Director Frank Capra’s 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” (8 p.m. Saturday, NBC), in which an angel shows a suicidal man (James Stewart) how his loved ones would have lived if he had never been born; and “White Christmas” (8 p.m. Saturday, UPN), the 1954 tale starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as World War II veterans who perform a show with a sister act to save their general’s hotel in Vermont.

Other holiday shows include:

* “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (5 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Friday, Family Channel): The annual classic focuses on Kriss Kringle and his forgiveness of the stingy Burgermeister Meisterburger.

* “Twas the Night Before Christmas” (2:30 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Family Channel): A family of animated mice tries to placate Santa after one of them offends the Jolly One by disbelieving.

* “Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey” (7 p.m. Monday, Family Channel): A donkey delivers a pregnant Mary to Bethlehem -- to deliver.

* “Eloise at Christmastime” (8 p.m. Tuesday, Family Channel): Eloise (Sofia Vassilieva) makes the best of a holiday with Nanny (Julie Andrews).

* “Prancer” (8 p.m. Thursday, Family Channel): A reindeer is discovered and cared for by a lonely girl.

* “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947) (8:30 p.m. Thursday, TCM): An all-too-human angel (Cary Grant) tries to help repair a marriage.

* “Christmas in Connecticut” (1945) (5 p.m. Friday, TCM): An urbanite magazine columnist pretends to be the ultimate homemaker for a soldier on leave.

* “Christmas With the Mormon Tabernacle Choir” (10 p.m. Saturday, KCET): Holiday and religious music performed by a professional choir.

* “It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie” (10 a.m. Friday, Hallmark): Kermit and the gang need to come up with cash to avoid foreclosure on their theater.

Yes, you have to sit through commercials. No, you can’t pause the action. But isn’t it nice to know that thousands of people are watching the exact same thing all over the country?

John Crook and Sharla Etkin-Ives write for Tribune Media Services.

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‘A Home for the Holidays’

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: CBS

Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)