With only one weekend before Christmas, aficionados of holiday classics are running out of time to catch their favorites. Some chestnuts from our video past won’t be airing at all.

When I was young, a local New York channel used to wear out the 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol” with repeat airings. It was dark and spooky and starred Alastair Sim as a suitably beleaguered Scrooge. I committed every terrifying scene to memory. But it doesn’t air often anymore, and this year not at all. Not on any national network, at least. Fans of “A Christmas Carol” (1 p.m. today, TCM) can catch the 1938 version starring Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart and a young June Lockhart, too. It re-airs Monday at 5:15 a.m. Scrooge devotees can also get up early to catch the animated musical “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” (5:30 a.m. Sunday, Cartoon Network).

Other old favorites may require similar frantic searches and time shifts. Set your alarm for “The Bells of St. Mary’s” (7 a.m. Sunday, AMC).

Other classics are hard to miss. Beginning at noon on Sunday, AMC will air the 1947 fable “Miracle on 34th Street” as a daylong marathon. TBS kicks off its 24-hour “A Christmas Story” (7 p.m. Sunday) marathon on Christmas Eve. Beginning 6 p.m. Sunday, TV Land will broadcast 24 hours of Christmas episodes from beloved series past including “The Jeffersons,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Gunsmoke” and “What’s Happening!”

¢ Depending on one’s age and disposition, the Broadway musical “Annie” is either the most enchanting or most annoying production ever mounted. The documentary “Life After Tomorrow” (7 p.m. Sunday, Showtime) presents interviews with 40 “orphans,” now all grown women, who were cast in the original 1977 to 1983 production. More than an exercise in nostalgia, the film explores how Broadway stardom affected young performers. They discuss what happened after they left the show and tried to return to their “normal” childhoods. It hasn’t been a hard-knock life for all of the moppets. Filmmaker Julie Stevens was in the “Annie” cast herself, as were actresses Sarah Jessica Parker, Alyssa Milano and Molly Ringwald, who all appear.

Today’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (9 p.m., CBS): a veteran of the Iraq war returns home and vanishes.

¢ Jack Black hosts “Saturday Night Live” (10:30 p.m., NBC).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): a swimmer braves Arctic waters; an elephant orphanage; a musical savant.

¢ A small-town banker (Jimmy Stewart) ponders his life in “It’s A Wonderful Life” (7 p.m., NBC).