I love holiday TV specials. Since I was little I have looked forward to watching Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown and other favorites at Christmas time. Even now that we have most of them on video, there is still something special about catching them on TV.

However, I have a new favorite holiday TV special, and that is the CBS special “A Home for the Holidays”. This year it is on Friday night, December 22 (check your listings for what time…but the website says 8 p.m. ET/PT).

This is the eighth year that CBS has presented “A Home for the Holidays”, and this year it will be hosted by Rod Stewart. Each year the show is packed with stars, some of whose lives have been directly touched by adoption, as well as those just wanting to represent a good cause.

Rod Stewart, Virginia Madsen, Cedric the Entertainer, Miley Cyrus, Angie Harmon, Melina Kanakeredes, Rene Russo, Jeri Ryan, Five for Fighting, John Legend, Katharine McPhee and Mary Mary will all be telling stories and performing in this year’s show.

And along with the famous stars, will be the real stars of the show…the children. The special features the stories of children adopted from foster care and some of the many children who are still waiting for their family to find them.

According to the CBS website,

“The special is presented in association with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Children's Action Network. The foundation was established in 1992 by Wendy's restaurant founder Dave Thomas, who was adopted. It is dedicated to increasing the awareness of the more than 119,000 children in the United States foster care system who have been freed for adoption. The Children's Action Network was founded in 1990 by leaders in the entertainment industry to harness the power of the entertainment media on behalf of children. The special is a part of CAN's National Adoption Campaign to raise awareness of the joys of adopting and to find homes for the children who are waiting.”

Foster adoption is often thought of as difficult, and I love that this show features happy endings for children adopted through foster care and calls attention to the great need for more adoptive families for these children.

My family watches this every year. For one, many of the families are transracial, and my kids love seeing other families that look like ours and have been built like ours. It also has always been a great “conversation starter”…getting my kids to talk about adoption and the feelings that they are having about their adoptions, birth families, the holidays, etc.

“A Home for the Holidays” is a wonderful reminder as to what is truly important this holiday…our children and our families. It is hard to stop and think about all of the children in the world who will not have a family or a home this Christmas, but I personally feel very strongly that it is important that we do so…that somewhere in the middle of the baking and the wrapping and the decorating and the shopping, we stop and remember all of the very many children who are alone.

So get a tissue (or better yet, a box!) and clear your schedule for an hour Friday night. It is a fun show full of music and good cheer that truly celebrates adoption and family.