Is ‘Robin Robin’ next holiday favorite?

Is there room for a new holiday classic? The competition is fierce, and the giants of the field (“Grinch,” “Charlie Brown” and “Rudolph”) have a 60-year head start.

Netflix streams “Robin Robin,” from the Aardman Animation studio famous for the stop-motion magic of “Wallace & Gromit.” In “Robin,” directors Dan Ojari and Michael Please have dreamed up a new variation on the adorable misfit who learns the meaning of the holidays.

In this case, it’s a robin with a slightly skewed perspective. Because his egg fell out of its nest before he was hatched, he ended up being raised by mice and tends to prefer their company. And like a mouse, this bird wants nothing more than to sneak into a human’s house and nibble on the bounty of Christmas, or at least the crumbs that fall to the floor.

› If introducing a new Christmas tradition is difficult, remaking one can be treacherous. Having reinvented the world of Archie Comics in all of the strangest ways, the CW goes out on a limb with a reboot of “The Waltons’ Homecoming” (8 p.m. Sunday, CW, TV-PG), the 1971 movie special that launched the beloved series. Richard Thomas, who played John Boy in the original, returns here to narrate.

One of the reasons for the initial success of “Homecoming” and “The Waltons” was the Depression-era setting. Not to sound like Charlie Brown, but the more “commercial” Christmas becomes, the more viewers seemed to yearn for a time when people seemed to have, and need, less in the way of things. With its tales of foreclosures and runs on the bank, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was heavily influenced by the Depression era. “A Christmas Story” takes place at the tail end of the 1930s, when affluence seemed but a rumor. Written in 1956, Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” reached back to the Depression-era South. It was adapted for television in the 1960s and 1990s, always finding a receptive audience.

These poignant tales of simpler times stand in contrast to the more recent school of holiday comedies, like “8-Bit Christmas,” now streaming on HBO Max. While bathed in the nostalgic glow of 1980s pop culture, “Bit” concerns a boy desperate to get his Nintendo Entertainment System before anybody else. Not exactly “The Gift of the Magi.”

› Speaking of gifts, the four-part series “The Toys That Built America” (9 p.m. Sunday, History) recalls the games, dolls and toys that made history, as well as how historical events from the Civil War to the Cold War influenced children’s playthings.

“Toys” also profiles business visionaries who turned small family operations into billion-dollar enterprises named Milton Bradley and Mattel. Filled with clips, interviews and historic reenactments, it recalls the development of such favorites as the Frisbee and the industrial mishap that inspired the Slinky.

› If a new “Waltons” doesn’t prove that everything must be recycled, a two-hour “Nash Bridges” (9 p.m. Saturday, USA, TV-14) movie event might.

Fit, trim and charming as ever, Don Johnson reprises his role as a rule-breaking San Francisco cop. He’s first seen cracking wise with his sidekick (Cheech Marin) before becoming embroiled in a gun battle with bad guys in the middle of a traffic jam that results in the explosion of a gasoline truck. And yes, he’s still driving his vintage Barracuda convertible.

In the formulaic logic of these shows, his derring-do gets him feted as a hero before being busted for breaking the rules, a mere speed bump for our hero, because the brass is aware that even a 70-something Nash is indispensable.