The Christmas holidays. Ahh, yes. It’s the most beautiful time of the year for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is unimpeded opportunities to enjoy watching sports. Unfortunately, not every league plays during Christmas so we’ll all have to make-do with what’s available. Fortunately, one such league is the NBA, which is always in the forefront of the Christmas sports-watching experience. So if you’re itching to get some bets up while you’re on your Christmas holiday, peruse this handy schedule guide to see what games are playing on what day and if they’re even worth your time and money.

NBA’s Showcase Christmas games

Over the past years, the NBA has dominated the Christmas day sports watching scene. This year won’t be any different as the NBA has scheduled five games on December 25, all playing one after the other. Just goes to show you how much the league wants you to spend time on your couch watching these games on the 25th.

The action begins with the Washington Wizards taking on the New York Knicks (12:00 pm ET). That would’ve been a good game if the Knicks are actually good this year. They’re not. Well, a least you can take comfort knowing that the next game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs (2:30 pm ET) has the potential to be a doozy…if Kevin Durant plays. Once these two games are down, one of the season’s most eagerly anticipated match ups takes center stage as LeBron James comes back to Miami for the first time since his returning to the Cavs (5:00 pm ET). That’s going to be a barnburner and a half. As soon as Heat-Cavs is finished, the action now turns to Chicago where the Bulls play host to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers (8:00 pm ET). Kobe Bryant vs Derrick Rose, anyone? When Bulls-Lakers is finished, the table is set for arguably the most exciting game of the day as Stephen Curry and the league-best Golden State Warriors travel to Los Angeles to take on Chris Paul and the LA Clippers (10:30 pm ET).

English football reigns in the holidays

A majority of Europe’s five major domestic leagues have begun their annual holiday breaks. The Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A, and the French Ligue 1 have shut down until the early part of January while the German Bundesliga isn’t expected to resume action until January 31, 2015. The only exception is the Engish Premier League, which has taken an ownership role of playing throughout the Christmas season.

There aren’t any games on Dec. 25 per se, but the EPL has a full schedule on Boxing Day, December 26, including matches between Chelsea and West Ham, Manchester United and Newcastle United, and West Brom and Manchester City. It’s not just the EPL that will be playing on that day. Even the English Championship, League One, League Two, and the Vanarama Conference are all packed with plenty of intriguing games.

I’ll be the first to admit that the holiday season always screws up my sports schedule. Non-stop parties constantly leaves me in a daze, scrambling to see what happened in the sports world on this day and that. I also celebrated my birthday, or at least I tried to, given how exhausted I’d become from all the holiday revelry. Oh, and out-of-town visitors also arrived and we all know how these visits always seem to throw a monkey wrench on anybody’s schedule. Through it all, I did find time to get up-to-speed with some of the biggest happenings in sports, including an unlikely college football National Championship game, a pretty exciting Winter Classic and the unfortunate passing of an iconic sports anchor.

Oregon – Ohio State set up National Championship date

No. I didn’t watch Oregon put a pasting on Florida State and I also didn’t get to see Ohio State wax Alabama to set up a date for the national title on January 12. Since both games happened on January 1, I was probably slumped over my couch, grabbing for the nearest ice bag to help drive away that massive New Year’s Eve hangover. At least that’s what I remember. I do remember checking up on both games and  while I was a little surprised to see Oregon and Ohio State beating their much-ballyhooed opponents to set up this title game, I didn’t really think much of it until I realized that this could be the first college title football game in a long time where we dedicate a majority of the hype to the actual teams playing in the game.

So, no Jameis Winston coverage and there sure as hell won’t be any of those “Roll Tide!” bellyaches to accompany it in the lead-up to the game. That’s a good thing because we get to focus our attention on two of the best programs in college football. No talk of this or that, or who did this and who said that. This one should be all about football between two teams that deserve to be playing in the National Championship game at Cowboys Stadium.

A quick peek at the betting odds and it shows a pretty surprising picture: Oregon is a -7 favorite against Ohio State. That’s taking into account the fact that when you look at these guys side-by-side, you’re looking at two teams that aren’t too different from one another. Public betting seems to be heavy on the side of the Ducks, too, but I expect those backing the Buckeyes to come in heavy as game day approaches.

Either way, this game should have plenty of fireworks, the kind that sets up very well in one of the biggest stages in football.

Winter Classic lives up to the hype…again