The combination of cable-cutting and the fact that many people either can't access OTA (or don't bother) probably means that a lot of the content that people reflexively tuned into over various holidays just doesn't happen any longer. Even if some of it is on streaming, it's not an automatic holiday thing.

I can't get OTA and cut cable TV so I don't get a lot of things without effort that I don't generally go to.

Apple bought the rights years ago, PBS cannot show them anymore, they are now behind a paywall.

Apple has streamed the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas specials for free about a week before the holiday each year. This year Thanksgiving was free November 15-16 and Christmas will be free December 13th and 14th.

Do I need AppleTV? If so it ain't free.

No - Apple TV the streaming service is available on any device that has the TV app available, which includes Samsung, Sony, Vizio and LG TVs, Android TVs, Roku devices, Xfinity, Google TV and Play Station. You can also play in a modern web browser.

They used to (a year or two ago?) host them for free so you didn’t need a sub, is that no longer true?

(Sucks about the pbs part though, didn’t realize they’d stopped that.)