Germany's public broadcaster ZDF staged its first-ever Christmas edition of the long-running Sunday show "Fernsehgarten" on Aug. 23, 2026, trading summer programming for artificial snow, live reindeer and decorated fir trees in temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius.
Host Andrea Kiewel, wearing a Santa hat on the Mainz set, opened the broadcast by counting down the 123 days until Christmas and later offered a blunt rationale for the scheduling: "Why? No idea. Because we can". Performances included Lucy Diakovska singing a holiday standard and DJ Flo Weiß spinning Wham!'s "Last Christmas." British-German entertainer Ross Antony received a certificate for completing the first Christmas tree throw by an Englishman on the Lerchenberg grounds.
The unusual summer holiday special left many viewers bewildered, with significant criticism surfacing on Instagram. Antony, appearing alongside his husband Paul Reeves, embraced the concept, calling Christmas his "fifth season".