For superfans of The Only Way Is Essex, Christmas was cancelled months ago. In October it was announced that due to budget concerns, the annual Towie Christmas special, The Only Way Is Essexmas, had been axed. For 11 out of the 12 years the show has been broadcast, the special has aired, and its cancellation has raised questions about the show’s future, amid declining ratings and a shrinking cast. Though I stopped watching Towie some time ago, I too felt saddened by the news. In the same way lapsed EastEnders fans dip back into the show on Christmas Eve, I like to check in on what the Towie lot are up to once a year. Watching Chloe Sims and her sisters pretend to open presents in matching pyjamas is as synonymous with the season as putting up the tree. The Christmas episode has always been one of its standouts; Towie broke the mould with a notoriously dire live recording in 2012 and cemented their status as a festive harbinger in the public imagination by recording a Christmas charity single covering Wham!’s Last Christmas. The cancellation of its festive special might mark the beginning of the end of the series, but I hope it doesn’t mark the beginning of the end of something far bigger: the reality TV Christmas special. There is an inherently surreal quality to reality TV specials, even compared to other episodes that hinge on holidays such as Halloween or Valentine’s Day. Watching the Made in Chelsea cast swipe at each other over Christmas dinner, the Geordie Shore gang get jiggy under the mistletoe or the catty Real Housewives completely fail to embody the season’s spirit never fails to feel comically contrived. There is nothing on TV more disorientating. Normally, the timeline on these programmes is hazy – which makes the fact they’re largely faked less obvious. But during the Christmas period, we watch cast members pulling crackers and singing carols in the full knowledge that it was not filmed on Christmas Day. The suspension of reality is even more extreme. This, frankly, is saying something. On a normal day, watching feuding characters make no attempts to avoid each other in order to serve a plot is one thing, but watching them break bread at a Christmas dinner is even more ludicrous. This made the showdown between Victoria Baker-Harber and Cheska Hull in the season six Made in Chelsea finale all the more iconic. “Why are you being so mean? It’s Christmas!” Cheska had pleaded with her adversary in the midst of their fight. If it had been a festive film, this would have been the moment Victoria Scrooge learned the error of her ways. Instead, she lobbed a timely insult, referring to Cheska as a “fucking fat turkey” at the dinner table. Towie has seen similarly heated exchanges during Christmas episodes, such as when Gemma “the GC” Collins burned Ferne McCann with a suitably Christmassy barb: “Let’s hope Santa brings you a sack of morals this year, because you need it, darling.” Still, despite the beefs, they do have their Hallmark movie moments. With sitcoms, these episodes aren’t central to the plot and usually feel tacked on to the end of a series. But in reality shows they often act as a main event. They are filled with grand gestures and the wrapping up of storylines as well as presents. It was a Christmas episode that saw Caggie and Spencer finally get together in season two of Made in Chelsea and Arg finally declare his love to Gemma in Towie – vowing to spend the holiday together in 2017. I can’t help but feel that the Christmas TV schedule will be lacking without the Towie festive episode. Though it might be cheesy and staged, it’s an excuse to watch other people argue in Christmas jumpers, people who are not your immediate family. Isn’t that the true meaning of Christmas?