Plot Synopsis

Featuring firsthand accounts from families, this four-episode series delves into the terrifying twists, turns and tell-alls that reveal how tumultuous the holiday season can be. For most, the winter holidays mean bringing family and friends together to eat, drink, and create joyous memories to last a lifetime; but, for others, it's a time where emotions run high, anger and animosity set in and can spark an explosive combination of simmering resentments and volatile secrets. Sometimes, this emotional powder keg makes for some truly horrific holiday crime stories that viewers are sure to never forget. Each one-hour episode of HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS focuses on a different true crime, including: sibling jealously that turned to bitterness and unhappiness then crystallized in killing; a misfit who saw her parents as the only obstacle to her happiness and murder as the solution; the age-old story, teenage girl meets boy, parents don't like boy, but with a new horrific ending: murder; and a Psycho Santa who took his piece of the American Dream and tossed it in the flames... literally.

On Saturday, November 25, 2017 at 6pm ET/PT, Oxygen premiered the five-episode second season of HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS, showcasing more holiday crime stories with firsthand accounts from the detectives who worked the cases as well as the friends and family members of the victims. Season 2 includes the stories of: Earl and Terry Robertson, who were found brutally murdered in their home just before Thanksgiving; fire fighters responding to a house fire, where they make a gruesome discovery -- three people had been shot dead inside -- leading to a nationwide manhunt taking authorities through Christmas; elderly couple Bob and Idella Young, who were brutally slain at home on Christmas Eve in a quiet town; Joanna and Carl Dutcher, who ring in the year with their grandson but days later are found violently killed; and the worst family massacre in US history, as police take a gunman into custody who terrorized a small town two days after Christmas. After nearly a one-year break, Season 2 of HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS continued on Sunday, December 9, 2018 at 8pm ET/PT on Oxygen. In the season opener, "Christmas Rager," the body of a young mother is found strangled inside a burning car in a quiet Minneapolis suburb just before Christmas. As detectives hunt for her killer, they become convinced she was killed by someone very close to her.

The third season of HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS premiered on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at a special time, 7:30pm ET/PT, on Oxygen. Later episodes debut on Saturdays at 7pm. In the season opener, "Thanksgiving Terror," a mother is brutally shot to death while driving her sons home from a Thanksgiving celebration. When the hunt for her killer leads to an unlikely suspect, investigators soon realize her murder is not as random as it once seemed. In the second episode, "Last Christmas," a young couple is found murdered inside their Florida home just after Christmas. Neighbors can't imagine the couple had been in the area long enough to make a mortal enemy. Police uncover deeply personal details, and soon expose a deadly secret. In the next installment, "Christmas Heartbreak," a beloved couple is found murdered inside their home on Christmas morning. All that's left behind is a single palm print. Investigators work tirelessly to match the print to a suspect, until a letter from prison takes the case on an unexpected course. Then, in "Death In Santa Claus," a family is found massacred inside their Santa Claus, Georgia home, and the hunt for their killer hinges on the eyewitness testimony of the three young surviving daughters.

HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS returned for its fourth season on Monday, December 6, 2021 at 8pm ET/PT on Oxygen. In the season opener, "The Last Thanksgiving," a Thanksgiving feast turns into one family's last when a cold blooded killer brutally stabs and dismembers a couple the day after their holiday celebration. A new episode debuts each following night at 8pm through Thursday, December 9. In Tuesday's episode, "Six Slays of Christmas," Dayton, Ohio is terrorized over the Christmas Holiday as a string of brutal shootings have the residents wondering if they could be next. Then, in "Killing of the Christmas Tree Farmers" (Wed), beloved Christmas Tree farmers are executed in the front seat of their car, and a manhunt for their killer is launched that keeps investigators on the case for over three decades before justice is served. In the season ender, "Murder Under the Mistletoe" (Thu), a young mother is brutally murdered during the Christmas holiday, and investigators uncover a love triangle that shocks her tightknit family, forever robbing them of their holiday cheer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 5 of HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS debuted on Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 8pm ET/PT on Oxygen. In the season opener, "Red, White and Blood," a young woman goes missing after a July 4th beach party, leaving investigators with few clues to go on -- until a twist in the case reveals she might be the latest victim of a predator terrorizing the area.