Kermit and Co. will star in one of several new holiday specials

Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the Muppets will help NBC celebrate the holidays this year.

The network has announced its holiday-specials lineup for this year, and it's a little bigger than usual. The Muppet special, titled "Letters to Santa -- A Muppet Christmas" is one of several new shows NBC will use to help fill out its end-of-the-year schedule, in addition to old standbys like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Christmas in Rockefeller Center."

"We want to give our viewers, especially families, some great original shows that they can gather around the TV and watch together this holiday season," says Craig Plestis, who oversees specials and alternative programming for NBC.

"Letters to Santa" will find the Muppet crew -- most of them, anyway; Miss Piggy is busy planning a trip to the tropics -- trying to deliver three letters to Santa Claus that they accidentally stopped from reaching their destination. Muppet Movie composer Paul Williams will contribute new songs to the special, and the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Sirico, Steve Schirripa and Richard Griffiths will help them in their quest.

NBC will also air an original animated special called "Macy's Presents Little Spirit: Christmas in New York," about a boy who loses his dog in the city just before Christmas but gets help from a magical being called the Little Spirit in finding her. Danny DeVito, Lucy Liu, Freddy Rodriguez and Brenda Song will lend their voices to the special.

Additionally, the network will air three countdown shows celebrating the best of holiday entertainment: "Greatest Holiday TV Specials and Movies," "Greatest Holiday Songs" and "Greatest Holiday Home Videos."