Downton Abbey’s 52 episodes include five Christmas specials.
The television series ran for six series and 52 episodes in total. Its Christmas tradition began after the first series: series two, three, four, five and six each ended with a feature-length Christmas special, producing five altogether.
The specials are “Christmas at Downton Abbey” from 2011, “A Journey to the Highlands” from 2012, “The London Season” from 2013, “A Moorland Holiday” from 2014 and “The Finale” from 2015. They function as major seasonal episodes rather than separate television series.
A common source of confusion is modern streaming presentation. Some services split the longer Christmas episodes into two parts, which can make the episode count appear higher. The standard broadcast count remains 52 episodes, including five Christmas specials.