I'm pretty sure all those things were back last year - it was a couple of years ago they dropped it all.
As for scheduling - I suspect it's all down to cuts, just like they now finish for summer ridiculously early too.
No, this was the first year they brought back the carol, in previous years they'd done a Christmas song to finish, but with a gospel choir or some kids or something, nothing like that. 2007 was the year zero, that year's Christmas show had none of the familiar fare, ending with a song from Booty Luv, and I wrote to Tim Levell to complain, and he wrote back saying they wanted to move with the times and that they were considering a special show for older viewers, which never happened. I've now written to Tim Levell to thank him for bringing back the carol.
Also it finished early for the summer this year, I'm thinking that was because of the World Cup which would have sent the scheduling completely haywire. They came back much earlier than usual, at the end of August, normally it wouldbe mid-September. In 2005, the summer break ran April to July rather than June to September, because the CBBC Channel wanted to have more new programming during the summer.
