This year's Sun City Hilton Head holiday TV special includes about 60 performers and is the best it's ever been, says host Charlie Mitchell.

"We have a number of top performers from Sun City including the Sun City Chorus," he said. "And we included Hanukkah for the first time this year."

Mitchell, who is also the host of sports program "Between the Lines with Charlie Mitchell,"decided that the production had outgrown his house, where it has been taped for the past six years.

Riverbend's clubhouse is the backdrop for the 2011 hour-long show, but the cooking segments with Babe Mitchell were taped at the couple's home, he said.

Volunteer performers sing holiday songs, present readings, give presentations and host a cooking demonstration. The sixth annual show is a production of Sun City TV.

"The first year we had 10 or 12 people in it," Mitchell said.

Among the performers this year are Pat Schwartz; Mary Anne Gebler singing 'Ave Maria' (which Mitchell calls "breathtaking"); Elaine Ragland; the Sun City Sun Tones, the New River Harmony Group and others. Phil Sanford has played Santa Claus since the show's inception.

"It's like an old fashioned Ed Sullivan show," Mitchell said.

The performers didn't have rehearsals for the show, which took about two hours to film.