This Christmas you want to make your family enjoy every hour when you’re at home. You can do a lot of things. But you can also try playing these DVDs related to Christmas.

1. Christmas Story (DVD) – The kids take center stage for this 20th Anniversary edition DVD. For the commentary track, Peter Billingsley and director Bob Clark chummily reminisce on the making of the film, which seems to have been as delightful as the film itself. Because it was such a small film, Clark relates how they were left alone to do whatever they wanted, as long as fuddy-duddy author Jean Shepherd wasn’t on the set. The new documentary features Billingsley and the three other former child actors’ recollections about the shoot. The kids even help out with two trivia tests, but why is there nary a peep about or from co-stars Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin? Two 30-minute radio segments of Shepherd’s reading his original stories is a nice touch for this double DVD set, as is a featurette about the real Red Ryder guns. Best yet, the film has never looked better, finally available in widescreen (along with pan and scan). –Doug Thomas
2. A Charlie Brown Christmas (DVD) – This half-hour Christmas show is one of the truly lovable animated specials in TV history, a status proved by its annual network telecast since 1965. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first, and best, of a series of programs based on the Charles M. Schulz cartoon strip “Peanuts.” Hapless hero Charlie Brown finds himself depressed at Christmastime, searching for the true meaning of the holiday amidst the glitz and commercialism of the modern age. Appointed director of the school holiday pageant, Charlie Brown ventures out with Linus to buy “a great, big, shiny aluminum Christmas tree.” Instead they bring back a miserable tree–a real one. A Charlie Brown Christmas shows off the “Peanuts” gang doing what they do best: Lucy is bossy, Snoopy is crazy, Linus is sweet, and Pig Pen is, well, filthy. Instead of using adult actors trying to sound like kids, the production features real children providing the voices, an endearing effect. The jazz music score, composed by Vince Guaraldi, has become a classic in its own right; like so much about this program, it’s an unexpected but perfectly right choice. –Robert Horton
3. The Santa Clause (DVD) – Divorced toy company executive Scott Calvin (Tim Allen of Home Improvement and the Toy Story movies) is pleased to have his son Charlie for Christmas, though the boy himself isn’t happy about it. But when Santa Claus accidentally topples off the roof of the house and falls with a thud in the snow, Scott finds himself taking the merry old elf’s place and earning new respect in his son’s eyes. When the night ends, the reindeer take them to the north pole, and Scott discovers that by donning the fabled red suit, he’s inadvertently agreed to become the next Santa Claus. The next morning he wakes up in his own bed and thinks it’s all a dream–only Charlie remembers it with crystal clarity. Scott now has to deal with his suspicious ex-wife (Wendy Crewson, Air Force One) and her psychiatrist boyfriend (Judge Reinhold, Beverly Hills Cop), who both think he’s playing tricks with Charlie’s mind, and also with his own out-of-control body, which is putting on weight and growing a prodigious beard. The Santa Clause probably won’t supplant It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street as anyone’s favorite holiday film, but it’s an enjoyable, straightforward family film, anchored by the affable charisma of Allen. –Bret Fetzer
4. Santa Clause 2 (DVD) – Considering how lame this sequel could have been, The Santa Clause 2 makes for a pleasant holiday diversion. It’s got the familiar smell of Disney marketeering, and more than a few parents will object to this further embellishment of the St. Nick legend, but Tim Allen’s amiable presence provides ample compensation. As a divorced dad who inherited the jolly man’s job in The Santa Clause, Allen now faces another Yuletide challenge. According to the “Missus Clause” in his North Pole contract, he can’t continue to be the real Santa until he gets married. As luck and five credited screenwriters would have it, Allen falls for the Scrooge-y principal (Elizabeth Mitchell) of his son’s school, while a phony, power-hungry duplicate Santa wreaks havoc on the North Pole’s overworked elves. It’s all as sweet as spiced eggnog, with that warmed-over feel of a mandated sequel, but the Christmas spirit does prevail with the sound of sleigh bells and Allen’s rosy-cheeked ho, ho, ho! –Jeff Shannon
5. I’ll Be Home for Christmas (DVD) – Jonathan Taylor Thomas stars as Jake, a shallow huckster attending college in Los Angeles who finds troubles aplenty and, eventually, redemption on a road trip home in this youth-oriented Christmas vehicle. The action begins with Jake dumped in the desert dressed in full Kris Kringle regalia as payback for a scheme gone wrong, making Taylor Thomas the second Home Improvement cast member to don a Santa suit for film. (The first, of course, was his TV dad Tim Allen in The Santa Clause, for those of you who snoozed through recent Christmases.) With Jake stuck in the dunes, his stranded girlfriend (Jessica Biel from TV’s Seventh Heaven) accepts a ride from his rival and thus begin the cross-country shenanigans that lead to a Christmas sleigh ride in their shared New York hometown. Look for Gary Cole (a.k.a. Mike Brady in the movie version of The Brady Bunch) playing another wise father. Although it may be hard for adults to buy the diminutive Taylor Thomas as a college student (and what’s with the high school lockers at the so-called college?), Taylor Thomas and Biel have plenty of swoon appeal for young fans 10 and up. –Kimberly Heinrichs

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