New on DVD: Christmas, from the sublime to the ridiculous

Look, the dull sequels Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian were barely worth watching on the big screen, so why waste your time with the DVDs? Instead, check out two new releases that will definitely get you in the holiday spirit.

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One of the best films of 2008 was Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale, starring Catherine Deneuve. Yes, it's about a mother dealing with a fatal illness around the holidays, but this is not your usual Christmas tearjerker. (Or even a tearjerker at all, really.) Desplechin is much more interested in exploring the complicated and at times downright toxic family environment, and it's a movie so stuffed with characters, incidents and musical/literary/cinematic references that you'll want to pop in this Criterion Collection DVD multiple times, and not even just in December.

It's no secret that I'm a rabid Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, but I'm even more thrilled than usual about their new XVI box set. Yes, the miniature plastic Tom Servo statuette looks good on my desk, but the real highlight here is the DVD debut of the Santa Claus episode.

This 1959 Mexican kiddie movie about a St. Nick who lives in the clouds and battles Satan with the help of Merlin the Magician—coming from the man who directed Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy—is trippy enough on its own merits, but when Mike Nelson and the bots get rolling on it, the result is one of this classic show's greatest episodes. The collection also features brilliant skewerings of Warrior of the Lost World (starring "that Paper Chase guy"), The Corpse Vanishes and Night of the Blood Beast. Ho ho ho!