Hollywood Loads Up on Christmas Spirit (1)

http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=239690

Hollywood has outdone itself on Christmas spirit.

Studios typically offer two or three holiday-themed flicks toward year's end. This season brings a half-dozen movies with Christmas angles, from romance and horror to family comedy and religious drama.

Leading Santa's sleigh is Tim Allen as St. Nick again in "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," battling Jack Frost (Martin Short) who's hijacked Christmas.

Tricking Allen's character into magically returning to the instant he first put on the red suit and became Santa, Jack Frost makes off with the Kriss Kringle duds himself and turns Christmas into "Frostmas."

"I love `It's a Wonderful Life,' and I said, if there's any way to make this an `It's a Wonderful Life' moment, that would be great. Where I get the chance to see the world clearly without me as Santa," Allen said. "Then I have to figure out a way to get Christmas back."

Also on the holiday front:

— A family man (Matthew Broderick) duels with his neighbor (Danny DeVito) who aims to create a gaudy Christmas display visible from space in "Deck the Halls."

— Five youths try to elude airport officials (Lewis Black and Wilmer Valderrama) after they're snowed in on Christmas Eve in "Unaccompanied Minors."

— A college student (Michelle Trachtenberg) and her friends face a killer terrorizing their sorority house over holiday break in "Black Christmas."

— Two women (Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) on opposite sides of the world meet on the Internet and decide to trade houses for Christmas in "The Holiday," which co-stars Jude Law and Jack Black.

— The birth of Christ is told in dramatic fashion in "The Nativity Story," starring Keisha Castle-Hughes ("Whale Rider") as the Virgin Mary.

"It is kind of a contrast to the usually funny holiday fare and the other more violent movies you get around the holidays.

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