DVDs:

The Lion in Winter

The Man Who Came to Dinner

Holiday

First of all, confession time: My name is Cate, and I am a Christmas movie addict.

"Hi, Cate!"

Seriously, the list of perpetually watchable films with a Christmas theme or subplot is long and impressive. It's extremely difficult to pass up a chance to watch White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, or It's a Wonderful Life.

Our holiday heroes and heroines, however, more often than not find themselves in some very dark territory indeed, all those festive settings notwithstanding. Unsettling themes stretch from the mundane to the cataclysmic, ranging from greedy kids to full-scale domestic meltdown. Look at Richard Curtis's Love Actually or Billy Wilder's The Apartment, for example. Merry Christmas indeed!

Here are three holiday films, all focused on dysfunctional families, all based on stage plays, all witty and memorable:

There's The Man Who Came to Dinner, an inspired bit of mayhem showcasing Monty Woolley at his nasty best as an egotistical radio star who commandeers an entire household in the service of his holiday broadcast. By the time his mission is complete, he's fomented filial rebellion, unleashed Jimmy Durante on an unsuspecting womankind, and even created his own March of the Penguins -- and in Ohio, no less. Family values take it on the chin, and so do more than a few other ideals.

The film is based on a stage work by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, but the screenwriters were the legendary twins Philip and Julius Epstein, two heaven-sent talents who aided and abetted much Hollywood magic back in the day.

The perfect supporting cast includes Billie Burke, Mary Wickes, and Bette Davis, the latter in a real departure from her typical role as martyr or man-eater.

Then there's The Lion in Winter, which provides a nice degree of perspective for anyone nervous about awkward discussions or icy silence at the holiday dinner table. This talky and eminently quotable film, which has provided my sister-in-law ample reason to hone that Katharine Hepburn imitation over the years, imagines one nightmarish but extremely entertaining Christmas with Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, their sons, and current and erstwhile lovers and hangers-on. The themes were jaw-droppingly shocking when I saw it back at university, though now they'd barely cause a ripple in our more jaded society. Still, it's good, nasty fun for anyone who regards the holidays as an obstacle course, not a chance to nestle in the bosom of the family.

Hepburn, as the influential and indomitable Eleanor, has a more than worthy sparring partner in Peter O'Toole, who brings considerable masculine power to the role of a king who is both cunning and vulnerable.

Oh, and a complete unknown was cast in the pivotal role of their eldest son, Richard the Lionhearted: Anthony Hopkins, fresh from the British stage.

And speaking of family, don't miss the unsung classic Holiday, yet another of those divine Cary Grant-Katharine Hepburn pairings from the golden age of Hollywood. Here Grant is a self-made man who finds himself engaged to an heiress. In the midst of the holiday social whirl with his future in-laws, however, he discovers he's just entered a gilded cage of rigid expectations and family conformity. Will he embrace the confinement or stage a revolution? Stay tuned.

The supporting cast includes Lew Ayres, a real scene-stealer as Hepburn's perpetually pickled brother, and Edward Everett Horton, whom baby boomers will remember as the narrator of "Fractured Fairy Tales" on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

Merry Christmas, a joyous Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa. And for 2007, let's take our motto from Jack Lemmon's neighbor in The Apartment: Be a mensch.