'TIS THE SEASON, INDEED.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

The Christmas TV movie march continues.

Tonight's NBC's ``The Year Without a Santa Claus'' rails amusingly against the commercialization of the holiday, an admittedly tired subject. It opens with Santa (John Goodman), weighed down by an oily publicist (Chris Kattan) and a fashion consultant (``Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's'' Carson Kressley), attending the SantaCo Expo, where elves peddle their new toy lines (one proffers a line of Goth action figures).

Santa despairs that he's merely become a corporate ``TDP: Toy Delivery Platform'' and laments, ``I don't fit in anymore.'' Which sets his faithful elves Jingle (``My Name Is Earl's'' Ethan Suplee) and Jangle (``Undercover Brother's'' Eddie Griffin) to find a child who understands the true meaning of Christmas. The kid they find pines for quality time with his dad, a workaholic politician.

While there's some funny stuff here, there's also a bizarre kitchen-sink approach to the material, with myriad celebrity cameos (including, from left field, Dr. Laura Schlessinger) and a weather-related musical number performed by Harvey Fierstein, Michael McKean and a coterie of femme dancers.

Though the film attacks holiday commercialism with a cynical wit, it ultimately becomes a part of what it attacks. Its efforts to seem vaguely cutting-edge ensures that it won't likely be a perennial holiday favorite.

It'll air the same time as Lifetime's ``A Christmas Wedding,'' a dispiriting affair about a couple's disastrous wedding day (it just happens to be Christmas but, as structured, the film could've been cranked out as ``An Arbor Day Wedding'').

Sarah Paulson (``Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'') stars as Emily, who, after meeting dreamboat Ben (``Ugly Betty's'' Eric Mabius), decides to get married on Christmas Day. Her lummox of a boss (a nuance-free Dean Cain), however, induces her to spend the weeks leading up to her nuptials working round-the-clock on a business deal far removed from her family and friends. The requisite disasters threaten to prevent the wedding from occurring at all (Ben is forced into serving as her surrogate at her bachelorette party).

Paulson and Mabius - playing the exact opposite of his character on ``Ugly Betty'' - are charming enough, but the proceedings are utterly synthetic, horribly contrived and reliant upon burp jokes and a plot twist involving a biker who just happens to know the arcane flight schedules of every airport in the country.

Finally, ABC Family's ``Christmas Do-Over,'' somewhat mercifully, avoids the issue of workaholism. Unfortunately, it's a thoroughgoing rip-off of the movie ``Groundhog Day,'' starring Jay Mohr as Kevin, a sardonic jerk who must relive a particularly uncomfortable Christmas Day until he finally figures out how not to be quite so much of a jerk, which is apparently all it takes to win back his ex-wife Jill (Daphne Zuniga) from a far kinder, if milquetoast, suitor.

As Kevin relives Christmas over and over (actually, it's probably a sensation not unlike being subjected to lame holiday films throughout the month of December), the wacky slapstick gets ratcheted up until the moment where the screenplay begins calling for the requisite earnestness. Somewhere in between, however, the film's editing makes the middle bit muddled.

Even the filmmakers don't seem quite sure if you should root for Kevin to steal Jill's heart or just learn to be a nicer guy. But that's the thing about holiday movies these days: They've confused happy endings with emotional uplift; exploring the ``reason for the season'' has become a completely foreign concept.

David Kronke, [phone]

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THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS - Two and one half stars

What: Sick of holiday commercialism, Santa (John Goodman) calls it quits for a year; it takes an all-star cast to change his mind.

Where: NBC (Channel 4).

When: 9 tonight.

In a nutshell: Frantic, with some funny moments.

A CHRISTMAS WEDDING - One and one half stars

What: A couple's holiday wedding doesn't turn out as planned.

Where: Lifetime.

When: 9 tonight.

In a nutshell: Not much hilarity ensues.

CHRISTMAS DO-OVER - Two stars

What: Jay Mohr stars as a guy whose ``Groundhog Day'' scenario occurs on Christmas.

Where: ABC Family.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

In a nutshell: Vaguely amusing if terribly inconsistent.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) At left, Eddie Griffin, John Goodman, Delta Burke, Ethan Suplee and Chris Kattan deal with a crisis of faith in NBC's ``The Year Without a Santa Claus.''

(2) Below, Sarah Paulson and Eric Mabius try to get married on the all-important day in Lifetime's ``A Christmas Wedding.''

(3) After Christmas Day keeps repeating itself, Jay Mohr (left, with Michael J. Gaeta) discovers he has some serious changes to make in his life in ABC Family's ``Christmas Do-Over.''