Just a few more shopping days left until Christmas, and I'm just about done. We always get a couple DVDs for the kids stockings. When the sugar high from all the cookies and candy has worn off, there's nothing better than a new DVD (or two) to settle the kids down and give the grown-ups a little much-needed quiet time (or time to watch those movies Santa left in our own Christmas stockings ...). If you're looking for a few things to round out your own shopping, here are seven sure-to-please DVDs for kids of various ages:

High School Musical/High School Musical 2 -- If you have a tween girl in your house, all things High School Musical are likely at or near the top of your list. Disney knocked the ball out of the park with the resounding success of this musical for kids last year, and followed it up with High School Musical 2 (I liked the first one better, but my kids like them both). While the High School Musical films may not be that well-reviewed critically, these DVDs (trust me on this) top the Christmas lists of tweens and teens everywhere. Just be prepared to watch them over and over again, until the song "We're All in This Together" is permanently embedded in your brain and you want to claw your eyes out find yourself singing it in the shower while you practice your cool dance moves. Psst ... I hear Erik Davis knows all the lyrics and dance steps by heart, and he doesn't even have kids.

People celebrate the holiday season in many different ways, for many different reasons. If you, like me, choose the remembrance of the birth of Christ as the primary reason to observe Dec. 25th, or if you are simply interested in hearing from that perspective, you might find this interesting. Of course, you might not. By the time you're done reading, you may want to beat me upside the head, because frankly, I'm not sure there's a lot of coherence to my thought process here. Nonetheless, let's give it a go. Today, on the day many of us choose to recall the birth of our Savior, the 12 Days of Cinematicalmas Presents: Christmas Movies To Remember Jesus By.

You know, readers, this is one bugger of an article to write, for two reasons. First, because I don't typically discuss my faith in this forum -- it just doesn't come up much when you spend most of your time writing about comic books -- and second, because upon examination I realize that most of the Christmas specials I watch when I really want to feel the "spirit of the season" are not directly about Jesus. Typically, when I want that story, I go straight to the Book. Movies aren't ever as good as the books anyway, right?

So initially, I sat in front of a blank notepad (the computer notepad, of course, not that paper stuff that I hear some people still use) and thought "I'm not going to be able to write this article, because the movies I want to write about really hold no unique appeal to Christians. They're loved by really just about everyone." I was all set to jet off an apologetic email to the editorial team here at Cine, ex planing why I couldn't write what seems like it should be a very easy article on a subject I'm intimately involved with. But before the email was composed, a weird thought hit me. I examined it, and sure enough, it was accurate. Keep in mind, I'm just your average layperson, and am in no way specially qualified to make observations about scripture or people's relationship with their God, so this is just a simple observation from a humble follower. ...

Your kids have been marketed to by the studios all year, and this year there's been an exceptionally crappy glut of kiddie films flooding the theaters. It's easy to overlook the classics amid the cacphony of shiny DVD cases pimping the latest crap that just oozed out of the multiplex (I'm talking to you, Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties).

Sure, there are a few gems here and there, but this Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/winter holiday of your choice, why not reach back a little into the past for some truly great children's films that your kids may not even know enough about to put on their wish list? Here are my picks for DVDs I actually wouldn't mind Santa slipping under our Christmas tree.