Gift Guide 2015: Best in Blu-ray and DVD (holidays)

Here’s a selection of Blu-ray and DVD ideas to get into the holiday spirit.

Home Alone: 25th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Not Rated, $69.99) — Lucky owners of an embossed, festive paint can get some holiday cheer tied to heroic youngsters in a quintet of slapstick movies.

The first two films “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” both use the creative might of John Hughes and Christopher Columbus and are classic kiddie comedies.

They feature a young boy named Kevin McCallister  (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally forgotten by his family during the Christmas holidays (yeah, that’s right, twice) and must fight off criminals (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) using Tex Avery-style booby traps to protect himself.

It’s worth noting that the original arrives on Blu-ray with a brand new  restoration to watch every bruising encounter by the bad guys.

The later trio of films, on DVD and not Blu-ray, are not so classic but still offer laughs for the family as an entrepreneurial boy thwarts the plans of more nasty men.

Extras from the group shine on the first film and include an optional commentary track by Chris Columbus and Macaulay Culkin and a bunch of short “making of” featurettes and some deleted scenes.

However, after opening that paint can to get at the movies, look down further to find another bounty of goodies. They Include a plastic Christmas tree ornament plastered with young Mr. Culkin’s mug (grimaced in that iconic “after shave” pose), a wanted poster of the escaped criminals, Kevin’s original battle plan (sketched in faux-crayon) and a fake spider used to scare his opponents.

The Original Christmas Classics Anniversary Collector’s Edition Gift Set (Classic Media, Not Rated, $29.93) — Nothing quite keeps the festive cheer flowing than appreciating a collection of classic animated television specials offering musical homages to some legendary holiday characters.

This massive, seven-cartoon set includes “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town! 45th Anniversary Collector’s Edition,” “Frosty The Snowman: 45th Anniversary Collector’s Edition,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition,” “Frosty Returns,” “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Cricket on the Hearth.”

The first two, “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town!” (1970) and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964), are the most memorable featuring the stop-motion work of famed animation house Rankin/Bass Productions. Although, “Frosty The Snowman” is certainly also a favorite thanks to voice-over work from Jimmy Durante and Jackie Vernon.

The entire set of films is also a hit parade featuring Burl Ives (as Sam the Snowman) singing “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”; Fred Astaire (postman  S.D. Kluger) singing ” Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town!”; Mickey Rooney (Kris Kringle) and Keenan Wynn (Winter Warlock) singing “One Foot in Front of the Other”; and Mr. Durante (narrator) singing “Frosty the Snowman.”

The discs offer not only remastered versions for the anniversary editions but extras such as lessons on how to draw some of the main stars, video sing-alongs, virtual pop-up books and facts about the cartoons.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: 25th Anniversary Edition (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Rated PG-13, $19.98) — Not quite what I would call a holiday classic but certainly one of the most festive comedies ever produced celebrates its quarter century of existence with a newly restored version featuring the wintry exploits of the Griswold clan.

Fueled by a John Hughes script, the 1989 film explores Chicagoan Clark Griswold’s (Chevy Chase) obsessive determination to give his family traditional, old-fashioned Christmas. That mandate apparently means dealing with an exploding turkey, uninvited relatives in a dilapidated RV, a SWAT team and a citywide power outage due to an abundance of Christmas lights.

The laughs never stop through the 97 minutes of action, and the story even manages to slip in some heartfelt moments. Overall, the film fits in quite well with such classics as “Home Alone,” “Scrooged” and “A Christmas Story” in the yearly holiday Blu-ray library.

Besides the disc arriving in an attractive steelbook case, the only extra is a more nostalgic than informative optional commentary track featuring director Jeremiah S. Chechik, producer Matty Simmons and actors Randy Quaid (cousin Eddie Johnson), Beverly D’Angelo (Clark’s wife Ellen), Johnny Galecki (Clark’s son Rusty) and Miriam Flynn (cousin Catherine Johnson).

Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Rated TV-G, $19.98) — This made-for-television cartoon faithfully adapts the live-action film and Broadway musical to become a holiday classic, thanks to some dazzling stop-motion animation that Rankin and Bass would appreciate.

It’s high-definition debut delivers a story to home-theater viewers about an elf named Buddy who leaves the North Pole and visits the Big Apple in hopes of fining his real dad.

Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) exercises his vocal cords in the lead role while a support cast featuring Mark Hamill as the curmudgeonly papa Walter Hobbs, Fred Armissen as Matthews, Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Greenway, Jay Leno as Fake Santa and Ed Asner, reprising his role from the movie as Santa Claus, shine throughout.

It’s not quite as long or naughty as the Will Ferrell-fueled 2003 comedy directed by Jon Favreau, but the voice actors’ enthusiasm, nostalgic animation style and songs such as “Happy All the Time,” “A Christmas Song,” and “The Story of Buddy” should put the 44-minute quirky toon in yearly rotation for families.

The only extra features a 5-minute, behind-the-scenes look at the voice-over work with plenty of time devoted to Mr. Hamill, Mr. Asner and Mr. Leno learning to sing.